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"In recent months a lot of attention has been paid to efforts to understand younger consumers. In particular, mobile phones and social media are playing an increasingly important role in shaping their shopping behaviour - a trend retailers would be wise to follow."

Joining an increasing trend towards in-store mobile POS services that can help retailers improve customer service and increase efficiency, Oracle say they have introduced Oracle Retail Mobile Point-of-Service (POS), a mobile extension to their Oracle Retail Point-of-Service that enables store associates to assist customers and securely complete transactions from anywhere in the store using mobile devices.

"The rules are being rewritten," says Mike Webster, senior vice president and general manager of Oracle Retail. "At the core, it's all about how do retailers provide their customers with a seamless experience regardless of channel?" That's an excellent question-in fact, it's an urgent question for retail execs today.

"The rules are being rewritten," says Mike Webster, senior vice president and general manager of Oracle Retail. "At the core, it's all about how do retailers provide their customers with a seamless experience regardless of channel?" That's an excellent question-in fact, it's an urgent question for retail execs today.

Looking at the many tech trends affecting full-service restaurants, two overarching themes emerge. One is the use of technology, particularly mobile devices, to enhance the guest experience-prior to the meal, at tableside, and beyond. The other big theme is restaurateurs' need for consistency and repeatability throughout the enterprise, in areas encompassing everything from pricing, menus, and reporting to regulatory compliance.

Highlighting that utility executives will gather at the upcoming Oracle OpenWorld San Francisco conference, October 2-6, 2011 at Moscone Center, to share new ways to leverage Oracle applications, technology and systems that help enable smart grid and other priority industry programs. The release notes that as part of a series of more than 40 sessions, demonstrations and networking events focused on utilities trends and solutions and will deliver presentations on how they work with Oracle on technology initiatives that help support strategies for improved efficiency, performance and customer service. The release also includes comments from Rodger Smith, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Utilities noting that Oracle designed the dedicated Utilities track for attendees to gain valuable information on how to respond to a changing business environment, stay ahead of environmental initiatives and offer customers better service.

New mobile commerce study shows trends in how consumers of all ages are using their mobile to browse, shop and buy

The "Oracle/ATG Mobile Trends" survey breaks down mobile purchases by age and concludes that mobile shopping is more prevalent among younger consumers, but growing faster among older age groups.

The July 13 edition of Light Reading Mobile highlights that Turkcell Technology has implemented Oracle Complex Event Processing (CEP). The article notes that Turkcell Technology chose components of Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g, including Oracle Complex Event Processing, to create a solution that can process multiple event streams to detect patterns and trends in real time.

Oracle is making BI more actionable with Retail Merchandising Analytics, a prebuilt, merchandising-specific BI application that offers insight into performance indicators such as item sales, store performance, inventory turn, and sales and profit trends -

The Oct. 19 edition of Pipeline includes the following article highlighting that Oracle announced Telefonica Germany had completed its first phase implementation of Oracle Communications Order and Service Management 7.0. The article notes that as more wireless operators absorb broadband assets in order to stake their claims in the mobile broadband space, more CSPs may trend toward centralized approaches, like this one.

Need more proof that m-commerce is rising like a rocket? During the past year, the percentage of consumers who use their mobile phone to make online purchases has doubled - from 9% in 2010 to 18% in 2011, according to a new survey. This remarkable growth occurred even though more than two-thirds (68%) of respondents are unsure about the security of information stored or transmitted by their mobile phones.

Hosting a cross-industry event like this one isn't easy and Oracle nailed it. A galvanizing topic was the overarching inter-industry trend that no one could have predicted just ten years ago; the "consumerization" of customer-centric industries like telecom, healthcare, and utilities. During a Customer Experience general session panel moderated at the conference by Oracle Retail SVP and GM Mike Webster, I found myself reflecting on the fact that Chris Hall CIO at prepaid mobile leader 2degrees, Penni McLean-Conner, Chief Customer Officer and SVP at Northeast Utilities, Gwen O'Keefe, VP of Analytics and Chief Medical Informatics Officer at Group Health Cooperative were all taking cues from Stage Stores CIO Steven Hunter, subject of our March feature story.

Retailers are also benefiting from more pervasive access to real-time information. Data stored in superfast in-memory computer systems allows store managers to generate reports in real time instead of at the end of a day or week, and new data visualization technologies make that data more comprehensible and actionable. "Now this is on everyone's iPhone or iPad in real time," says Dorf. "The speed at which technology allows us to get access to information is changing things dramatically."