iSON Technologies implements Oracle Property Manager Solution

Sponsored@ITRealms:

iSON Technologies implements Oracle Property Manager Solution through its recently acquired GTS Technologies, at Dubai World Trade Center (DWTC) Dubai, UAE. The DWTC Oracle Property Manager Implementation project went live on 14th Sep 2016 despite the complexity of implementation, tight timeline.

Mr. Akshay Grover, Chief Growth Officer at iSON Technologies added “The real estate industry value chain spans across site development cycle, construction life cycle, sales and leasing cycle, facility management cycle. GTS, now acquired by iSON Technologies has made Property Management, Maintenance and Leasing simpler with our Oracle Property and CRM solutions. iSON GTS is fully equipped and continues to add value to its client base in the construction and real-estate sector across these four areas.

Through this implementation, DWTC is geared up to have a unified view of the tenant contracts and agreements. The system enables DWTC to intelligently manage their real estate portfolio by streamlining and automating lease administration and space management. The objective of the project was to implement a system to manage the DWTC properties in terms of Customer Relationship Management, Pre-Leasing, Leasing and Property Management and Billing and also eliminate many of the manual processes and automate the tasks and reminders at different milestones. Mr. Asif, Application Director, DWTC comments: In iSON GTS we had an able partner and because of their expertise in Real Estate industry they could bring their value adds to the table which helped us to complete the project in a short timeframe of 5 months.

Talking more about the project, Muhammad, Practice head, Oracle Apps & Technology, iSON GTS comments, “DWTC being one of the major Oracle customers, is a very prestigious account for us. We approached the project with lot of care since the solution had to cover diverse business areas including Leasing of Retail, Commercial and Residential Properties, House Keeping Contracts, Car Parking (Summer Promotion/Membership), Valet & Parking Agreements, Lease of Advertising Board and Theater Leasing.

Kalidhas, iSON GTS, Real Estate SME and Project Manager adds “Real Estate is one of the verticals in which iSON GTS demonstrates its expertise but we still approach each project on its merits. Each project is unique and comes with its own set of challenges. In case of DWTC Project, time line was a constraint and the client expected us to deliver the project in 5 months including the additional customization and we are happy we were able to deliver the same in the defined timeframe.”

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Cloud strategists brain storm in Mauritius, Oracle commends Africa’s role

ITRealms:

The exchange of best practices and gaining expert insights from top cloud strategists was the key focus for Oracle customers who took part in Oracle’s two day long ‘Africa Executive Summit’ that concluded at the weekend in Mauritius, reports ITRealms.

Oracle also used the opportunity to commend its role on the continent as far as cloud is concerned, saying that ‘Africa Executive Summit’ hosted in Mauritius drove awareness and highlighted the impact of Oracle Cloud Solutions for business growth.

Claire Alexander of Oracle Corporate Communications, informed ITRealms that dozens of customers gathered to understand various aspects of the cloud adoption process including capacity building, innovation, security and the ability to leverage Internet of Things (IoT) for driving business growth with Oracle cloud solutions.

The Vice President of the Russia, Africa and Central Europe at Oracle, Janusz Naklicki, said cloud adoption in Africa is growing at a rapid pace as organizations now realise that cloud offers them speed, value and better return on investment (ROI).

“Africa is a priority market for us and the Africa Executive Summit is in line with our commitment to further drive this interest and support our customers in Africa in their journey to the cloud” he said.

The two day summit, Alexander noted, included a host of information packed activities including panel discussions, customer testimonials and keynote addresses by top Oracle executives including Janusz Naklicki; Cherian Varghese, Cluster Leader, Sub Saharan Africa, Oracle and Deepak Mehra, Vice President – Cloud Architect, Oracle.

“Cloud technology will undoubtedly drive the next phase of growth for businesses in Africa and with our completely integrated cloud platform that spans all layers of the cloud, we are uniquely poised to help SMEs, large organisations and governments in Africa transition to the cloud” Cherian Varghese said.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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Oracle unveils big data infrastructure with DIY options

ITRealms:

Oracle has unveiled big data infrastructure with options to assist people in building their own big data capabilities from scratch through Do-It-Yourself (DIY), reports ITRealms.

Big Data Solutions Lead at Oracle Australia, Mr. Vicky Falconer, said they see this introduction as a way to tailor the technology to specific business needs and to give IT department complete oversight and control of the processes and capabilities.

He promised they would explore the challenges of taking the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) route with big data and how buying the capabilities packaged together on a pre-built system could overcome them.

He pointed out that for many businesses, the ‘buy’ approach will be the better option. By investing in a suite of big data technologies packaged together, either deployed on-premise or via the cloud, companies could address all of the time to value challenges.

