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I am with Jon at the Oracle Industry Connect this week. Of course I have enjoyed connecting with those I know, but I must admit it is also enjoyable meeting people from other industries like life sciences, healthcare, financial services, insurance and education. Sometimes I forget that there are industries other than hospitality. I have enjoyed meeting these people from other industries, but it is amazing how they all want to really know what the hotel industry is all about. When your business is about where people eat, drink and sleep I guess it does sound a bit more intriguing than the banking industry. It has been an enjoyable two days and no matter how often we interact with others in the industry, nothing beats face to face. There was a great crowd from the hospitality space with a lot of the higher ups from the industry attending. It was nice seeing so many making time to come to this event. I thank Oracle for inviting me and after the events Hospitality Upgrade put on last week I am very thankful I just get to attend, not having to speak nonstop. Thank you, Jon, for making this week's Siegel Sez easier as I sit in my hotel room in Washington, D.C., at 5:30 in the morning trying to be creative after a night of eating and drinking at the Smithsonian Castle.

I am with Jon at the Oracle Industry Connect this week. Of course I have enjoyed connecting with those I know, but I must admit it is also enjoyable meeting people from other industries like life sciences, healthcare, financial services, insurance and education. Sometimes I forget that there are industries other than hospitality. I have enjoyed meeting these people from other industries, but it is amazing how they all want to really know what the hotel industry is all about. When your business is about where people eat, drink and sleep I guess it does sound a bit more intriguing than the banking industry. It has been an enjoyable two days and no matter how often we interact with others in the industry, nothing beats face to face. There was a great crowd from the hospitality space with a lot of the higher ups from the industry attending. It was nice seeing so many making time to come to this event. I thank Oracle for inviting me and after the events Hospitality Upgrade put on last week I am very thankful I just get to attend, not having to speak nonstop. Thank you, Jon, for making this week's Siegel Sez easier as I sit in my hotel room in Washington, D.C., at 5:30 in the morning trying to be creative after a night of eating and drinking at the Smithsonian Castle.

Results of an Oracle Utilities survey released this morning show that electric utilities in Canada and the US are only in the early stages of putting smart meter data good use. But they could be doing a better job of using the data they are collecting. The survey was of 151 utility executives in Canada and the United States. The study, Utility Transformations - Big Data, Bigger Opportunities: Plans and Preparedness for the Data Deluge, shows that utilities on both sides of the 49th Parallel are collecting significantly more interval data from smart meters. The frequency at which they are gathering smart meter data is 180 times more than in the past - every four hours compared to once a month. And the vast majority of them are collecting information such as outage and voltage data. Linda Jackman, group VP of industry strategy for Oracle Utilities, tells Canadian Green Tech in an interview that despite the improvement on the data collection front, utilities aren't using the data as effective as they could be. She was surprised to find utilities collecting certain types of data, but then not using that data to inform business decisions. According to the results, 78% of utilities surveyed are collecting outage data with 59% of them using, meaning nearly 20% aren't correlating outage data with customer communications as an example. For voltage data, the levels are 73% and 57%, respectively. "In outage and voltage data, the fact that everybody is not collecting that data, I think is surprising. You've rolled out a smart meter and you're not collecting outage data when it has the ability to talk to you around outage data? Why am I not collecting it? But then only 60% of them are using it once they have collected it, I think is also surprising," says Jackman. "So what we're seeing is that utilities are still in this very early stage and very formative stage of collecting the data but actually don't know what [they're] going to do with

Tony Kontzer's article on Ovation Brands - including a quote from CIO Patrick Benson - was called out in the editor's note at the beginning of the special report. "Those who have gone beyond testing the waters are finding there is no looking back. In Tony Kontzer's cover story, Ovation Brands CIO Patrick Benson recounts how the chain restaurant operator was faced with an outdated IT infrastructure and needed help fast; it found it in software as a service. "The major difference in the journey has been the warp speed at which we were really able to do this. It wasn't artificial or forced. It's just an organically faster process," Benson said. "We used to wait a day or two just to get the previous day's performance information. That stuff now becomes real-time."

