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Merron's experience is not unusual, says Dr. Peter Agel, Global Segment Leader -Hotels for Oracle Hospitality. But Agel believes that the future is brighter. One of Oracle's main goals, he says is "to reduce complexity and cost by providing cloud based services." Such services, coupled with increasing consolidation in the hotel technology industry, leads Agel to believe that in the future hotel technology will be far more standardized. Agel knows something about consolidation first hand. In September, 2014, Oracle acquired MICROS, one of the leading providers of POS systems used by over half a million hotels, restaurants and other operations. Taking one of the biggest POS providers and marrying it to one of the world's leaders in business software has the potential to create products that will ease the minds of many a tortured CFO.

The first day of the World Retail Congress, held in the rather splendid environs of Berlin's InterContinental Hotel, was largely taken up with two major themes - online consumer behaviour and the uncertain economic climate in Europe and beyond.