At Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco earlier this month, Oracle users groups were out in force hosting SIG meetings, providing educational information, and presenting sessions by subject matter experts. User group presidents were also onsite, outlining ambitious plans for the year ahead.
Michael L. Whitmer, president of Quest International Users Group, joined by Jonathan Vaughn, Quest's executive director, talked at Oracle OpenWorld about strategies for supporting members in 2012. There is a shift going on in IT and being technically competent is simply not enough anymore, says Whitmer. "The IT organizations that are going to be successful going forward are those that really move out of being the order-taker organization to being a true business strategy organization, in partnership with the business, and deliver IT in a way that provides business value." Read more.
Andy Flower, president of the Independent Oracle Users Group, spoke about the emerging challenges facing IOUG members, the group's plans for the year ahead, including additional training and certification around Exadata, and how Oracle's engineered systems approach is being received. "The overall need for analytics, the growth of data, and the managing and processing of more and more data - those areas are the central themes for us," Flower noted. Read more.
The Oracle Applications Users Group is continuing its Back to Basics theme, with education and networking, enabled by smaller regional events and online learning opportunities, in addition to its continued participation in larger events such as OpenWorld and COLLABORATE, said Mark C. Clark, president of the OAUG. Upcoming Connection Point events include the "OAUG Connection Point-EPM/BI/R12.1 Upgrade" which will be held November 15-16, 2011, in Atlanta; and the "OAUG Connection Point-Dubai 2012" will be held March 14-15, 2012, in Dubai, UAE. Read more.