Oracle Media Resource

... As the world of retailing becomes more complex, simplified integration, improved agility and faster innovation become ever more valuable qualities. Cloud solutions' ability to remove complexity from IT - and from retail business operations in general - are key parts of that value equation and ease implementation timelines as retailers scramble to drive maximum performance during the upcoming holiday season.

The Sept. 3 edition of Enterprise Times includes the following article about Oracle's new data center in Canada. The article quotes Mario Meroni, area vice president, Oracle Canada Public Sector, who discusses the value of the Oracle Cloud offerings supported by the Canadian data center for customers.

The Sept. 3 edition of Enterprise Times includes the following article about Oracle's new data center in Canada. The article quotes Mario Meroni, area vice president, Oracle Canada Public Sector, who discusses the value of the Oracle Cloud offerings supported by the Canadian data center for customers.

The Sept. 2 edition of Channelnomics includes the following article highlighting that the U.S. Department of Defense granted Oracle an Authority to Operate with its selection of Oracle Service Cloud. The article quotes David Vap, group vice president of Oracle Service Cloud, who discusses how the Oracle Service Cloud will provide government agencies with improved efficiency and security.

The Sept. 2 edition of Channelnomics includes the following article highlighting that the U.S. Department of Defense granted Oracle an Authority to Operate with its selection of Oracle Service Cloud. The article quotes David Vap, group vice president of Oracle Service Cloud, who discusses how the Oracle Service Cloud will provide government agencies with improved efficiency and security.

The August 27 edition of TechDecisions: Higher Ed includes the following article highlighting Central Washington University's (CWU) upgrade to Oracle PeopleSoft Human Capital Management 9.2 and PeopleSoft Financials 9.2. The article quotes Cole Clark, global vice president, education & research, Oracle, who discusses how the Oracle PeopleSoft solutions allow users to access applications on any device. The article also quotes Jill Hernandez, director of enterprise applications at CWU, who discusses how the upgrade improved the university's HR and finance operations.

The August 27 edition of TechDecisions: Higher Ed includes the following article highlighting Central Washington University's (CWU) upgrade to Oracle PeopleSoft Human Capital Management 9.2 and PeopleSoft Financials 9.2. The article quotes Cole Clark, global vice president, education & research, Oracle, who discusses how the Oracle PeopleSoft solutions allow users to access applications on any device. The article also quotes Jill Hernandez, director of enterprise applications at CWU, who discusses how the upgrade improved the university's HR and finance operations.

The August 26 edition of eCampus News includes the following article highlighting the challenges that higher education institutions face when migrating to the cloud. The article quotes, Mark Armstrong, vice president for higher education product development, Oracle, who discusses his experience working with higher education clients to migrate their Oracle ERPs to the cloud. Armstrong notes the significance of change management and standardization in the migration process.

The August 26 edition of eCampus News includes the following article highlighting the challenges that higher education institutions face when migrating to the cloud. The article quotes, Mark Armstrong, vice president for higher education product development, Oracle, who discusses his experience working with higher education clients to migrate their Oracle ERPs to the cloud. Armstrong notes the significance of change management and standardization in the migration process.

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.

Adidas turns to a new Oracle data collection system to pinpoint problems and reduce shrinkage. ...In the end, Oracle Micros provided the best overall solution. "They had the highest degree of knowledge, they were very experienced and we were already using their Store 21 as our POS system," he says. "They were a really good fit." Not only that, but Micros managed to find a live internal theft case buried in the test data it had been given. "They were the only vendor that identified this," he says. "Before we even actually implemented the system, we had investigated a case and taken out an employee who had committed [$220,000] worth of fraud against us in the preceding 12 months. It was quite impressive."

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.

Since replacing its home-grown e-commerce software in 2011 with Oracle Corp.'s Oracle Commerce software, National Pen has grown e-commerce sales by about 20% per year, CEO Dave Thompson says. As a result, e-commerce now accounts for 20% of total revenue, or $54 million out of $270 million this year, he notes.

The August 11 edition of EdTech Digest includes the following guest column by Cole Clark, global vice president of education and research, Oracle. Clark notes the three key areas that are necessary in transforming higher education IT: delivering education and research at scale, differentiating between institutions, and reducing friction in the student experience.

The August 11 edition of EdTech Digest includes the following guest column by Cole Clark, global vice president of education and research, Oracle. Clark notes the three key areas that are necessary in transforming higher education IT: delivering education and research at scale, differentiating between institutions, and reducing friction in the student experience.

Following the implementation of a new e-Commerce solution from Oracle, National Pen has seen its loyalty and retention rates rise significantly; and e-Commerce average order size is now 20% larger than the company's traditional direct mail orders. National Pen, a 60-year-old company, supplies personalized, branded products to more than 1.2 million customers in 27 countries.

Still time to update e-commerce systems before the holidays - The advent of cloud-based solutions make it possible to overhaul an e-commerce platform in as few as 10 weeks.

Returns are a fact of retailing and merchants have to be ready to deal with them. For instance, Stage's Oracle Corp. merchandising system allows the retailer to route online returns to either a distribution center if an item is still in season and salable or, if it isn't, to one of four clearance centers the chain maintains. During the holiday season, Hunter sets up special arrangements with makers of traditional holiday gifts, such as heated ice scrapers and other small items that might be featured in a Black Friday display, to have those products returned directly to the manufacturers or to have them shipped back in bulk from the stores' returned goods center in Jacksonville, Texas. Some vendors also agree to take back unsold products.

Neiman Marcus generates more than a quarter of revenue online so far this year - In its IPO filing, the luxury retailer says it plans to invest more in mobile. "We are able to associate substantially all browsing behavior on our digital platforms with unique individuals," the company states in the filing. "By aggregating this data and employing advanced analytics, we are able to generate a single view of these customers' engagement with our brands. We utilize this data to enhance the interactions with our customers when they are in our stores and personalize the presentation of merchandise to our customers when they shop online." Neiman Marcus uses Bloomreach, Oracle, Rapleaf, RichRelevance, WibiData and in-house services for personalization, according to Top500Guide.com.

The Global Hotel Alliance (www.gha.com) runs a customer loyalty program known as Discover on behalf of its brands, providing a technological systems platform for members to use. "We provide knowledge and insights to help our member brands run a loyalty program," Folker Heim, director of loyalty marketing, says... The backbone of the program is the OPERA customer informa­tion system (OCIS) which is connected to the OPERA PMS (www.oracle.com/hospitality). "We exchange data on loyalty program members, profile, preferences, card members, join dates, amount of rewards, rewards redeemed and so on," Heim explains.

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.