The University of Pittsburgh has moved its business to Oracle Cloud Applications to improve efficiency and organizational insights.

Every business and every business leader today wants to modernize using technology, all while reducing costs and, above all, eliminating complexity.

From insurance to health care to education to luxury goods, companies across all industries are juggling competing demands from employees, consumers, and partners, and are being challenged to make better decisions across the board, more quickly than ever.

And they’re looking to large business cloud providers like Oracle to not only simplify IT and make it more accessible to stakeholders, but to provide continuous improvements, such as the inclusion of intuitive AI and machine learning tools.

“Technology is an incredible enabler that can help organizations… not just streamline processes, but also improve engagement and transform existing business processes and models,” says Rondy Ng, senior vice president of applications development at Oracle.

Monte Ciotto, associate vice chancellor of financial information systems at the University of Pittsburgh, which recently decided to implement Oracle ERP Cloud, noted the critical importance of technology in the university’s ability to achieve its mission. “To maximize value and impact, our technology must be a coordinated effort across business functions,” he said. “With Oracle ERP Cloud we’ll be able to manage finance, HR and student data on the same platform, creating a single source of truth that improves efficiency and organizational insights.”

These types of organizational insights are in large part driven by analytics, AI, and ML functions of the type being embedded within the larger Oracle ERP Cloud and Oracle HCM Cloud application suites.

Oracle’s strong position is underlined by a statement from IDC cited by Oracle CEO Mark Hurd during the most recent earnings report: “Per IDC's latest annual market share results, Oracle gained the most market share globally out of all enterprise applications SaaS vendors three years running—in calendar year ‘16, ‘17 and ‘18.”*

Hurd noted a number of businesses that have recently chosen Oracle as its cloud provider, including Ferguson, a $21 billion wholesale plumbing equipment distributor, which is using Oracle ERP Cloud, along with EPM and supply chain.

Other recent converts to the Oracle Cloud Applications suite include Argo Insurance, Experian, Helmerich & Payne, Wright Medical, Emerson Electric, Rutgers University, Waste Management, and Tiffany.

If Oracle is succeeding so wildly in the enterprise cloud apps space, it’s only because it’s helping its customers succeed by making it easier for them to find answers and solutions to the mounting challenges that face them day to day.

“Education is evolving and the technology that drives our organization forward needs to reflect modern education best practices,” said Becky King, associate vice president of IT, Baylor University. “Shifting to Oracle Cloud Applications will help us introduce modern best practices that will make our organization more efficient and reach our goal of becoming a top-tier, Christian research institution. Moving core finance, planning and HR systems to one cloud-based platform will also improve business insight and enhance our ability to respond to changing dynamics in education.”

Oracle was recently named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Retail Price Optimization Applications 2019 Vendor Assessment.¹ The list includes price optimization vendors focused on the B2C business model based on their client base, use of advanced analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), and prominence on enterprise retailers’ buying shortlist. Oracle Retail’s placement as a leader underscores its continued investment in analytics, optimization, and data sciences. With these offerings, retailers gain an unprecedented line of sight into the future performance of their assortments and the impact every promotional offer will have on the bottom line.

The IDC MarketScape report notes that “that traditional retail planning, of which life-cycle price optimization is a key part, has run its course. We’ve defined next-generation retail planning as curated merchandise orchestration (CMO). CMO is the central nervous system of enterprise and ecosystem signals that harmonizes its own and adjacent processes from design to deliver. Pricing spans the curating and orchestrating sides of CMO as a flywheel to create sufficient demand and efficient sell-through of inventory.” In the report, IDC recognized Oracle for their deep expertise and technology assets in complementary merchandising and supply chain planning analytics, execution, and operations as well as its omni-channel commerce platform.

Oracle Retail’s price, promotion, and markdown optimization applications leverage Oracle Retail Science Platform Cloud Service which combines AI, machine learning, and decision science with data captured from Oracle Retail SaaS applications as well as third-party data. The unique property of these self-learning applications is that they detect trends, learn from results, and increase their accuracy the more they are used, adding massive amounts of contextual data to get a clearer picture on what motivates outcomes. These pricing applications are complemented by a broad suite of retail planning, optimization, and execution applications—particularly financial planning.