Tony Kontzer's article on Ovation Brands - including a quote from CIO Patrick Benson - was called out in the editor's note at the beginning of the special report. "Those who have gone beyond testing the waters are finding there is no looking back. In Tony Kontzer's cover story, Ovation Brands CIO Patrick Benson recounts how the chain restaurant operator was faced with an outdated IT infrastructure and needed help fast; it found it in software as a service. "The major difference in the journey has been the warp speed at which we were really able to do this. It wasn't artificial or forced. It's just an organically faster process," Benson said. "We used to wait a day or two just to get the previous day's performance information. That stuff now becomes real-time."

Saks, Inc. is evolving to embrace omni-channel retailing through a series of infrastructure and systems enhancements slated to take place over the next several years. This is a transitional time for the company and these investments will position Saks for the future, allowing it to deliver incremental sales and improve operating margins over time.  To support its omni-channel and IT initiatives, Saks will invest one-third of its $120 million CapEx on Project Evolution, a multi-year transformation of and investment in systems technology with Oracle. Project Evolution will deliver new merchandising, finance and human resources systems and capabilities on an integrated application suite for the entire business.

Hot Applications For SaaS In Retail Dorf agrees that the agility of data access and analysis afforded by the cloud is fueling its adoption. Leveraging SaaS-based analytics tools, he says, allows retail tech shops to move away from mundane IT tasks and refocus their efforts on real retail work. "SaaS lightens the load on IT by removing the burdens associated with backups, audits, upgrades, and security management. Business insight afforded by SaaS-based analytics tools affords retailers a really good understanding of the data they already have," says Dorf. "As we add more analytics capabilities via the cloud, we can grant that access more quickly via automatic upgrades, which dramatically reduces the retailer's time to value." Because these tools are offered in a pay-only- for-what-you-use style fashioned after the utilities model, retailers can strategically and incrementally build on their data analytics initiatives at their own pace. "Retailers have been sitting on a lot of Big Data for a long time. SaaS-based analytics applies 'Big Science' to that Big Data, allowing merchants to finally extract value from it," says Dorf.

...Web traffic reached 30 times its normal volume immediately after Hurricane Sandy, says Red Cross vice president of information technology Suzanne Hall. By the time the ensuing telethon kicked into action, there were moments when the organization was processing up to 75,000 donations simultaneously through its website, a rate of up to 22 transactions per second. "A lot of the times, we'll geo-target the site so that they can immediately see what might be relevant to them," says American Red Cross vp of marketing Craig Oldham. During the height of a disaster, the Red Cross may change personalization rules and content every hour. 

To listen to the hype, it is only a matter of time before everyone moves all IT to the cloud, but the reality is a bit more complicated.

To listen to the hype, it is only a matter of time before everyone moves all IT to the cloud, but the reality is a bit more complicated.

Vendor eyes multi-channel as it builds cloud portfolio. Oracle is hitting retailers with a flood of enterprise software as it seeks to establish itself as a key cloud player in the market. The software vendor will launch six products covering critical ecommerce, customer engagement, order management, order fulfilment, loss prevention, and brand compliance. Jill Puleri, SVP and GM at Oracle Retail, said: "Retailers looking for agility, performance, and cost predictability are increasingly considering the cloud. "The new Oracle Retail Cloud Services help eliminate the time and cost constraints that too often hamper retailers' ability to respond to new opportunities for growth." Many of the products are dedicated to enabling multi-channel operations, a focus for retailers seeking to integrate their online and offline business amid rising customer expectations.

Vendor eyes multi-channel as it builds cloud portfolio. Oracle is hitting retailers with a flood of enterprise software as it seeks to establish itself as a key cloud player in the market. The software vendor will launch six products covering critical ecommerce, customer engagement, order management, order fulfilment, loss prevention, and brand compliance. Jill Puleri, SVP and GM at Oracle Retail, said: "Retailers looking for agility, performance, and cost predictability are increasingly considering the cloud. "The new Oracle Retail Cloud Services help eliminate the time and cost constraints that too often hamper retailers' ability to respond to new opportunities for growth." Many of the products are dedicated to enabling multi-channel operations, a focus for retailers seeking to integrate their online and offline business amid rising customer expectations.

