Oracle OpenWorld 2013 Zeroes In On Partner Empowerment

By Brian Anderson, Associate Editor

Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN), a group which helps partners of Oracle better develop, sell and fulfill the company’s solutions, welcomed more than 5,000 executives, customers and partners from around the world this week to Oracle OpenWorld 2013. As part of the week-long event, which took place Sept. 22 to 26, 2013, provided partners an in-depth look into what Oracle is planning for its channel during the 2014 fiscal year. The event also offered partners a variety of educational and training sessions to help them grow their companies with Oracle solutions in the coming year.

“We are dedicated to helping our customers simplify IT and drive innovation,” said Mark Hurd, President of Oracle, in a statement. “Our partners are critical in helping us achieve this goal and we thank them for their ongoing support and commitment.”

Hurd welcomed Oracle partners on the first day of the expo and defined key areas for partner expansion and customer growth that the company wants to make priority, including cloud, engineered systems and applications.

Top executives from various partners organizations also took the stage to share their past successes while working with Oracle. Presenters included:

Noriyuki Toyoki, Corporate Senior Vice President of Fujitsu Limited;

Mark Bluhm, Senior Vice President for the Global Data Center at Thomson Reuters;

Duncan L. Niederauer, Chief Executive Officer of NYSE Euronext; and

Joe Tucci, Chairman and CEO of EMC Corporation.

Michael Dell, founder, chairman of the board, and CEO of Dell, also gave a keynote at the conference. During his presentation, Dell spotlighted how the company evolved in order to provide customers with accessible, end-to-end solutions.

Exclusive sessions, networking opportunities and certification testing, among other educational tracks, provided partners with the information and tools they need to differentiate and grow their business with Oracle. The event also featured a Social Media Rally Station that offered Oracle partners a series of tools to help them better leverage modern communication channels to increase awareness and opportunity in the market.

“Partners are the key to our success,” said Joel Borellis, Group VP of Partner Enablement at Oracle, “and we are committed to providing the resources, tools and technology they need to succeed.”

As the latest version of the Oracle partner program, OPN Specialized was created to provide loyal partners with tools to better develop, sell and implement Oracle solutions. OPN Specialized offers resources to train and support specialized knowledge of Oracle products and solutions, and has evolved to recognize an ever-growing product portfolio, partner base and business opportunity.