GRID computing technologies will be part of Oracle
Corp's next major set of solutions - called Project
Fusion - that's scheduled to be released in 2008.
However, many of the core Fusion building blocks will
be sewn into the next release of the Oracle E-Business
Suite, PeopleSoft Enterprise 9 and JD Edwards 8.12
solution sets.

'Project Fusion is our long-term commitment to provide
customers with access to the technologies, services
and resources that can revolutionise their business,'
said Mark Gibbs, Oracle's senior vice-president
(applications) for the Asia-Pacific. 'Project Fusion
will be based on technologies such as Java,
service-oriented architectures, master data
consolidation, and grid computing.'

In the Asia-Pacific, Oracle is making aggressive moves
in the SME (small and medium enterprises) segment and
said it will maintain a dedicated sales force for the
JD Edwards EnterpriseOne suite that SMEs favour.

'JDE has long been acknowledged as a leading
applications provider for the mid-market,' Mr Gibbs
said. 'In this region, there are 600 customers using
JDE solutions. About 40 per cent of our 2,000 regional
Oracle E-Business Suite customers are in the
mid-market segment.'

The goal is to wrest market share from competitor SAP
AG. 'We are nipping at SAP's heels in the ERP
(enterprise resource planning) market in Asia and have
already surpassed them in the SCM (supply chain
management) and HCM (human capital management) markets
worldwide,' Mr Gibbs said, adding that following the
acquisition of PeopleSoft, 'Oracle has an unbeatable
combination of critical mass and momentum'.