Oracle OpenWorld 2008 kicks off

The company has made a raft of new announcements, including new collaborative tool, enhancements to its partnership programs, updates to some of its most popular applications and two new business divisions.

For totally new products the company will be giving details of a called Beehive, which allows disparate communications applications to be viewed within a single open software platform.

It is also revamping its partner program in an effort to draw in more resellers to the fold. Enhancements including software training ‘Boot Camps’ for users and a redesign of the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) Competency Center and portal.

The company has also previewed version 12.1 of its Oracle E-Business Suite 12, which has more global financial applications and has new supply chain and manufacturing features.

Oracle now claims to be the leading platform for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and cloud computing. It says it now has over 250 ISVs using its SaaS platform and is looking to recruit more.

More announcements are expected later in the conference, which runs until the 25th. Larry Ellison will perform his keynote on the 24th.