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...For Ovation Brands choosing to move the POS to the cloud was a matter of "future-proofing." The company already had experience and a comfort level with the cloud through its back-office system and was ready to move its POS above property with very specific goals in mind. "We were looking for something that had high-speed to value, lower cost of ownership and would save us from the traditional IT intensive POS implementation where you have to administer it and have a staff to support it," Benson says. "Having the POS in the cloud helps us modernize the way we conduct business."

...For Ovation Brands choosing to move the POS to the cloud was a matter of "future-proofing." The company already had experience and a comfort level with the cloud through its back-office system and was ready to move its POS above property with very specific goals in mind. "We were looking for something that had high-speed to value, lower cost of ownership and would save us from the traditional IT intensive POS implementation where you have to administer it and have a staff to support it," Benson says. "Having the POS in the cloud helps us modernize the way we conduct business."

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

Arcadia Group has revealed an investment in Oracle Retail systems to ensure it can maintain a consistent customer offering and experience across all of its brands as a key part of its global expansion strategy. The Group will use its new retail applications to support enhanced inventory management in order to deliver the right products to the right market segments, targeted to the needs and tastes of different global consumers.

Arcadia Group has revealed an investment in Oracle Retail systems to ensure it can maintain a consistent customer offering and experience across all of its brands as a key part of its global expansion strategy. The Group will use its new retail applications to support enhanced inventory management in order to deliver the right products to the right market segments, targeted to the needs and tastes of different global consumers.

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."

Arcadia is embarking on a three-year £50m plan to overhaul its buying and merchandising, warehouse management and supply chain systems. The fashion retailer has signed three major contracts with Oracle, Manhattan Associates and Amber Road as it continues to grow its international presence and online offer.

Arcadia is embarking on a three-year £50m plan to overhaul its buying and merchandising, warehouse management and supply chain systems. The fashion retailer has signed three major contracts with Oracle, Manhattan Associates and Amber Road as it continues to grow its international presence and online offer.

Article highlighting how Oracle is positioning itself as a leading cloud service provider to federal government clients tasked with major IT initiatives that include moving to the cloud with tight or declining budgets. The article includes comments from Oracle Public Sector's Peter Doolan's keynote address at a government IT conference, suggesting that service-oriented model Oracle is trying to bring to its database offerings could resonate with federal clients who are being asked to undertake major IT initiatives while seeing their budgets decline. Oracle's holistic cloud offering would eliminate the multiple vendors commonly involved in cloud deployments today, a streamlining that should translate into lower costs for customers, which might particularly resonate with federal CIOs. The article also notes that Oracle announced its cloud advancements at the recent Oracle OpenWorld conference.

Saks is working hard to cater to shoppers who are buying both in the stores and online. During a conference call with investors, Saks CEO Steve Sadove talked about how important it is to merge its physical stores with its online business. The company is investing in an ambitious multi-year project with Oracle called "Project Evolution" that will help create a more seamless operation. By 2013, it expects to fulfill online orders from its Saks Fifth Avenue stores.

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.

The November/December issue of Oracle Magazine included an article about how organizations use Oracle Exadata Database Machine for increased efficiency, private cloud solutions, consolidation, and database as a service (DBaaS). The article highlights the University of Minnesota's DBaaS implementation to create its database hotel, which it developed to provide faster, more flexible, and more efficient service to all university departments. The university has two Oracle Exadata Database Machines and Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC) for high availability. It also uses the Data Guard feature for disaster recovery capabilities. The university can now return registration results within seconds, even during peak registration periods, and through centralized IT, it enables departments to manage their own databases.

Good Morning. Kohl's Corp. views the digital wallet as much more than a payments system. The retailer is betting that its loyalty program, which features a mobile, digital wallet inside the Kohl's app, will provide a key competitive advantage for this holiday season and beyond, and help make up for a bleak third quarter. A pilot program across 300 stores in 2013 and 2014 produced about 10 million enrollees in the loyalty program, CIO Janet Schalk told CIO Journal's Steven Norton. Since launching nationwide in early October, that number has doubled to 20 million. Most technology payments providers solely focus on payments, says Ratnakar Lavu, Kohl's EVP for digital technology. While he doesn't deny the importance of payments, he says "there's really no one who's doing something related to offers or rewards." Kohl's has redesigned its website and mobile apps, implemented Oracle Corp. systems to handle inventory and pricing, and is testing a new point-of-sale system. It also has rolled out "buy online, pick up in store" options at some stores, and is shipping products from about 800 locations. Eventually, Kohl's may look to integrate its loyalty program with its payments systems. The company has built systems that will take different kinds of payments and integrate with other mobile wallets in the marketplace.

In spite of a credit card breach a few months back, execs with Neiman Marcus are pleased at the pace with which the company is growing, especially in the online arena. In a keynote address last week at the two-day Oracle Industry Connect conference in Boston, Karen Katz, president and chief executive officer of Neiman Marcus Group Ltd. LLC, said the $5 billion retailer is in the midst of its largest-ever capital project, overhauling its merchandising system using Oracle. "It is big, scary and risky, and the only path we could have taken," said Katz. In addition, the company is making more tech enhancements to its 41 stores, including working further on its new app, which allows sales associates to chat with customers, send them product collages and make merchandise suggestions.