When it was time to upgrade its e-commerce platform, Work 'N Gear wanted a solution that would have lasting impact. CEO Anthony DiPaolo talked to Oracle about his company, their vision and why they chose Oracle to support their e-commerce growth.

When it was time to upgrade its e-commerce platform, Work 'N Gear wanted a solution that would have lasting impact. CEO Anthony DiPaolo talked to Oracle about his company, their vision and why they chose Oracle to support their e-commerce growth.

While it may have taken some time for organizations to realize the full impact of being more customer-centric, including the empowerment of their employees with the right tools, the good news in the report is that 84 percent of respondents say their organization have experienced a trend toward customers wanting a more individualized experience and 70 percent have experienced this trend from employees. The not so good news is that fewer than 20 percent give their organization an 'A' in its ability to offer those experiences.

While it may have taken some time for organizations to realize the full impact of being more customer-centric, including the empowerment of their employees with the right tools, the good news in the report is that 84 percent of respondents say their organization have experienced a trend toward customers wanting a more individualized experience and 70 percent have experienced this trend from employees. The not so good news is that fewer than 20 percent give their organization an 'A' in its ability to offer those experiences.

Supervalu has enhanced its deployment of 2,200-plus iPads to managers across its enterprise by implementing the Oracle Identity Management 11g Release 2, providing secure, real-time access to back-office applications and business data from anywhere on the store floor. The Oracle solution replaced two separate directory environments with just one directory, with a 98% conversion rate for applications that integrate with the directory, minimizing downtime and user impact. The deployment also consolidated the directory server infrastructure from 15 servers down to five, reducing IT complexity and management responsibilities

As the East Coast prepared for Superstorm Sandy, the American Red Cross's new cloud platform allowed users in the storm's path to read customized preparedness warnings and shelter information, based on their location, as they checked the organization's homepage. And when Americans reached into their pockets after the storm, a scalable ecommerce platform allowed the organization to handle as many as 75,000 concurrent donations - the most ever. The American Red Cross is merging its 400-500 chapter websites, under a new cloud platform, from Oracle Corp. , that allows the organization to scale up its capacity when a disaster strikes and users are clamoring for preparedness information, Craig Oldham, vice president of digital engagement told CIO Journal. The platform, which the Red Cross began rolling out in August, was already implemented by half its chapters by the time the storm struck. The ability to scale up allowed the Red Cross to handle a peak of more than 500,000 page views per minute, during a NBC telethon to draw donations for the relief effort in early November...

Last week I traveled to Orlando to attend Oracle Connect, which is a little more than a typical users group and still attracts many of its customers from multiple industries. I absolutely enjoyed being there and attended many sessions including one where Marriott was sharing its ongoing installation activity with Oracle, which I am guessing at times has been a bit overwhelming considering how many hotels they are doing each month. It was a great conference that allowed me to bump into so many I knew, and nothing beats face-to-face reconnecting. I thank Oracle for inviting me.

J.C. Penney Co. Inc., for one, is adding more programs from Oracle to its lineup. It already uses an e-commerce platform and web site personalization technology from ATG, and site search from Endeca Technologies-two companies that Oracle acquired within the past two years. The department store chain, No. 20 in the Top 500 Guide, is now adding Oracle software for analyzing customer demand by product and managing merchandising and supply chains.

The October 22 issue of Campus Technology include an article highlighting two recent Oracle announcements regarding Oracle Exadata Database Machine and new features released for Oracle's PeopleSoft Campus Solutions. The article notes that Northern Illinois University (NIU) implemented two Oracle Exadata Database Machines and includes comment from Steven Pace, associate director of the Division of Finance and Facilities at NIU. He notes that Oracle Exadata Database Machine improved the university's administrative system availability and reliability, and accelerated batch run times. The article also notes that University of Arkansas implemented two Oracle Exadata Database Machines to improve the performance of its PeopleSoft Campus Solutions and Oracle WebCenter Content. Additionally, Brigham Young University consolidated 50 database servers and storage systems with Oracle Exadata Database Machine to help improve performance of its Oracle campus systems. Finally, the article also includes information regarding the new features Oracle released for its PeopleSoft Campus Solutions suite. The article notes the new program-based enrollment functionality is designed to help students plan their path to degree completion, and the new assessment feature helps instructors to define and assess any type of learning activities.