“Retailers have a big opportunity to leverage machine learning and retail science to bring their business to the next level of ‘curated merchandise orchestration,’” said Jeff Warren, vice president, Oracle Retail. “Oracle provides retailers with next-practice price optimization applications based on our Retail Science Platform, empowering them to automate and predict the impact of pricing decisions while simultaneously delivering offers that delight their customers and increase redemption rates.”

Oracle Retail solutions considered in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Price Optimization Applications, 2019 Vendor Assessment, include Oracle Retail Merchandising System Cloud Service, Oracle Retail Customer Engagement Cloud Service, Oracle Retail Planning and Optimization Suite, and the Oracle Retail Science Platform Cloud Service.

Access a complimentary excerpt copy of the report for further details.

1 IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Retail Price Optimization Applications 2019 Vendor Assessment, doc #US45034619,  May 2019

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) and Oracle announced today that Newport Beach Tennis Club and The Tennis Club at Newport Beach Country Club will serve as host sites for the 2019 Oracle ITA National Fall Championships November 6–10. The men’s and women’s finals will be held at Newport Beach Tennis Club.

The event returns to Southern California for the second time in the last three years. Arizona’s Surprise Tennis & Racquet Complex held the tournament in 2018. The JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort and Indian Wells Tennis Garden co-hosted in 2017.

“Oracle’s commitment to college tennis continues to help move our sport to the forefront of intercollegiate athletics,” ITA Chief Executive Officer Dr. Timothy Russell said. “The ITA is proud that our championships are some of the best in college sports. We are very excited to come to Newport Beach, which promises to ensure a fantastic student-athlete experience.”

The Newport Beach Tennis Club features 19 lighted tennis courts and a sunken center court with stadium seating. It has hosted numerous professional events throughout its history, including the Davis Cup and Oracle Challenger Series. The Tennis Club at Newport Beach offers 24 outdoor courts.

“Oracle remains committed to collegiate tennis and ensuring young players get the opportunity to improve their games and compete in great venues,” Oracle CEO Mark Hurd said.  “We’re looking forward to seeing American collegians and juniors play some terrific tennis at this year’s Oracle ITA National Championships.”

The Oracle ITA National Fall Championships features 128 of the nation’s top collegiate singles players (64 men and 64 women) and 64 doubles teams (32 men’s teams and 32 women’s teams). It is the only event on the collegiate tennis calendar that highlights competitors from all five divisions (NCAA Divisions I, II, III, NAIA, and Junior College) playing in the same tournament. Now in its third year, the event replaced the ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships.

The Oracle ITA National Fall Championships joins the Oracle ITA Masters as one of two major collegiate tournaments held in the Southern California area and co-sponsored by Oracle and the ITA. The Oracle Masters returns to Pepperdine University and the Malibu Racquet Club for the fifth consecutive year and is scheduled for Sept. 26–29.

GoCardless, a global direct debit network headquartered in the UK, has selected Oracle NetSuite to support its mission to take the pain out of getting paid for businesses with recurring revenue. With NetSuite, the fintech company, which grew by 60 percent in the last year, has been able to automate financial management and help reduce the complexities of operating across multiple markets, currencies and tax laws as it rapidly expands its international operations.

Founded in 2012, GoCardless has created a global bank debit network to rival credit and debit cards, as well as a platform designed to take invoice, subscription, membership and installment payments. As demand for its services grows, with $10 billion in transactions a year and 40,000 customers around the world, GoCardless needed a single, scalable business platform that could provide the visibility and control required to optimise its financial reporting. After a careful evaluation, GoCardless selected NetSuite to manage and automate core business processes.

“Since implementing NetSuite, we have gone from basic accounting to conducting in-depth financial analysis,” said Catherine Birkett, CFO, GoCardless. “We can now report financial close faster and more accurately, quickly and easily setup new subsidiaries, and efficiently meet our stakeholders’ reporting requirements. This is incredibly valuable as we continue to expand into new markets and the best part about NetSuite is we now have a solution that will scale with our growth path for years to come.”

With NetSuite, GoCardless will be able to increase the agility of its financial operations as it expands globally. By gaining a unified view into the business, GoCardless will be better enabled to address the complexity it faces with entering new international markets and make decisions more confidently and quickly.

