At the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement: Dr. Alma dela Cruz, AMA VP for Academic Affairs; Arnel F. Hibo, AMA first VP and chief operating officer; Natasak Rodjanapiches, Oracle ASEAN regional ranaging director; and Ryan Guadalquiver, Oracle Philippines managing director.

Twenty two AMA Education System schools have joined the Oracle Academy and will integrate its Advanced Computer Science and Enterprise Business Applications programs into their IT curricula.

Up to 5,000 students are expected to enroll in the program to help meet the demands of a growing IT sector in the Philippines.

The Oracle Academy provides students with access to world-class technical curriculum and hands-on experience with Oracle’s industry-leading database, middleware, and applications software.

Students who participate in the Oracle Academy develop vital business and technology skills, gaining a competitive advantage as they prepare to enter the global workforce of the 21^st century.

Participating AMA campuses include Main Campus (Quezon City), Makati, Pasig, Las Piñas, Caloocan, East Rizal (Antipolo City), Davao, Fairview (Quezon City), Biñan (Laguna), Cavite, Sta. Cruz (Laguna), Calamba (Laguna), Lucena (Quezon), Tarlac, Lipa (Batangas), Santiago (Isabela), Olongapo (Zambales), Batangas, Bacolod (Negros Occidental), and Cagayan de Oro.

The Oracle Academy currently supports over 355,000 students from more than 1,400 educational institutions across the Asia Pacific region.

“The Oracle Academy is dedicated to preparing students for the 21^st century workforce and to providing teachers with world-class professional development opportunities,” said Ryan Guadalquiver, managing director, Oracle Philippines. “Together, the Oracle Academy and AMA Education System are investing directly in the development of the Philippine information technology community to create advanced technical learning opportunities for students.”

“We are committed to helping our students become globally competitive knowledge workers,” said Dr. Amable C. Aguiluz IX, President, AMA Education System. “We strongly believe the Oracle Academy program will help our students develop the technology skills they need to succeed in a global economy.”

AMA Education System (AMAES), Asia’s pioneer and largest network of universities and colleges partners with Oracle Academy, making it the first Oracle Academy in the country. The Oracle Academy supports over 655,000 students in 86 countries all over the world and is known as one of the world’s largest business software company.

As a partner institution, AMAES will integrate two of the Oracle academy courses, Advanced Computer Science (ACS) and Enterprise Business Application (EBA), into AMA Computer University curriculum during the second trimester of this school year. AMA Students who are taking up Computer Science, Information Technology and Information management are given exposure to Oracle’s world-class software and how IT applications are used in industries such as finance, retail, telecommunications, healthcare and manufacturing. These distinguished AMA students from others as they can pursue professional certifications, like being Oracle-certified -a distinction that gives them a significant edge in the job market.

The Oracle Academy ACS likewise supports faculty development through the Oracle database and middleware software and curriculum given to faculty members for teaching use. Two faculty members from AMA University are currently also being trained to become Master Trainers of the Oracle Academy Program in Singapore given by Oracle University.

The collaboration between AMAES and Oracle Academy reflects their shared vision to provide students with cutting-edge technical and business skills required for 21^st century careers. Initially, 23 AMA branches have been registered in the program. Eventually, this will be rolled out to enroll and register all AMA branches as well. AMAES has eight learning institutions – AMA Computer University, ACLC, AIIT, ABE, St. Augustine College of Nursing, St. Augustine School of Nursing, St. Augustine International School (Basic Eduction) and AMA School of Medicine in 200 campuses worldwide.

Shaking hands during the signing rites are YTPI executive VP and treasurer Tomohiko Yoneko (left), Oracle Corp. VP for Commercial Applications Darren Rushworth. Witnessing the event are (back row, from left) Oracle Corp. Philippines territory sales manager for Commercial Applications China Amigo, SCC director Raymond Lacdao, YTPI assistant vice president and head for Corporate Planning Angelina Casasola, YTPI Information Technology section head Alvin Taruc, and YTPI Human Resources head Egelberto Dolo.

Yokohama Tire Philippines (YTPI) recently sealed an agreement with Oracle (Philippines) Corporation to increase its human resource (HR) operational efficiency and productivity as well as to better manage its larger workforce.

Under the agreement, Oracle partner Supply Chain Consulting (SCC) will implement Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management, including Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Resources and Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise Time and Labor and Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition in YTPI’s HR system.

