Oracle takes next steps in PeopleSoft takeover

Oracle will cut 5,000 jobs globally in the wake of its successful US$10.3 (13.6) billion takeover of PeopleSoft. However, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison reaffirmed Oracle’s commitment to continue to support PeopleSoft product lines until 2013 and release PeopleSoft Enterprise 9.0. By retaining more than 90 per cent of PeopleSoft’s development and support staff, Ellison said Oracle would be able to deliver on its commitment to all of the application’s customers. He also announced ‘Project Fusion’, the company’s next-generation application architecture that will combine the best features and functions of Oracle’s applications with those of PeopleSoft and JD Edwards.

SumTotal Enterprise Suite 7.0 launched

SumTotal recently launched SumTotal Enterprise Suite 7.0, a new platform which is the first major product release for the company following its formation by the merger of Click2learn and Docent in March 2004. SumTotal 7.0 enables organisations to ‘mold’ the platform to the specific characteristics of the business. It adapts to changing needs such as business processes, terminology and workflow, organisational structures or the learning, certification and skills development needs of the individual employee. It also offers easier administration of learning activities, user organisations, reporting and compliance, along with improved interoperability and integration with other technology applications and infrastructures.

Sony adopts Macromedia Breeze

Sony Communication Network Corporation (So-net) recently adopted Macromedia Breeze in order to enable the delivery and tracking of online training content. The Breeze solution allows So-net to keep the design of the training content in-house, as workers already know how to use PowerPoint. Breeze allows users to transform reference materials in PowerPoint to Flash format. Prior to Breeze, written tests were used more to gauge attendance than to assess whether employees understood the training materials.