Motoronline, a motor industry portal and e-commerce enabler for the South African automotive industry, has invested over R2 million in Oracle technology.
The technology plays a vital role in enabling Motoronline to provide the motor industry with a comprehensive range of products and services within a secure online environment.
"Both the business-to-business and business-to-consumer e-commerce requirements of the industry are catered for," says Grant Weston, Chief Information Officer of Motoronline.
Motoronline, whose shareholders are WesBank, Dimension Data and the Retail Motor Industry Organisation (RMI), is focused on harnessing e-commerce opportunities for the 6 500-strong RMI members.
"We are exploiting the power of Oracle`s technology and providing the infrastructure for businesses throughout the motor industry to transact electronically with each other and with their customers," says Weston.
Hans Ziemkendorf, account manager at Oracle SA, says Motoronline is building its portal website with Oracle portal technology.
"Motoronline purchased Oracle`s e-business platform, Oracle 8i database, Oracle 9iAS (Application Server) and Oracle`s Internet Developer Suite which includes Oracle Portal.
"Motoronline`s proposed portal is built on the same platform that powers the top e-commerce sites, trading exchanges and other forms of e-business on the Internet. This leverages the security, reliability, and scalability of Oracle9iAS and the Oracle database. It takes advantage of the newest and most advanced features of Oracle products to meet the needs of a growing business."
Weston says the portal focuses on convenience, business efficiency, service delivery and the customer. "Our services, which are developed in close consultation with the industry, centre on three primary service areas: B2C, Aftermarket B2B and OEM business. These service areas are covered by our business value added services.
"Value added services will enable online consumers to find and purchase everything they need at motoronline.co.za. This is where motor dealers can display their products and services using the Motoronline functionality to offer the consumer a fully transactional purchasing experience.
"Motoronline`s automotive e-services provide industry specific e-commerce solutions, including network services and Internet connectivity.
E-procurement services provide an electronic marketplace specifically for the motor industry. We provide the mechanism to purchase online, saving time and money," Weston continues.
He says Motoronline chose Oracle`s products because it recognises Oracle as a market leader in database and web development technology. "We are comfortable in the knowledge that Oracle uses its own Internet products to manage internal business processes".
"Moreover, Oracle Portal provides a powerful content management tool, enabling us to quickly give data to customers in a useful format."
Ziemkendorf says with Oracle`s Internet Developer suite Motoronline can build any application required by customers based on Internet standards.
"Then Oracle9iAS Portal for Oracle9i Application Server provides a browser-based environment for building and deploying enterprise portals, plus an extensible framework for integrating applications and business information.
"As for Oracle8i, it is the only database specifically designed as an Internet development and deployment platform, extending Oracle` s technology in the areas of data management, transaction processing and data warehousing to the new medium of the Internet.
"In addition, Oracle9iAS delivers the scalability and performance to deploy all Web applications. For Motoronline`s site developers, Oracle Portal makes it easy to deploy enterprise portals with central management and unified security.
"Also to extend the reach of a Web portal, Oracle9iAS enables Motoronline to make information in any database or Internet application available to any wireless device," Ziemkendorf adds.
Share