The deployment of Oracle’s HR applications is seen to help YTPI remove loopholes in its HR processes, produce higher productivity for its HR department and be able to drill down to transactional level for any employee inquiry.

The new system, which is expected to be fully up and running before the year ends, will finally be able to record  YTPI’s real time employee nonattendance, overtimes, change in time shift of employees, and determine the best person to stand in for an absent employee.

YTPI is one of the largest company in the Clark FreeportZone in Pampanga with more than 1,600 regular employees and more than 350 agency workers.

As the local subsidiary of Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. of Japan, the company produces quality passenger car radial tires and recreational vehicle tires for the global market.

“YTPI’s people is one of our greatest assets but managing it has always been a challenge for a company such as ours whose operations run nonstop, 24/7,” said Tomohiro Yoneko, executive vice president, YTPI. “To help us gain significant HR intelligence and performance and boost our plant’s productivity, we chose Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management applications because of its leadership in HCM technology, which we expect to be implemented smoothly and without interruption to our business operation.”

“We are glad that YTPI has tapped Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise HCM solutions as it takes it HR systems on a higher level,” said Ryan Guadalquiver, managing director, Oracle (Philippines) Corporation. “Oracle is committed to helping our customers transform their businesses’ most important resources – their employees.”

Shown in photo shaking hands during the recent signing rites are YTPI executive vice president and treasurer Tomohiko Yoneko (left), Oracle Corp. vice president for Commercial Applications Darren Rushworth. Witnessing the event are (back row, from left): Oracle Corp. Philippines territory sales manager for Commercial Applications China Amigo, SCC director Raymond Lacdao, YTPI assistant vice president and head for Corporate Planning Angelina Casasola, YTPI Information Technology section head Alvin Taruc, and YTPI Human Resources head Egelberto Dolo.

Percival C. de los Reyes, SVP – Managed Data Services IP-Converge; and Simon Lee, Regional General Manager for Asia, Interactive Intelligence Inc.

IP-Converge, the IT and telecommunications subsidiary of publicly listed IPVG Corp., has signed an agreement for the distribution of Interactive Intelligence all-in-one IP communications software solutions to contact centers and enterprise businesses throughout the Philippines.

“The Philippines remains to be the preferred location for contact center outsourcing due to its lower operational costs and highly-skilled workforce. Our partnership with Interactive Intelligence, with its excellent track record in providing all-in-one IP communications software solutions, further strengthens our IPC VOICES offering to contact centers, creating the most innovative and reliable solutions available in the market,” said Percival C. de los Reyes, IP-Converge senior vice-president for managed data services.

“A move to unified communications is an important step to ensure our country’s competitive edge in the outsourcing arena and at the same time help customers increase operational efficiency at reduced costs”, de los Reyes continued.

Simon Lee, Interactive Intelligence regional general manager for Asia, says: “Our more than a decade of application development experience, combined with the network infrastructure specialization and local presence that IP-Converge brings, will ensure customers throughout the Philippines get the kind of solutions that best fit their unique technical and operational needs. And as a key Asia Pacific growth market, the Philippines also represents a prime opportunity to receive the benefits a unified IP contact center solution provides.”

The Philippines, along with India, Malaysia and China, contributed more than 54% of the total Asia Pacific contact center outsourcing market, estimated at US$ 13.7 billion in 2008, according to Frost & Sullivan‘s “Contact Center Outsourcing Trends in the Asia Pacific Market, 2008-2011″ report, published in February 2009.

The report also indicated that “the Philippines will see relatively heightened [IP] adoption,” and that “unified communications in the contact center is emerging as a key theme.”

“The Interactive Intelligence software will give our contact center customers phased migration to IP, while enjoying the operational benefits and cost-efficiency of a truly unified platform,” de los Reyes said. “Adding our personalized ’boutique’ approach to customers, these contact centers will receive maximum return on investment, while establishing competitive differentiation by providing better customer service.”

In 1997, Interactive Intelligence released its single-platform, all-in-one communications software suite, Customer Interaction Center (CIC), to eliminate the cost and complexity introduced by multipoint products. CIC provides multi-channel contact center automation and enterprise IP telephony functionality, including SIP-based switching; multi-channel routing and queuing; outbound/blended dialling; presence management; multi-channel quality monitoring; workforce management; interactive voice response; unified messaging; Web self-service; e-mail response and knowledge management; and communications-based process automation.

