The Value of SOA Specialization – Fujitsu

Thanks for the nice ink

The Value of Specialization

In my last post I talked about Fujitsu’s achievement in obtaining SOA and other specializations, but I have heard murmurings from other partners about what just is the value? I think Oracle have to do more to advertise the benefits to customers, we need to see customers asking for specialization for it to really work, but Oracle have made great promises about only recommending those partners who are specialized.

For us there was another benefit. Oracle was sponsoring the 3rd Annual SOA Symposium in Berlin and invited us as their first specialized partner to take part. There is a great blog about the symposium on the SOA community blog site.

This is real commitment from Oracle and we have other marketing opportunities being worked on with Jürgen. This does generate leads so my message to other Oracle Partners is, you need to do this, it is worthwhile.

Fujitsu – First SOA Specialized Partner Globally

Just before Oracle Open World I found out that Fujitsu had achieved the first SOA Specialization globally.
I think most partners know what the requirements are for Specialization and that in itself is challenging but the bureaucracy around the actual submission is an exercise in tenacity. I won’t go into that now; I have had my dig at Oracle this month, but enough to say the process could be improved.

As a platinum partner we needed 5 specializations and we decided to go for SOA first. The reasoning behind this is that our Oracle Practice is known for being applications centric. We have always had an excellent technical capability but no one ever talked about that, it was just part and parcel of an implementation. However today we have just as many bids that are technology lead as there is applications lead, so it seemed a good plan to work on the areas we were not known for.

We appointed a capability lead to be responsible for putting the team through the training and testing and Rosemary (Kell) was excellent, she ensured that everyone was on track and that it wasn’t just getting put into the ‘to do list’. In Fujitsu everyone in the Oracle Practice has an objective to achieve the competency tests in their area, so achieving the 2 pre sales, 2 sales and 1 support was no problem at all. We actually had 22 with the support capability proficiency.  The implementation specialist exams are much harder, more like OCP in the database area.

We had help from the Oracle SOA Community; Jürgen Kress who runs this in EMEA is really motivational. At the time we started SOA was a beta exam which means you do not get the results immediately but again we put forward more than we needed. Manjit Chopra, Sukhraj Sahota, Emely Patra, Ian Scorrer and Sunny Sidhu all took the exam and eventually got the results they wanted they had passed. Congratulations.

Here is Jurgen expalining why specialization is important.

After the tests came the submissions where you need to include deals and experience, this was my bit, and persuading Oracle we really deserved the specialization. Finally we got the news we had been awarded the specialization, and a few days later that we were first globally. I am very proud. However there is no rest for the wicked and we plodded on to make the 5 specializations needed for Platinum and now we are working on the new Diamond status and I think SOA will be one of our 5 ‘super specializations’. This is a global Fujitsu initiative and I work closely with my colleague in Germany Jessika Weiss. It was nice to be able to have a press release about this and a comment from Judson Althoff  head of Oracle Alliances.

For more information on SOA Specialization and the SOA Partner Community please feel free to register at www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required)

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SOA Specialization update

SOA Specialization is taking off, more and more customers ask for Specialized Partners, make sure you start your own Specialization. To align the number of required Oracle Service-Oriented Architecture Certified Implementation Specialist we reduced them from 4 to 2 consultants.

For details on Specialization please see

• SOA & Application Grid Specialization Guide
• SOA & Application Grid Specialization Checklist

Thanks for all the partners who became SOA Specialized in 2010!

Accenture & Infosys Technologies Limited & Atos Origin & CedarCrestone, Inc. & FUJITSU & OPITZ CONSULTING GmbH& Zensar Technologies & ECS Team & Zirous Inc

Your company is missing? Make sure you add the SOA Specialization information in your solutions catalog

For more information on SOA Specialization and the SOA Partner Community please feel free to register at www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required)

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Opitz Consulting wins the Oracle SOA Partner Community Award

Thanks for the nice post!

Ein wichtiger Preis für die SOA-Community: Der Oracle EMEA SOA Community Award

Im Rahmen der Oracle Open World verlieh Oracle den „Oracle EMEA SOA Community Award” im Bereich “Outstanding Contribution“ im Jahr 2010 bereits zum dritten Mal in Folge an OPITZ CONSULTING:

Award als erster SOA Specialized Partner in Europa

In 2010 errangen die SOA-Spezialisten von OPITZ CONSULTING den begehrten SOA Partner Community Award. Das Oracle SOA-Team um Jürgen Kress honoriert hiermit das Erreichen der ersten Oracle SOA Spezialisierung in Deutschland, die Community-Arbeit, das Durchführen von SOA-Trainings (auch für anderen Oracle Partner) und das allgemeine Wachstum des OPITZ CONSULTING SOA-Bereichs.
Verbindung von EA, BPM und SOA gewürdigt

Im Jahr 2009 wurde ein OPITZ CONSULTING Direktor Strategie & Innovation geehrt: Dirk Stähler (Bild li.) erhielt den Award für sein Engagement im Aufbau und der Weiterentwicklung von BPM- und SOA-Themen. Ein besonderer Grund für die Verleihung an ihn waren seine Arbeiten zur effektiven Verbindung von Enterprise Architecture, Business Process Management und SOA.
Award für SOA-Community-Arbeit und -Publikationen

OPITZ CONSULTING Direktor Strategie & Innovation und Oracle ACE Director, Torsten Winterberg (Bild re.), holte diesen Preis im Jahr 2008 für OPITZ CONSULTING nach Deutschland.

