Oracle Media Resource

Today's analytics enable retailers to understand what's happening across channels, from inventory availability to what and how customers are buying

On their recent earnings (second quarter) call with analysts, Coldwater Creek CEO Jill Brown Dean and CFO/COO James Bell talked technology, specifically discussing the results of the company's implementation of the new Oracle-based inventory planning system.

"We evaluated a large number of site search solutions, but kept coming back to Oracle Endeca," said Chris Brown, senior merchandise manager of e-commerce at Tilly's.

By moving its ecommerce operations to Oracle Commerce, online health supplements retailer PureFormulas will take advantage of Oracle's multi-site architecture to support expansion, while significantly enhancing its customer experience and personalization capabilities

Stein Mart has reaped significant holiday-related benefits as a result of its SMART transformation, which placed Oracle at the core of merchandising, returns management and POS systems and also laid the foundation for its new e-commerce offering

CIO Andrew Black stated at Oracle CrossTalk, "We have been making significant strides to improve legacy systems. This has led to better returns management and a reduction in fraud."

For retailers, the answers to many of their most pressing questions lie in Big Data - the volumes of structured and unstructured data generated across the gamut of customer interactions. The good news is that the answers are there.

The release notes that Oracle added new program-based enrollment and assessment features for its PeopleSoft Campus Solutions student information system. The new enrollment feature helps students to chart progress toward their academic goals, enabling institutions to improve student retention and timely degree completion. Additionally, the new assessment feature also gives instructors the flexibility to define and assess any traditional or external learning activities.

The press release notes that Oracle Exadata Database Machine has enabled colleges and universities nationwide to improve application performance, reduce server footprints, and simplify IT maintenance. The University of Arkansas, Northern Illinois University, and Brigham Young University share how the solution supported peak registration periods and ensured student system availability and reliability.

The October 15 edition of Insider Higher Ed includes an article discussing colleges looking to upgrade administrative computer systems in the coming years. The article notes that Kuali, a nonprofit created by a group of colleges, is trying to get a piece of the action noting that its supporters must convince college officials that they are wasting money when buying software from for-profit companies such as Oracle and other competitors. Additionally, the article discusses how the University of Minnesota, which runs on PeopleSoft, is in the midst of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) program upgrade and decided to embark on a re-implementation if its Oracle software.

The October 16 edition of Campus Technology included an article highlighting Ellucian's updates to its mobile campus application development platform. The article notes that Ellucian enhanced support for its Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle databases.

The October 16 edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education includes an article highlighting several announcements made at EDUCAUSE. Of note, the article mentions Oracle's new assessment and enrollment features in its PeopleSoft product that help colleges manage enrollment and academic programs more effectively. Additionally, the article includes quotes from the press release nothing that the new features would be added through PeopleSoft's continuous-delivery model intended to help colleges avoid disruptive major upgrades.

The October 17 edition of ExecutiveBiz included an article highlights Oracle's updates to its PeopleSoft Campus Solutions suite, helping students plan their coursework and keep track of their academic goals and activities. Of note, the article includes comment from Mark Armstrong, vice president for higher education development, Oracle, who notes that the new features are based on the framework of a product that has been implemented in higher learning institutions for more than 10 years. Additionally, Mark added that Oracle aims to give institutions flexibility to support any institutional program required.