The March 11 edition of InfotechLead includes the following article on Oracle's announcement of several major investments for its higher education solutions. The article highlights the new Oracle Student Cloud, which will meet the needs of customers who are transforming their institutions to support standard business processes and to free up IT resources for mission-critical activities. Additionally, the article discusses the planned new release of Oracle PeopleSoft Campus Solutions and new functionalities being delivered in Oracle Human Capital Management (HCM) Cloud and Oracle ERP Cloud. The article includes comments from Mark Armstrong, vice president, higher education product development, Oracle, who notes that Oracle is dedicated to providing its customers with flexible technology options, especially through these significant investments.

The March 11 edition of InfotechLead includes the following article on Oracle's announcement of several major investments for its higher education solutions. The article highlights the new Oracle Student Cloud, which will meet the needs of customers who are transforming their institutions to support standard business processes and to free up IT resources for mission-critical activities. Additionally, the article discusses the planned new release of Oracle PeopleSoft Campus Solutions and new functionalities being delivered in Oracle Human Capital Management (HCM) Cloud and Oracle ERP Cloud. The article includes comments from Mark Armstrong, vice president, higher education product development, Oracle, who notes that Oracle is dedicated to providing its customers with flexible technology options, especially through these significant investments.

David Dorf, senior director of technology strategy for Oracle Retail, says the phrase "big data" first began to gain "buzz" status around five years ago. "It has come to represent the exponential growth of data and the complexity of analyzing it," he says. He starts with what has become the generic definition for big data - volume, variety and velocity. "Retailers have always dealt with big data in the sense that they handle thousands of [products], hundreds of stores and a steady stream of transactions," he says. "What's new is the variety of data. Some of it is highly formatted transactional data, but increasingly it's coming from sources such as a Twitter stream where there is natural language that's hard to understand using systems. The other thing that has changed is the velocity. Data is coming at us at a much faster pace."

David Dorf, senior director of technology strategy for Oracle Retail, says the phrase "big data" first began to gain "buzz" status around five years ago. "It has come to represent the exponential growth of data and the complexity of analyzing it," he says. He starts with what has become the generic definition for big data - volume, variety and velocity. "Retailers have always dealt with big data in the sense that they handle thousands of [products], hundreds of stores and a steady stream of transactions," he says. "What's new is the variety of data. Some of it is highly formatted transactional data, but increasingly it's coming from sources such as a Twitter stream where there is natural language that's hard to understand using systems. The other thing that has changed is the velocity. Data is coming at us at a much faster pace."

The November 30 issue of University Business includes the following article highlighting that University of Minnesota selected Oracle Exadata Database Machine to reduce its data center footprint and enhance performance and manageability.  The article notes that by hosting its IT environment on two Oracle Exadata Database Machine half racks, the University of Minnesota consolidated more than 200 Oracle database instances into fewer than 20, enabling it to reduce data center floor space and total cost of ownership.

Kohl's previously announced that it will relaunch Kohls.com on an e-commerce platform from Oracle Corp. this summer. It will also test a mobile payment acceptance technology in stores later this year. In 2012, Kohl's generated $1.43 billion in sales on the web, up 41.6% from $1.01 billion in 2011. It is No. 28 in Internet Retailer's Top 500 Guide. "We have made significant investments in our IT and omnichannel initiatives to ensure we have the platforms, technology and tools to allow customers to shop when they want and from where they want," Mansell says.

Faced with falling demand for its UGG boots Deckers Outdoor Corp. is preparing to more than double its retail operation and shift away from a strategy that had been predominantly focused on wholesale. To prepare for the rapid expansion, Deckers is rolling out a new IT platform that will allow the company to handle more data associated with more retail stores and better manage inventory levels, Yul Vanek, the company's vice president of information technology, told CIO Journal.

"French DIY retailer Leroy Merlin expects its online sales to more than triple in 2014 after investing in a new ecommerce solution. The group has implemented Oracle's Endeca solution, which has resulted in significant improvements to its ecommerce capabilities, according to Jacques Lorne, internet and ecommerce director."

"French DIY retailer Leroy Merlin expects its online sales to more than triple in 2014 after investing in a new ecommerce solution. The group has implemented Oracle's Endeca solution, which has resulted in significant improvements to its ecommerce capabilities, according to Jacques Lorne, internet and ecommerce director."

"We see spending in 2014 at the top of the agenda," said Oracle President Mark Hurd, during a round table discussion. Fifty-eight percent of IT budgets this year will increase, with 3.4 percent of revenue spent on IT, according to Oracle."

"We see spending in 2014 at the top of the agenda," said Oracle President Mark Hurd, during a round table discussion. Fifty-eight percent of IT budgets this year will increase, with 3.4 percent of revenue spent on IT, according to Oracle."

The November 14 edition of IT Wire includes the following release highlighting the University of Melbourne implementing Oracle Platform for its student portal. The article includes comment from Niranjan Prabu, Director, University of Melbourne who notes it was straightforward to add the new portal functionality and the dream of service-oriented architecture (SOA). The new platform reduced the cost of redeveloping the portal by 40 percent.