Oracle South Africa and ENTity, a company in the DNS Group, have signed a partnership agreement that will see ENTity focus strongly on Oracle Decision Support Tools and Executive Information Systems running on Microsoft NT. "ENTity brings to the market a broad spectrum of skills and products with a specific emphasis on delivering business-focused solutions, primarily on Microsoft NT," says Bill O`Brien, Oracle general business manager, coastal region. "It is also well positioned to successfully satisfy the current demand for management business solutions," adds O`Brien. Oracle`s Business Alliance Partnerships (BAP) aim to provide what the market needs - a single source of advanced technologies, specialised applications and technical expertise, all of which have been optimised for the Oracle environment. The BAP is designed to build long-term relationships with software and hardware companies. With the focus on growing its partners` businesses, the programme aims to provide the technical support and guidance needed to bring partners` products to market. Various marketing programmes ensure that Oracle-based applications and services are sold in conjunction with the partners` products. The DNS Group, which is 100 percent owned by the Dimension Data Group, recently restructured in a move to identify its operating divisions and sharpen its business focus more clearly. All companies in the organisation have an operating philosophy dedicated to the formation of long-term business partnerships such as the one recently signed with Oracle. Managing Director Peter Cheverton explains that ENTity, which offers NT-based server solutions focused on DEC Alpha Systems product sets, was formed in early 1997 when DNS combined all its systems skills into one company. "DNS ENTity`s primary goal is to leverage the success which the DNS Group has had in implementing networked solutions to the corporate market by expanding this capability to offer business solutions within the burgeoning `network-centric` application arena," he says. In order to achieve this, the company has built up strong relationships with application and database providers such as Oracle. "Oracle is pioneering the real thin client browser type architecture which we feel has an unlimited future, especially in South Africa, where capital costs are high because of the exchange rate, and are expected to rise even further. ENTity also plans to take advantage of the huge potential that the World Wide Web has to offer through managed virtual networks and specifically Oracle`s OLAP tools with its strong support decisions. "We believe in opting for the collaboration route as opposed to the competitive route since we can learn a lot from our partners. We don`t want to be the biggest, just the best and our partnership with Oracle will provide us with what we need to get there," Cheverton says.
Share
Editorial contacts