Oracle Middle East and Africa reports strong customer adoption for second quarter fiscal year 2009

Saudi Home Loans, the first fully specialized Islamic home finance company in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia has gone live on Oracle Daybreak. The implementation supports a complete Shari'ah compliant home mortgage business in Saudi Arabia.

Oracle Daybreak provides Saudi Home Loans an enterprise-wide lending platform that is expected to enable Saudi Home Loans to lower operational costs, ensure that its operating practices are aligned with current standards and support further expansion for diversification.

Leading wastewater management company Moalajah, a subsidiary of Veolia Water, has implemented Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing to help it meet customer needs in the rapidly-expanding market of Ajman in the United Arab Emirates.

Palm Utilities, a subsidiary of Istithmar World Public Joint Stock Company, a major investment holding company incorporated in the Dubai World Group, has recently deployed Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing as the company continues to strengthen its support facilities for its quickly expanding business operations. The new solution is expected to benefit Palm Utilities' current 7,000 customers and provide the flexibility to accommodate an expected 250,000 new clients within the next four years.

Selection of Second Quarter Fiscal 2009 Customer Wins:

• Financial Services: Al Othaim Holding Co; Arab National Bank (Saudi Arabia);
• Public Services: Ministry of Culture and Information (Saudi Arabia);
• Communications: Etihad Etisalat (Saudi Arabia);
• Manufacturing, Retail & Distribution: National Plastic Factory (Oman); Al-Othaim Group (Saudi Arabia);
• Utilities: National Tri-Generation CHP Company Ltd. (Saudi Arabia).
• Education and Research: King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Public Education Development Project; King Abdullah University of Science and Tech (Saudi Arabia).

Husam Dajani, Senior Vice President, Oracle Middle East & Africa, said:

"Our continuous support and creative solutions made Oracle the vendor of choice which is best positioned to support our customers' needs of increasing efficiencies and customer intimacy. Oracle's broad range of integrated, standards-based, end-to-end business software solutions, backed by deep industry capabilities, has enhanced our market leadership and resulted in a very strong customer adoption record."

Taher Naseem, Chief Operating Officer of Saudi Home Loans, said, "The home loans market in Saudi Arabia is witnessing substantial growth. To be able to provide best-in-class lending services, we required a lending platform that could cope with growing volumes. We believe our customers will absolutely benefit from Oracle Daybreak deployment and we are very pleased with the commitment and support of the Oracle Financial Services team that enabled them to complete this deployment in three months."

"The customer base in Ajman is growing incredibly quickly as more and more housing developments are constructed. To be able to cope with thousands of new customers coming on board, we needed a solution that could offer genuine flexibility and scalability. Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing was quick to implement. It has transformed the way we serve our customers," said Jacob Illeris, Chief Executive Officer, Moalajah.

"Palm Utilities is committed to ensuring exceptional customer service as we expand our business and our client base. In this regard, Oracle delivers solutions that complement our focus on customer care and also provide extra value in streamlining operations and promoting long term sustainability. With Oracle's support, we look forward to sustaining our aggressive expansion program without being bogged down by the complexities involved in handling customer-related issues such as billing and customer-care support," stated Ahmed Butti, Director General of Dubai Customs and Chairman, Palm Utilities.

Oracle was awarded the 'Value Partner of the Year' Award by Woolworths, South Africa in recognition of collaboration through the 'O2' programme to implement Oracle Retail applications.

"Oracle Retail has helped Woolworths to create a unified stock and financial management capability across our entire business. We have seen significant benefits in terms of data and stock accuracy, enhanced visibility of stock, the creation of a common supply chain capability, key insights into the ongoing efforts to reduce waste and increase availability, and a vast leap forward in terms of supplier and franchisee financial management," pointed out John Hunt, CIO, Woolworths.