The technology, he said, is already tested, integrated and optimised for the task, with the vendor providing the expertise and support that may be lacking in the IT department, and which will evolve with the technology.

And while even well thought-out DIY implementations take months to make production-ready, in theory, Oracle’s Big Data Appliance could be up and running on-premise in a matter of hours.

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Gov. Emmanuel lifts Oracle trainees with 200 laptops

ITRealms:

The Akwa Ibom State Governor, Mr Udom Emmmanuel has fulfilled the promise he made to the youths in the state when he commissioned Oracle Database Administration training in August, 2015, with a donation of some 200 laptops to trainee, reports ITRealms.

At the event marking the commissioning of Pearson VUE e-Testing Centre in Akwa Ibom State and the graduation of the 1st batch of Oracle Database Administation trainees, Governor Udom Emmanuel donated 200 brand new laptops to successful trainees.

The Honourable Commissioner for Science and Technology, Dr. Elizabeth Obot, who represented the Governor at the ceremony acknowledged the foresightedness of Governor Udom Emmanuel in initiating the Oracle training and also attracting the Pearson VUE Test Centre to Akwa Ibom State. With the siting of Pearson VUE e-Testing Centre in Akwa Ibom State, the graduands and other persons interested in acquiring Oracle and other IT certifications within the south-south region now have the opportunity to do so without any recourse to travel abroad.

The Commissioner, however charged the graduands to make good use of the Governor's magnanimity in this gesture and serve as a role model to the Superior Performing Administration of Governor Udom Emmanuel.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Science and Technology Dr. Nestor Udoh who is also the Dean, College of Permanent Secretaries, in his remarks, commend the governor for this bold initiative, which is expected shall provide jobs for our teaming youths. He noted further that "Akwa Ibom State Governor believes that it is not enough to train people on fishing, you must provide them with the fishing equipment, this explains why each of the two hundred graduands has today been given a brand new laptop each".

The ICT aide to the Governor, Engr. Eyo applauded the Governor in this unique choice of investment in human capital development.

"This pool of ICT proficiencies are the required hands-on for the industrialization vision of His Excellency Governor Udom Emmanuel.

As the administrator of Akwa Ibom State website, analytic report shows 77,000 weekly visitors to investment opportunities page on Akwa Ibom State website. It is these graduands of Oracle Database Administration that will offer technical support services to the above prospective investors to Akwa Ibom State.

Uboshe Uboshe/GEE

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Pix: Commissioner for Science and Technology, Dr. Elizabeth Obot making a presentation to a trainee.

Oracle simplifies cloud adoption with unveiling of suite

ITRealms:

Oracle has simplified cloud adoption with the unveiling of its suite of breakthrough services capable of enabling organizations to easily move to the cloud, reports ITRealms.

This suite, ITRealms gathered, is the first-of-a-kind services providing Chief Information Officers (CIOs) with new choices in where they deploy their enterprise software and a natural path to easily move business critical applications from on-premises to the cloud.

President, Oracle, Mr. Thomas Kurian, said that while organizations are eager to move their enterprise workloads to the public cloud, many have been constrained by business, legislative and regulatory requirements that have prevented them from being able to adopt the technology.

He also said that from this day, Oracle is making it easier for organizations in every industry to make this transition and finally reap the performance, cost and innovation benefits of Oracle Public Cloud Services and run them wherever they want – in the Oracle Cloud or in their own datacenter.

“We are committed to helping our customers move to the cloud to help speed their innovation, fuel their business growth, and drive business transformation,” he said, stressing that the news of unveiling is unprecedented. 

“We announced a number of new cloud services and we are now the first public cloud vendor to offer organizations the ultimate in choice on where and how they want to run their Oracle Cloud,” he emphasized.

Nenye Dom/GEE  

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Oracle cloud platform offers business agility

ITRealms

The Group Vice President, Oracle, Robert Shimp has said that Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), offerings, such as the Oracle Cloud Platform, have the ability to deliver unprecedented levels of business agility, ITRealms reports.

”PaaS offerings, such as the Oracle Cloud Platform, have the ability to deliver unprecedented levels of business agility. The key now is to demonstrate to businesses just how easy it is to integrate this critical cloud platform into their IT architectures. Yes, the cost savings delivered by PaaS are important, but of greater importance is its ability to help businesses reduce application development timeframes and more easily tailor and integrate third-party Software as a Service apps into their business, allowing them to more effectively address customer demand,” said Shimp.