Er wurde für sein außerordentliches Engagement in der Etablierung von serviceorientierten Architekturen gewürdigt. Dazu gehören beispielsweise der Aufbau einer Special Interest Group SOA, Roundtable-Initiativen sowie umfangreiche Veröffentlichungen zu SOA.

For more information on the SOA Partner Community please feel free to register at www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required)

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eProseed (Belgium) wins the Oracle EMEA Middleware Partner of the Year Award 2010

eProseed triple award winner of Oracle EMEA! Geoff you missed one…

Thanks for the excellent work in the SOA and BPM space and your efforts in the Specialization program. Great to see the benefits of Specialization which helps eProseed to get visibility by Oracle and to become preferred by customers!

For more information on the SOA Partner Community please feel free to register at www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required)

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Why to become SOA Specialized? An interview with Torsten Winterberg from Opitz Consulting

Recognized by Oracle, Preferred by Customers.
We had the great opportunity to interview Torsten Winterberg, Director Strategy and Innovation – Head of Competence Center SOA and Oracle ACE Director from our SOA Specialized Partner Opitz Consulting.

Why did Opitz decide to become SOA Specialized?
” Specialization was key for Opitz to become preferred by the customer and recognized by Oracle
The marketing, sales and education benefits are key for Opitz to grow our SOA business”

Can you describe the marketing activities with Oracle?
” With SOA Specialization Opitz used the Oracle Marketing Services for Partners (OMS4) to create a SOA enterprise architecture road-show. As part of this road-show we demonstrated jointly with Oracle our knowledge and skills to our joint customer base. We used the OPN marketing services to create SOA references cases which are key in a SOA solution sales process. Or SOA offering flyers are available at the Oracle Customer Visitor Centers. And our SOA services, events and website is promoted by Oracle google adwords campaigns as one of the SOA Specialization benefits. As a SOA Specialized partner we also present at the Oracle BPM11g launch events.”

How did you team with Oracle around the sales activities?
“The leads we generated by our joint marketing activities, we registered in the Oracle Open Market Model (OMM). As part of the OMM process we aligned our sales forces. Together with the Oracle Sales and Pre-Sales team we demoed the customer SOA suite by using the Oracle online advances demo systems.”

Did you get Oracle support to train your consultants in the Oracle SOA Suite?
“With the Enablement 2.0 SOA boot camps we did train our consultants as well as consultants from other partners as a delivery 2.0 partner. We certified our team by using the SOA sales, presales and implementation assessments available in the Oracle competence center. As part of our Opitz Oracle SOA training initiative we trained more than 30 Opitz consultants. As an ACE Director SOA/FMW I am also connected with the Oracle Productmanagement, so information is always fresh and fast to get.”

Why did the customer decide for the Opitz SOA offering?
“Key for the customer was that Opitz did proof SOA Specialization to the customer in the bid process by the SOA assessment certifications & Oracle SOA references. In a joint meeting with the customer Opitz and Oracle did proof the partnership. As a SOA Community partner we work with Oracle on a daily base and get support of the Oracle SOA product and development team by being a member of the SOA Partner Advisory Council.

SOA Specialization was key to grow our Oracle middleware revenue by more than 200% and our services business even more in the last fiscal year.”

What are the next steps for Opitz?
“As a Oracle platinum partner Opitz continues to specialize in additional middleware focus areas like Business Intelligence and Application Grid. The Specialization program will be key for us to differentiate from our competition and to generate more joint business with Oracle.

To summarize it with SOA Specialization we jointly win more happy customer and generate more joint business!”

Torsten Winterberg
Opitz Consulting
Direktor für Strategie und Innovation, Leiter des Competence Centers SOA
Blog: http://torstenwinterberg.blogspot.com/

Make sure that you read our “Specialization Guide SOA & Application Grid How to become Specialized”. This ebook will support you in all the steps and show you the value of Specialization. Read more.

SOA & Application Grid Specialization Guide & SOA & Application Grid Specialization Checklist

For more information on SOA & Application Grid Specialization become a member in the SOA Partner Community please feel free to register at www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required)

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IPT – first Oracle SOA Partner in Switzerland with focus in Integration

IPT is our fist Swiss Partner who became SOA Specialized – congratulations! Our customer prefer SOA Specialized Partners and Oracle recognizes SOA Specialized Partners – listen to Thomas Schaller why SOA Specialization is key:

Customer who are looking for SOA Specialized Partners please visit the Solutions Catalog

Partner who want to become SOA Specialized please read the