“GoCardless has a very advanced business model that is changing the way organisations collect payments,” said Nicky Tozer, VP of EMEA, Oracle NetSuite. “As its network expands to cover North America, Australia and more than 30 European countries, GoCardless needed a single and scalable business platform that could support its future growth and that’s why it selected NetSuite.”

The Oracle Board of Directors today announced that it has unanimously elected Rona A. Fairhead to the company’s Board of Directors. The election is effective as of July 31, 2019 and increases the size of the Board to 15 directors.

“I am very pleased to welcome Mrs. Fairhead to the Board,” said Larry Ellison, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Technology Officer. Bruce Chizen, Chair of the Nomination and Governance Committee, added, “Mrs. Fairhead is an accomplished leader with extensive international experience in finance, risk management, government affairs and global operations.  The Board will benefit from her unique perspective.”

Mrs. Fairhead, 57, most recently served as Minister of State for Trade and Export Promotion, Department for International Trade in the United Kingdom from September 2017 to May 2019. She previously served as Chair of the British Broadcasting Corporation Trust (BBC) from 2014 to 2017. From 2006 to 2013, Mrs. Fairhead served as Chair and Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Times Group Limited, which was a division of Pearson plc, and, prior to that, she served as Pearson’s Chief Financial Officer. Before joining Pearson, Mrs. Fairhead held a variety of leadership positions at Bombardier Inc. and Imperial Chemical Industries plc. Mrs. Fairhead previously served as a director of HSBC Holdings plc and PepsiCo, Inc.

Members of Oracle’s Board of Directors serve one-year terms and stand for election at the company’s next annual meeting of stockholders in November 2019.

Oracle Corporation Japan announced today that TACHI-S Co., Ltd., a leading independent automobile seat supplier, which handles everything from seat design and development to manufacturing, has selected Oracle Human Capital Management (HCM) Cloud to solidify the future of its global HR development. Oracle HCM Cloud will become the company’s global HR management framework, enabling TACHI-S to manage operations for more than 13,000 employees worldwide using one single system.

Established in 1954, TACHI-S has outpaced its rivals with technological advancements to create appealing seats for countless automobile manufacturers. The company has created a unique advantage with its technical and developmental capabilities to handle a wide range of vehicle types—including luxury cars and sports cars, compact cars, and even trucks – on a global scale.

With 66 regional business sites across 14 countries, including the United States, Mexico and China, the team at global headquarters in Japan is currently advancing its "Global Teamwork 2020" management strategy. This strategy is aimed at increasing the business value of TACHI-S through globally-integrated management to ensure that the company continues to be selected based on the trust of its customers. With this goal in mind, TACHI-S established its Global HR Department in April 2019, which has since launched a variety of projects to optimize the deployment of human resources around the globe, including efforts to develop personnel who can succeed internationally and create a worldwide HR management system. This can only be achieved by linking regional workforces and sharing human resources information globally, which is why TACHI-S has chosen Oracle HCM Cloud.

Helping businesses recruit, retain and engage their workforce, Oracle HCM Cloud delivers a complete, global HR solution to streamline processes and optimize performance with workforce analytics. Driven by emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning, the integrated suite enables customers to make faster and smarter business decisions in order to keep up with changing employee expectations and market demands.

When searching for a solution to support the work of its global HR departments, TACHI-S selected Oracle HCM Cloud for its ability to consolidate all HR-related data in a single database and analyze data in a comprehensive and multi-faceted manner.

"Our overseas sales ratio is around 60%, so all our global offices are working together to make innovation and develop seats that are trusted by customers around the world. We are working to create a 'single global team' as part of our 'Global Teamwork 2020' strategy,” said Shinichi Nakahara, Senior Director, Global HR Department, Human Resources Deprt & Corporate Planning Office and Director, Global HR Department, TACHI-S CO LTD. “Oracle HCM Cloud caught our eye not only because it allows us to analyze HR data in sophisticated ways, but also because it's a cloud-based service, which means we can use it around the world. Another factor is that Oracle uses the same service in its own HR data management. This allows us to absorb the knowledge they have gained to help us bring our talent management to the next level."

The rollout began in April 2019, and the system is expected to be fully operational by August 1. TACHI-S then plans to use the system at a more sophisticated level to determine specific ways to leverage HR data in order to achieve more advanced results, visualize personnel data, develop new talent, and optimize employee deployment for the group as a whole.