Oracle, ITRealms gathered, recently announced the results of its “Oracle Cloud Agility” study and revealed that businesses worldwide overestimate their agility. While a majority of businesses believe they are agile, Oracle’s research highlights that many organizations cannot flexibly manage workloads or rapidly develop, test, and launch new applications, leaving them poorly prepared to deal with competitive threats. The study also found a lack of awareness among businesses around how technology, like PaaS, can be used to help address these challenges.

The Oracle Cloud Agility study surveyed 2,263 employees working for large global enterprises to understand business agility in the age of cloud. The results, ITRealms learnt, show that 64 per cent consider their organization to be agile (i.e., able to adjust quickly to new business opportunities or to iterate new products and services quickly). When looking at the United States, businesses are even more positive, with 66 percent believing their business to be agile.

Respondents are clear about the benefits of agility, with 81 per cent stating that the ability to rapidly develop, test, and launch new business applications is either critically important or important to the success of their business, falling to 76 per cent in the United States. In particular, nearly one-third of respondents (29 per cent) believe the effective mobilization of applications and services is the most important factor in business success today when it comes to IT infrastructure.

The study, ITRealms also reports, reveals that the impact of agility on competitiveness is critically important to businesses. In fact, the ability of competitors to launch innovative customer services more rapidly was identified as the top threat by businesses (27 per cent). Fifty two per cent of global respondents indicated that their business does not have an IT infrastructure capable of meeting competitive threats.

Significantly, the survey reveals that the agility benefits delivered by PaaS are not being leveraged. In fact, nearly half of businesses (49 per cent) surveyed either cannot, or do not know if they can shift workloads between public, private, and hybrid clouds, and migrate on-premises applications to the cloud.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

 
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Oracle partners MTN to train 2,000 MTNF Scholars in ICT

ITRealms:

In a bid to bridge Information and Communication Technology skills acquisition gap in Nigeria, technology solution company, Oracle Corporation and MTN Foundation (MTNF) have planned to train up to 2,000 MTNF scholars in database design, SQL and Java programming skills, as well, fund one student to attend the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) open-lab Summer School in Switzerland reports ITRealms.

Speaking on the collaboration, ITRealms gathered that, Mr. Adebayo Sanni, Country Manager, Oracle Nigeria, said the initiative focuses on teaching database design, SQL and Java programming skills to MTN Foundation Scholars, using Oracle Academy curriculum and hosted online learning materials. “Students will be taught by two trained faculty from the Ajayi Crowther University and Aived International who have attended and passed the formal Oracle Academy faculty training courses.” He said. 

Sanni also added that, “With the rapid adoption of technology in Nigeria, it is imperative that students are equipped with the right skills to take advantage of career and entrepreneurial opportunities.”

On the MTNF Scholarship Scheme, Corporate Services Executive, MTN Nigeria, Mr. Akinwale Goodluck said it’s a corporate social responsibility which covers students’ tuition, books and pocket allowance helping to reduce poverty as well as foster sustainable development in Nigeria.

According to Goodluck, it is renewable provided recipients maintain a minimum of 3.5 Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) in their course of study and an overall 2.5 CGPA.

Equally, ITRealms learnt that MTN in collaboration with its partner, have selected to fund Mufutau Akuruyejo, a computer science student of the University of Lagos, who emerged the best student from Africa, at a global academic competition, organized by CERN, for a nine week training programme on ICT in Switzerland.

The highly competitive student programme, ITRealms gathered is a cornerstone of CERN open-lab and recieved over 1,500 applications from all over the globe this year.

Sanni, who confirmed this, ITRealms learnt, said that the support from Oracle in funding Akuruyejo to Switzerland for ICT training would assist Nigeria in bridging ICT skills gap in the country. He said Oracle has been involved in several partnerships with state governments to further drive technology development across the country.

CERN open-lab was created more than 10 years ago to tackle computing, data, and infrastructure challenges, with summer school which also focuses on research and development activities in the ICT space.

Akuruyejo, an MTNF scholar, ITRealms gathered will be the first Nigerian student to participate in the annual CERN open-lab nine week programme.

Daniel Nsolibe/GEE

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FirstBank goes to Oracle

One of the leading oldest banks in Nigeria, First Bank plc has gone to Oracle for its financial services deployments.

This fellows the successful deployment of Oracle Financial Services Know Your Customer and Oracle Financial Services Regulatory Reporting Solution. In addition to upgrading to Oracle Financial Crime and Compliance Management Platform for Financial Services and Oracle Financial Services Anti Money Laundering solutions. 

With this, FirstBank is the first in the region to deploy an Oracle Financial Services Know Your Customer and due diligence programme, which enables the bank to meet rigorous regulatory and reporting obligations. 

