Oracle makes 'unbreakable` e-mail easier, more cost-effective with new outsourced service

Oracle Corporation has announced a service designed to give customers the option of having Oracle manage and maintain Oracle-based e-mail and other collaboration software as an outsourced service.

This service, dubbed Oracle Collaboration Suite Outsourcing, is structured around a predictable cost model and is said to obviate the "pain points" of competitive offerings, which can include downtime, security and reliable integration.

According to Ferris Research, the typical costs associated with e-mail, virus downtime and spam diversion are $36 per user per month for Microsoft Exchange and $27 per user per month for Lotus Notes.

Oracle claims that, with its proactive service model and the unbreakable Oracle9i infrastructure, these costs can be reduced.

"Given the challenges, expense and importance of keeping collaboration systems highly available, outsourcing makes a lot of sense," said David Ferris, President of Ferris Research. "Since Oracle develops, supports and manages the software, Oracle Collaboration Suite Outsourcing looks like an attractive offering for customers."

Reinforcing its competitive cost and reliability advantages, Oracle says that its Collaboration Suite Outsourcing benefits customers with enhanced support services, scalability, and access to the latest collaboration and communication functionality, including calendar, real-time conferencing capabilities, e-mail, file system support, voicemail and workflow.

Delivered as a service, it provides integrated technologies, including integrated voice access and Ultra Search capabilities, on a centralised database that streamlines productivity across the enterprise and can scale to manage high levels of messaging.

The new software service builds on the continued momentum and customer adoption of Oracle Outsourcing. By relying on Oracle to maintain and service their communications and collaboration infrastructure, organisations are relieved of the burdens associated with routine IT administration.

This allows them to focus instead on strategic priorities that affect their businesses.

Oracle Outsourcing customers often lower the costs of managing Oracle software by up to 50%, and with Oracle`s continuously connection to customer systems, downtime can be minimised and user productivity maximised.

"Much of the success of Oracle Outsourcing has been a result of the enhanced product service that we provide to our outsourcing customers," said Timothy Chou, president, Oracle Outsourcing. "By providing proactive service and maintenance, we can resolve problems much more quickly and prevent many outages from occurring, enabling us to maintain higher availability for much less."