The Qunie Corporation, a business consulting company with expert knowledge of talent management and a history of supporting business innovations, acted as a consultant in the implementation of this system.

Pepkor Europe, the leading pan-European variety discount retailer, has chosen Oracle Cloud to support the planned future growth of its brands, PEPCO, Poundland and Dealz. Pepkor sells clothing and fast-moving consumer goods such as food, health, beauty products, and general merchandise to families on a budget across Europe.

“The Pepkor Europe brands serve customers in 14 countries through over 2,000 stores, offering a diverse and constantly evolving range of products, delivering great value to our customers, aided by being a high-volume business. We are confident that the centralised and enhanced inventory management capability that Oracle Retail provides, will improve our operational agility and flexibility through better visibility into inventory and margins,” said Andy Bond, chief executive officer, Pepkor Europe. “After a rigorous evaluation, we chose Oracle as our partner for this key element of our infrastructure transformation.”

Pepkor Europe will leverage Oracle Retail Merchandising Cloud Service to unify inventory management and Oracle Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Cloud to automate and streamline the organisation’s end-to-end financial management processes.

“Pepkor Europe needed a technology foundation that would match the requirements of its business and deliver a new level of insight and operational efficiency,” said Mike Webster, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Retail. “From backend financials to managing complex retail operations, only Oracle Cloud can provide the end-to-end solutions Pepkor Europe needs to continue its international expansion while supporting multiple accounting approaches, currencies, languages, and legal entities.”

Legami Milano immerses and delights consumers in a creative workshop offering stationery products, accessories, jewelry, and lifestyle items online, in-store and through wholesale partners. Retailers, from iconic department stores to museums, around the world showcase the positive and inspiring Legami Milano collections. The chain is also expected to open 30 new boutique stores in the next three years. To support this new adventure in Italy and beyond, Legami partnered with Oracle to dazzle their customers with a connected and seamless shopping experience.  

“Legami Milano is committed to offering innovative new concepts, experiences, and products within our boutiques. With young, tech-savvy shoppers, our retail technology needs to support this mindset,” said Alberto Fassi, CEO, Legami. “We chose Oracle Retail to deliver the next-generation shopping experience needed to grow with our business. By adopting a modern Point-of-Service platform, we can speed up the checkout process while better engaging with our customers.” 

In the recent Topography of Retail Report, nearly 6,400 European consumers surveyed prioritized being able to see and touch items (67 percent) as one of the most compelling attributes of a shopping experience. The Legami brand attracts shoppers who like to browse for the perfect gift, discover innovative new items, or explore the world through merchandise.

In just six months, Legami Milano implemented Oracle Retail Xstore Point-of-Service (POS) and Oracle Retail Customer Engagement. Today, Legami Milano boutique employees have powerful tools at their disposal to access relevant customer information in real-time and manage payments safely to improve customer service in stores. The modern POS significantly streamlined operations and reduced errors during transactions.

“In-store experiences are more relevant than ever,” said Mike Webster, senior vice president, and general manager, Oracle Retail. “As Legami Milano expands to new regions, Oracle tools will provide associates the insights needed to deliver a lasting, positive impression on shoppers. It’s exciting to imagine where this dynamic brand will go next on its journey and we look forward to supporting them each step of the way.”

Driven by strong customer demand including more than 5,000 new Autonomous Database trials in Q4FY19 alone, Oracle has expanded its Autonomous Database capabilities to help meet the needs of enterprise customers who want to move their most mission-critical workloads to the cloud. Today, Oracle announced the availability of the Oracle Autonomous Database Dedicated service, which provides customers with the highest levels of security, reliability, and control for any class of database workload.

“Autonomous Database Dedicated enables customers to easily transform from manually-managed independent databases on premises, to a fully-autonomous and isolated private database cloud within the Oracle Public Cloud,” said Juan Loaiza, executive vice president, Mission-Critical Database Technologies, Oracle. “Our Autonomous Database Dedicated service eliminates the concerns enterprise customers previously had about security, isolation, and operational policies when moving to cloud.”

