The E-Business Suite 12 software adds features to help worldwide operations more easily consolidate data, said John Wookey, senior vice president of application development at Oracle. The new version was introduced during the company's OpenWorld user conference in San Francisco this week.

Oracle E-Business Suite 12 offers easier deployment than Version 11i and includes tools to help users more easily execute profitability analysis by channel or product line, Wookey said. The updated E-Business Suite also adds a Web service repository and links to Oracle's Fusion middleware, the company said.

The new release will begin shipping within a year, Oracle said.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison used his keynote speech at the conference to unveil the new support offering for Raleigh, N.C.-based Red Hat Inc.'s implementation of Linux. The "Unbreakable Linux" program provides support offerings that are similar to those offered for the Oracle middleware, applications and database products. The program will be priced from $99 per system per year.

The E-Business Suite 12 release indicates that Oracle plans to continue updating its current slate of applications instead of forcing users to shift to the next-generation Fusion applications without adequate notice, said Pat Dues, president of the independent Oracle Applications Users Group in Atlanta.