Arun Kumar reports on Dubai Connection Point

My first visit to the Oracle-obsessed Middle East region, for the Connection Point event in Dubai hosted by the OAUG group, truly was an experience from many angles.

The Keynote session delivered by one of the prominent personalities within the region, Husam Dajani, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, MEA, Oracle Corporation. The message was in concurrence to the IT users of Oracle products: “We will embrace the Oracle products and make them work for us.”

Inatech had hosted a stall which attracted most of the visitors with a host of solutions and services that can help businesses. We displayed the variety of offerings and project experiences in the form of brochures and case studies. Our rolling presentation on a flat screen was even more appealing to the audience.

The buzz words among the sessions and participants were as expected; R12, SOA, IDM, SSO, Integration, MIS. Conversations with the users made me realise why Inatech stands apart in the region in terms of “pure” consulting. In today’s information-overflow age, users are not shopping for products. They have their agenda of business drivers very clearly chalked out and look for some experienced business and technical consulting experts. With Middle East’s passion for Oracle, one needs to really know Oracle offerings in depth.

I also managed to attend few sessions which were very interesting and inspired me to give back something to the Oracle community. The choice of the topics and speakers were of a high standard. To start with, Dr. Nadia Bendjedou’s session, “Oracle eBiz R12 – Technology Highlights” gave an insight into how much Oracle is investing in ensuring the success of their latest release and to ease the process of upgrading to R11i.

Interestingly, the sessions delivered by end-users who have adopted SOA and AIA. One such session was on “Use of SOA Suite Tools in Public Sectors” wherein City of Las Vegas had used SOA extensively demonstrating the advantages of SOA and getting a quick ROI out of these technologies.

Another interesting session was on “Using Oracle AIA Foundation Pack to Build a Best-of-Breed Landscape” delivered by Michael Rulf, AT&T. This was my first impression on AIA in real world and clarity towards the structuring of the product.

Other sessions on Identity Management, GRC and a demo on SOA with eBiz were enlightening to see the products in action. I had also enjoyed the dinner cruise on Dubai Creek with stunning views of what Dubai holds.

Overall it was a rich experience for the participants with the variety of information offered in a short time. I appreciate the impressive energy of the OAUG team who had organised the event.