The Oracle Autonomous Database Dedicated service provides customers with a customizable private database cloud running on dedicated Exadata Infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud. It provides an ideal database as a service platform, enabling customers to run databases of any size, scale and criticality. This unique architecture delivers the highest degree of workload isolation, helping protect each database from both external threats and malicious internal users. The level of security and performance isolation can be easily tailored to the needs of each database. The Oracle Autonomous Database Dedicated service also features customizable operational policies, giving customers greater control over database provisioning, software updates, and availability.

The Oracle Autonomous Database Dedicated service is the latest offering within Oracle's Autonomous Database portfolio. Oracle Autonomous Database builds on 40 years of experience supporting the majority of the world’s most demanding applications. The first of its kind, Oracle Autonomous Database uses ground breaking machine learning to provide self-driving, self-repairing, and self-securing capabilities that automate key management and security processes in database systems like patching, tuning and upgrading, all while keeping the critical infrastructure constantly running for a modern cloud experience. Running on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Oracle Autonomous Database delivers significantly lower costs than alternatives. 

“In e-commerce, today’s greatest challenge is meeting customer demands for order fulfillment. Speed is no longer a luxury–it is a requirement,” said Craig Wilensky, CEO, Jasci. “With Oracle Autonomous Database, we have seen our performance increase by as much as 75x. Combine that with the elasticity and security offered by Oracle Cloud, and the possibilities are endless. With this database, Jasci is actively reshaping a new status-quo for our industry.”

Low Code Meets Autonomous

Today, Oracle is also announcing availability of a rich set of built-in Autonomous Database developer capabilities, including Oracle Application Express (APEX), Oracle SQL Developer Web, and Oracle REST Data Services so developers can quickly develop and deploy new data-driven applications.

Oracle’s industry-leading low-code application development platform, Oracle APEX, enables developers to quickly build scalable and secure enterprise apps with world-class features. Oracle APEX can be used to import spreadsheets and develop a single source of truth web application in minutes, create compelling reports and data visualizations, or build mission-critical data management applications. With Oracle APEX preinstalled and preconfigured in Oracle Autonomous Database, developers can start building applications within minutes.

Oracle also announced availability of Oracle SQL Developer Web, a web interface for working with the Oracle Autonomous Database, enabling developers to easily run queries, create tables, and generate schema diagrams. With native Oracle REST Data Services support, developers can now develop and deploy RESTful services for Oracle Autonomous Database, making it easy to develop modern REST interfaces for relational data.

Industry Analysts Validate Market Leadership

Multiple independent industry analyst reports recently recognized Oracle Autonomous Database for its innovative capabilities, such as continuous and autonomous optimization for any workload, including:

• In the June 2019 report: The Forrester Wave Database-As-A-Service, Q2 2019, Oracle was named a leader and ranked highest in data security criterion and the strategy category. The report stated, “With an autonomous cloud database, Oracle not only automates general administration tasks, such as provisioning, backup, availability, and patching; it also automates the tuning of queries, indexing of tables, and upgrades.”  The authors also noted, “Enterprise customers like Oracle’s security, performance, automation, and pricing…”
• Gartner again positioned Oracle highest for ability to execute in its January 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Management Solutions for Analytics.
• In the October 2018 Gartner Critical Capabilities for Operational Database Management Systems, Oracle (Oracle Database) scored highest in four of four use cases.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Today, Oracle unveiled a new, customer-centric vision for Oracle Analytics at the company’s Analytics Summit. With Oracle’s industry-leading data platform and business applications, Oracle Analytics is uniquely positioned to marry data, analytics and applications, and address the needs of business users, analysts and IT. Oracle Analytics empowers customers with industry-leading AI-powered self-service analytic capabilities for data preparation, visualization, enterprise reporting, augmented analysis, and natural language processing (NLP). 

Key Highlights

• One Offering: Oracle Analytics. Simplified product offering and clarity of direction by rationalizing 18+ products down to a single brand.
• Powered by the Autonomous Data Warehouse and Machine Learning: Demonstrating the industry’s leading application analytics built on the Autonomous Data Warehouse and powered by Oracle Analytics Cloud.
• Enabling Broad Enterprise Adoption: Affordable per user pricing for departmental business users plus per-CPU pricing for broad enterprise scale.