SaaS will be the norm. Pretty much all systems are already available in this format and most hotels are very comfortable using them - except for PMS. Sometimes this is for psychological reasons of personal comfort with having the data on premise; sometimes there's a genuine difficulty in obtaining reliable, cost-effective communications links. Nonetheless, I am certain this objection will fade over time. Oracle in particular has announced that it will only sell the new version 9 of Opera on a remotely hosted basis, setting the tone for the rest of the industry. Less customization. The age of expecting major PMS vendors to agree to significant enhancements for individual hotels is over. The smaller vendors will probably continue to do so, but it's not feasible for the larger ones. We don't expect Microsoft or Apple to customize their systems for us when we're ready to buy something new, we just adapt to what they offer. The same's true for Oracle, Infor and the other major PMS vendors; their systems are powerful and flexible enough to be useful in most situations. If you want something very specific you'll always be able to find a vendor who'll customize its system for you, just as you can run your own PC on Linux configured just the way you want it, but mainstream will be good enough for most.

As part of its Models of Excellence program, the August edition of University Business includes the following article highlighting how Valdosta State University improved student retention by using an Oracle platform to integrate five technologies into one system that could extract information and deliver it to custom applications designed to serve students. Models of Excellence, presented by University Business, recognizes college and university initiatives that address student success three times a year. Two- or four-year colleges and universities apply for the recognition, so it is likely that someone at Valdosta State University applied and mentioned Oracle in their submission.

We spoke to various industry experts who revealed their top predictions for the future of retail including Oracle, IBM, Retail Wire ... ...David Dorf / Oracle: Retail will change in many ways, but immediacy will have the biggest impact. Our homes will replenish themselves; our packages will arrive hours after the order; retailers will bid on the right to sell us products in real time; our in-home printers will produce products as we watch. These are examples of consumers having immediate access to the products they want. The technologies to support these scenarios already exist, so we're not waiting on anything new to be invented. All of these scenarios are already a reality in small, independent deployments. It's only a matter of time before retailers evolve their business models to fully embrace this notion of immediacy. That's not to say traditional channels will cease to exist. Physical and digital retail won't fade away, nor will the importance of good customer service. But massive improvements achieved in forecasting, sourcing, and moving products will radically change the landscape in which we trade. Obviously no one will wake up tomorrow to this new reality. It will emerge slowly over many years, but we can already see evidence of the coming changes. Every retailer needs to think in these terms, and make sure each investment moves them closer to the goal.

Highlighting that Oracle has announced that its Oracle Utilities Network Management System offers new modeling and analysis features to improve distribution-grid management for electric utilities. The article notes that the new modeling enhancements provide real-time views of grid activity to help properly align electricity generation with demand. The release also includes comments from Brad Williams, vice president of industry strategy, Oracle Utilities noting that Oracle Utilities Network Management System offers the real-time modeling and power system simulations utilities need to optimize grid operations as networks change.

The March 2014 edition of Campus Technology includes the following article on how universities use constituent relationship management (CRM) tools to support more organized, timely, and personalized student recruitment and retention. The article highlights Valdosta State University's use of Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition and Oracle Endeca as the user interface for data analysis. The story includes comments from an interview with Andy Clark, vice president for enrollment management, Valdosta State University, who notes that the system helps faculty and staff identify at-risk students. The article also includes comments from an interview with Brian Haugabrook, chief information officer, Valdosta State University, who notes that the university can push important resources to at-risk students through its web portal - and that the school is seeing a resulting spike in tutoring center use earlier rather than later.

The March 2014 edition of Campus Technology includes the following article on how universities use constituent relationship management (CRM) tools to support more organized, timely, and personalized student recruitment and retention. The article highlights Valdosta State University's use of Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition and Oracle Endeca as the user interface for data analysis. The story includes comments from an interview with Andy Clark, vice president for enrollment management, Valdosta State University, who notes that the system helps faculty and staff identify at-risk students. The article also includes comments from an interview with Brian Haugabrook, chief information officer, Valdosta State University, who notes that the university can push important resources to at-risk students through its web portal - and that the school is seeing a resulting spike in tutoring center use earlier rather than later.