Singapore, 23 September 2003 - Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Oracle Singapore today announced the launch of a regional network of competency and development centres, known as Partners Innovative Technology and Solution Centres (PITSTOP). Both HP and Oracle will together commit an estimated US$10 million in products and services over the next three years around South East Asia.

This investment aims to fast-track the development of a strong regional ecosystem made up of robust local communities of Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and System Integrators (SIs) within the South East Asian infocomms industry. PITSTOP centres will help to strengthen their technology capability, showcase their solutions and gain access to overseas
markets.

There will be five PITSTOP centres set up in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand over the next few weeks. HP and Oracle expect this network and its programmes to generate revenue of up to US$100 million for their partners over a period of five years.

This is the first such initiative in the region. At the core of this initiative, partners of HP and Oracle will be able to use the PITSTOP centres to significantly reduce both costs and time-to-market by facilitating collaboration locally & across geographic borders. PITSTOP centres will also function as a market catalyst to seek out business opportunities for local infocomm enterprises. Local developers can leverage all PITSTOP centres to expand their offshore resources, support their overseas clients, develop cross-border strategic alliances, and penetrate new markets.

"Nearly one-third of the developer community in South East Asia are either partners with HP or Oracle and they constantly look to us for more support. PITSTOP centres around the region enable us to help our partners with our technological and marketing expertise to become more effective and market-focused," said Keith Budge, Regional Managing Director, South Asia Region, Oracle Corp. "In addition, the PITSTOP centres are an important platform for the technology community to create innovative technologies and solutions."

As a 'live' lab for localised product development, all PITSTOP centres will run the full range of Oracle infrastructure software and Oracle E-Business Suite on HP's technology platform. Each PITSTOP centre will provide application developers with a well-supported competency centre that allows partner ISVs to improve their skills, develop applications & demonstrate their solutions.

"Through PITSTOP, we aim to nurture greater entrepreneurship in the local and regional IT community. We are making our enabling technologies and technical resources easily available; so that these developers can focus on developing solutions quickly and get to the market fast. We want people to come together to discover, create and experiment. This is the cornerstone of the HP's "Invent" spirit. It is what it takes to be a winner and leader in this industry," said Tan Choon Seng, Vice President and Managing Director, South East Asia/Singapore, HP.

Both HP and Oracle will also provide consultants who will help partners gain hands-on experience with the latest and complete range of HP and Oracle technologies at the PITSTOP centres. Through regular training and workshops, HP and Oracle will also be helping develop the expertise of consultants in the enterprise computing community within each country.

PITSTOP in Singapore
IDA CEO, Mrs Tan Ching Yee launched the first PITSTOP centre in Singapore today. Speaking at the launch ceremony, Mrs Tan said, "IDA is encouraged to see key technology partners, such as HP and Oracle, collaborate to help our local Infocomm companies develop capability and gain access to regional markets through the PITSTOP initiative. This regional initiative is expected to increase the revenue of 50 local companies under the Infocomm Local Industry Upgrading Program by US$27 million in the next five years."

In each of the five countries, HP and Oracle will appoint a local partner to manage the PITSTOP centre. The first PITSTOP centre will be established in Singapore jointly under Astar Technology (S) Pte Ltd and ECS Computers (Asia) Pte Ltd (an Oracle Value-added Distributor), both wholly owned subsidiaries of ECS Holdings Limited. The local PITSTOP centre will help local ISVs and SIs grow and mature before assisting their move to the regional and global marketplace; it will also play a key role as an education and training facility for technology updates and technical training.

"ECS is proud to be selected as the local partner in Singapore for PITSTOP," said Mr Tay Eng Hoe, Group Chief Executive Officer, ECS Holdings Limited. "The launch of this PITSTOP centre marks a milestone for ECS as it manifests our relentless pursuit for excellence as an e-infrastructure enabler. As ECS' strategy is to grow our business with our partners, PITSTOP is an attractive, viable and compelling proposition. With this facility, the best-of-breed solutions from HP and Oracle can be readily brought to our partners both locally and regionally," continued Tay.

About Oracle
Oracle is the world's largest enterprise software company. For more information about Oracle, visit our Web site at www.oracle.com

About HP
HP delivers vital technology for business and life. The company's solutions span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing for consumers, enterprises and small and medium business.
For the last four quarters, HP revenue totalled $70.4 billion. More information about HP is available at http://www.hp.com

About Astar Technology
Astar Technology (S) Pte Ltd is a wholly-owned subsidiary of ECS Holdings Ltd, a mainboard listed company of the SGX with subsidiaries in Singapore, China, Malaysia and Thailand. The group achieved a turnover of S$1.2 billion for FY2002. As an e-infrastructure enabler, Astar works with its wide and established channel of system integrators in the design, installation and implementation of IT infrastructure for enterprise customers. Aggregating the best-of-breed enterprise servers, data storage, info-security and networking, e-services and application integration technologies, Astar enables corporations to fully exploit the Net Economy through integrated solutions from strategic alliances with industry-leading vendors.