“We are committed to helping our customers get the most value from their data and to delivering the best analytics experience,” said T.K. Anand, senior vice president, AI, Data Analytics and Cloud, Oracle. “Today, we are announcing a new vision, product experience, and commitment to customer success that will enable us to collaborate with our entire ecosystem and deliver a new era of enterprise analytics.”

“Our clients are seeking next generation analytical solutions that are built with the enterprise in mind. Today, executives have access to more volumes of data than ever before, but what they really need are industrial strength platforms that can turn all that data into information to drive insights across their organization at different levels,” said Richard Solari, managing director, Deloitte Consulting LLP, and global Oracle analytics and cognitive leader. “Deloitte is committed to creating value for organizations enabled by the Oracle Analytics Cloud. Together, we bridge the gap between data and information and help leaders reach impactful business decisions using Oracle’s next generation analytics platforms and applications.”

Oracle’s analytic capabilities are available in the cloud via Oracle Analytics Cloud, on premises via Oracle Analytics Server, and within applications via Oracle Analytics for Oracle Cloud Applications. These solutions leverage Oracle’s existing analytics capabilities and add new features, including augmented analytics and NLP, which are embedded throughout the platform. In addition, Oracle Analytics now offers an integrated user experience across self-service data discovery and reporting and dashboards, delivering effortless access to insights that can be consumed in the cloud, on the desktop, and mobile.

Oracle Analytics Cloud

Built first for the cloud, Oracle Analytics Cloud is the centerpiece of Oracle Analytics. Oracle Analytics Cloud empowers business users with governed self-service analytic capabilities for data preparation, visualization, augmented analysis, and natural language processing. Oracle Analytics Cloud’s governed self-service experience enables Oracle Analytics users at enterprises around the world to drive faster insights and optimize business results.

“We love analytics, we love BI, and we love the fact that Oracle is putting all of this R&D into the cloud, and we want to benefit from that,” said Bill Roy, senior director, EPM and BI, Western Digital. “We see the cloud as enabling our internal customers to develop their own content and to be self-serving. That’s really where we see the benefit of using Oracle Analytics Cloud.”

“In business today, disruption is constant, causing organizations an array of unprecedented challenges. To succeed and potentially excel in this environment, leaders must exploit data to unlock valuable insights and drive better decisions”, said Todd Randolph, principal, Technology Enablement Practice, KPMG and US Oracle Analytics Leader. “With these new, simplified and powerful Oracle analytics offerings, we believe our clients will continue to adopt our Oracle Analytics Cloud-enabled solutions to support sustainable change through performance insights to create lasting value.”

Oracle Analytics Server

Oracle Analytics Server will comprise all of Oracle’s on-premises BI offerings, delivering competitive value to thousands of existing customers, as well as enabling customers in highly regulated industries or with multi-cloud architectures to experience the latest analytic capabilities on their own terms while ensuring an easy path to the cloud.

“We needed a solution. We went out to the marketplace and the best solution was chosen,” said John Cronin, group CIO, An Post. “Oracle Analytics for An Post has made a huge impact not only for ourselves and our ease of access to information but for our common customers as well. The future is all about analytics, artificial intelligence around analytics, and advanced analytics.”

“Our clients across all industries have realized the importance of data and analytics for decades. What is different now is their expectations on how analytics will be a key enabler to guide their business strategies. With advancements in technical capabilities such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data platforms and visualizations, our clients are demanding more out of their analytics investments,” said Hema Kadali, partner, Data and Analytics Leader, PwC. “Leveraging Oracle Analytics, we are helping our clients execute on industry-specific use cases that allow them to innovate, automate and transform their business operations with actionable insights that drive real business outcomes.”

Oracle Analytics for Oracle Cloud Applications

Oracle Analytics for Oracle Cloud Applications will be built on Oracle Analytics Cloud and powered by Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse, bringing personalized application analytics, benchmarks and machine learning-powered predictive insights to business users, functions and processes.

Oracle has been named a Leader in Gartner’s 2019 "Magic Quadrant for Warehouse Management Systems¹" report for the fourth consecutive year. Oracle Warehouse Management (WMS) Cloud is positioned as a Leader based on its ability to execute and completeness of vision.

Of the 14 products evaluated, Oracle WMS Cloud was recognized as a Leader for its ability to execute and completeness of vision.