Backed by more than 3,000 customers worldwide — including successful multinational installations at companies such as Fujitsu, Oracle and RIM – , Interactive Intelligence is now a proven provider of all-in-one IP communications software solutions that is  consistently named a ‘top ten’ global contact center vendor by industry analysts such as Datamonitor, Frost & Sullivan and Gartner.

Fujitsu, a  provider of business, information technology and communications solutions today announced that it has expanded its SAP and Oracle portfolio through the acquisition of the Australia and South East Asia operations of Supply Chain Consulting Pty Ltd, a market leader of SAP and Oracle enterprise solutions and services.

Fujitsu’s purchase of Supply Chain Consulting centers on the capabilities and reputation of its people and Fujitsu is committed to supporting this high value expertise as it aims to expand related offerings and services that it brings to market across Australian, New Zealand and South East Asian markets.

“The acquisition of Supply Chain Consulting extends our investments in the SAP and Oracle segment and will allow us to offer our customers unprecedented choice from a single provider of services and capabilities in the mid-tier, as well as the necessary scale to service the larger enterprise,” said Rod Vawdrey, CEO, Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand. “By combining Fujitsu and Supply Chain Consulting, we have one of the strongest portfolios of SAP and Oracle solutions, customers and capabilities and this will globally enhance Fujitsu’s expertise and offerings in this area.”

Fujitsu is now able to deliver innovative business solutions across new geographies. Fujitsu’s SAP and Oracle consultants will be supplemented by off-shore capabilities in the Philippines, providing additional global benefits to customers with offices, facilities and services located globally.

“The acquisition will strengthen the expertise that our clients rely upon and will enhance our ability to present a strong offering in the Australian and South East Asian markets,” said Vawdrey. “Our focus on delivering service excellence continues to be our most important priority”.

“Our dedicated teams have always focused on business results for our customers. We are now in a position to offer a broader range of solutions and services to support our customers’ investments in SAP and Oracle throughout their investment lifecycle. This is very exciting news for our people, our customers and our partners,” said Ian Hodge, managing director, Supply Chain Consulting.

For more information about Fujitsu partners or other solutions and offerings visit www.fujitsu.com.

Gleneagles CRC Pte Ltd., an Asia-Pacific regional contract research organization providing full service clinical trial and biometrics solutions to drug developers, has selected Oracle Clinical and Oracle’s Siebel Clinical Trial Management System(CTMS) to help improve operational efficiencies and meet growth expectations in its clinical data management practice.

A fully-owned subsidiary of Parkway Holdings Limited, one of Asia’s largest providers of private healthcare, Gleneagles CRC has a wide network of investigators and sites across Asia and Australasia, with extensive experience across therapeutic areas.

To support its plans for continued expansion in the global clinical trial market, Gleneagles CRC required a proven, robust, flexible, secure and scalable clinical trial and project management IT infrastructure.

Oracle Clinical’s established status as a global standard in data management, built specifically for the health sciences sector, was a strong assurance to the company and its sponsors, while Oracle Siebel CTMS’ capability to track the full spectrum of activities involved in the clinical trial process – time, budgets, issue tracking and resolution, and operations management – was a critical factor. Both proved decisive in the selection of Oracle.

Another key differentiator for Oracle was Oracle Clinical’s tight integration with the Oracle Database, complete with highly developed user interface, to provide many of the robust and flexible system features.

Gleneagles CRC expects Oracle Clinical to help improve its data management as well as electronic data capture, and Oracle’s Siebel CTMS to facilitate the operational tracking of resources, budgeting, and overall project management.

“Oracle’s leadership in health sciences, their strong global and regional focus, and the deep relationship they developed with us, were key considerations in our decision to collaborate with Oracle,” explained Dr. Kok Wei Yap, CEO, Gleneagles CRC. “Oracle is our strategic IT partner for our future; we fully expect Oracle to help us increase our operating efficiency and utilize, track and review our resources with precision, ease and clarity, to help us in our goal to be the best global full-spectrum CRO handling all our clients’ drug development requirements.”

“Oracle is helping emerging organizations, like Gleneagles CRC, accelerate insights for better health by offering the industry’s most complete suite of software applications for clinical development and drug safety,” said Neil de Crescenzo, senior VP and general manager, Oracle Health Sciences. “We look forward to working closely with Gleneagles CRC and helping them deliver strategic value to their clients and stakeholders through their use of Oracle Health Sciences applications.”