The integrated components of Oracle Financial Services Know Your Customer, Oracle Financial Services Anti Money Laundering, and Oracle Financial Services  Regulatory Reporting Solution, as part of the overall Oracle Financial Crime and Compliance Management Platform, enable the bank to accomplish a risk-based transaction monitoring program, to monitor suspicious and fraudulent activities and help to combat financial crime.

The deployment of Oracle Financial Services Know Your Customer, which is fully integrated with Oracle Financial Services Anti Money Laundering, also enables automated customer risk profiling, so FirstBank can have a 360-degree view of their customers’ activities for easy monitoring purposes.

Confirming this, Chief Compliance Officer, First Bank of Nigeria, Mojisola Aderinto, noted that with the Oracle Financial Services Regulatory Reporting Solution, FirstBank is the first bank in the region to successfully implement an automated system for the creation and filing of Suspicious Transaction Report.

According to Aderinto, by leveraging a single platform to meet all anti-money laundering, know-your-customer and regulatory reporting needs, FirstBank would be able to significantly reduce operational costs and manage day-to-day operations more efficiently.

Aderinto, pointed out that FirstBank initially deployed Oracle Financial Services Anti Money Laundering in 2007 and its satisfaction with this investment led to it choosing Oracle to allow it to meet its compliancy and management objectives.

“Complying with regulatory requirements and fighting financial crime are key priorities for First Bank of Nigeria. Oracle Financial Services Anti Money Laundering has successfully supported our bank’s objectives for the last five years, so Oracle with its proven track record in financial services, was our obvious partner to help deploy the integrated solution, including Oracle Financial Services Know Your Customer, to meet government and business regulations,” Aderinto said.

Equally commenting, the Group Vice President and Managing Director, Oracle Financial Services Analytical Applications, S. Ramakrishnan, said it is essential that financial institutions like First Bank of Nigeria take a strategic enterprise-based approach to monitoring financial crime and regulatory reporting -- for its own benefit and the customers.

As an industry leader, Ramakrishnan said, Oracle continues to advise and help financial institutions to formulate a compliance management strategy with the aid of Oracle Financial Crime and Compliance Management Platform. Not only does it help institutions achieve their regulatory goals, but it also helps to position them positively in the market place, like it has for the First Bank of Nigeria.”

Remmy Nweke
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What makes Oracle data backup unique – Iyoha

L-R: Nasiru Izegwire, Olusola Kokoye, Oduwole Tayo, Femi Ibine,

all of ExpertEdge and Adeola Adebari, Oracle.

Lead presales consultant for Oracle West Africa, Mr. Hamilton Iyoha has outlined what makes Oracle data backup system unique.

He made this disclosure at a one-day Business Technology Summit organized by both Computer Warehouse Group (CWG) and Oracle at Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Ikeja, Lagos, with the theme: “Data Security & Optimization: The Oracle Way for IT professionals in the Manufacturing and Services Businesses.”

He said that top on the list of what makes Oracle data security unique is the fact that backups are encrypted, lamenting that only 22 per cent of all databases backup files are currently encrypted, according to 2011 Oracle Security Survey user group.

“What makes oracle backup unique is because it is encrypted,” he declared, adding that Oracle advanced security has shown that with advance complete encryption for application prevents direct access to data stored in database files, on tape, and exports to name a few by Information Technology (IT) staff or Oracle System (OS) users.

Over 1bn records have been bated from database servers over 6 years. Database here means structured data, which means two thirds of sensitive and regulate information now resides in database, which doubles every two years.

Data breaches caused by insiders’ records stolen, he said, accounts for 46 per cent usage of Structured Query Language (SQL) injection, which is a database computer language used to query, retrieve and manipulate data, while hackers used stolen credentials ranked 86 per cent.

With fast growing data, he noted that demands for data security will also increase manifold, maintaining that the larger the number of data that you have determines the number of threats you are likely going to have.

He quoted recent Decency Forrester reports, which shows that government of Nigeria has plans to provide multiple IT services to citizens, thus entailing that those databases must be protected.

“So your database must be protected in order to be secure,” he declared.

Iyoha also said that Oracle database security has been built in two tier key management for Segregation of Duties (SoD) in Oracle with support for canalized key management using Key Management System (KMS).

This, he said, is a strong authentication of databases’ users for great identity assurance.

“The whole idea of encryption is to make the data unreadable,” he said, warning that this should not mean that users cannot even get access again.

Iyoha emphasized, there should be a separation of duties in the management of database security namely system management, user management and security management.

Remmy Nweke

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