According to Gartner, “Leaders combine the uppermost characteristics of vision and thought leadership with a strong consistent Ability to Execute. Leaders in the WMS market are present in a high percentage of new WMS deals, and they win a significant number of them. They have robust core WMSs and offer reasonable — although not necessarily leading-edge — capabilities in extended WMS areas, such as labor management, work planning and optimization, slotting, returns management, yard management and dock scheduling, and value-added services. To be a Leader, a vendor doesn’t necessarily need to have the absolute broadest or deepest WMS application. Its offerings must meet most mainstream warehousing requirements in complex warehouses without significant modifications, and a substantial number of high-quality implementations must be available to validate this. Leaders must anticipate where customer demands, markets and technology are moving, and must have strategies to support these emerging requirements ahead of actual customer demand. Leading vendors should have coherent strategies to support SCE convergence, and must invest in and have processes to exploit innovation. Leaders also have robust market momentum, market penetration and market awareness as well as strong client satisfaction — in the vendor’s local markets as well as internationally. Because Leaders are often well-established in leading-edge and complex user environments, they benefit from a user community that helps them remain in the forefront of emerging needs. Key characteristics: Reasonably broad and deep WMS offerings; Proven success in moderate- to high-complexity warehouse environments; Participation in a high percentage of new deals; Large customer installed base; A strong and consistent track record; Consistent performance, and vigorous new client growth and retention; Enduring visibility in the marketplace from both sales and marketing perspectives; Compelling SCE convergence strategy and capabilities; A proven ecosystem of partners; Global scale.”

“Supply chains have changed dramatically in the last five years as businesses have evolved to meet more demanding customer expectations. We now expect to be able to buy on multiple channels, have our orders delivered faster, and receive or return products from anywhere,” said Diego Pantoja-Navajas, vice president, WMS Cloud Development, Oracle. “The leading warehouse management solution built on a modern cloud architecture, Oracle WMS Cloud enables customers to benefit from new innovations in machine learning, blockchain and IoT to meet and exceed customer expectations. We believe this report is a validation of our product strengths, investment in innovation, and customer successes.”

Oracle’s suite of supply chain cloud applications has garnered industry recognition. Oracle was named a Leader in Gartner’s recent “Magic Quadrant for Supply Chain Planning System of Record²,” and Oracle was recognized in the “Magic Quadrant for Transportation Management Systems.³”

¹Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Warehouse Management Systems, C. Klappich, Simon Tunstall, 8 May 2019
²Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Supply Chain Planning System of Record, Amber Salley, Tim Payne, Alex Pradhan, 21 August 2018
³Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Transportation Management Systems, Bart De Muynck, Brock Johns, Oscar Sanchez Duran, 27 March 2019

Gartner Disclaimer
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Additional Information

For additional information on Oracle Supply Chain Management (SCM) Cloud, visit Facebook, Twitter or the Oracle SCM blog.

Despite clear differences in expectations among shoppers of different generations, almost half of retailers (44 percent) have made no progress in tailoring the in-store shopping experience according to a recent study conducted by Oracle NetSuite, Wakefield Research and The Retail Doctor. The global study of 1,200 consumers and 400 retail executives across the U.S., U.K. and Australia dispelled stereotypes around generations and found big differences in generational expectations across baby boomers, Gen X, millennials and Gen Z.

“We have seen decades of diminishing experiences in brick and mortar stores, and the differences identified in these results point to its impact on consumers over the years,” said Bob Phibbs, CEO, The Retail Doctor. “Retailers have fallen behind in offering in-store experiences that balance personalization and customer service but there’s an opportunity to take the reins back. The expectation from consumers is clear and it’s up to retailers to offer engaging and custom experiences that will cater to shoppers across a diverse group of generations.”

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder: Retailers struggle to keep stride with generational shoppers

The in-store shopping experience remains an important part of the retail environment for all generations, but the progress retailers are making to improve the in-store experience is being viewed differently by different generations.

• Despite the stereotypes of “digital natives”, Gen Z and millennials (43 percent) are most likely to do more in-store shopping this year followed by Gen X (29 percent) and baby boomers (13 percent).
• Gen Z and millennials (57 percent) had the most positive view of the current retail environment feeling it was more inviting, followed by Gen X (40 percent). Baby boomers (27 percent) were more likely to find the current retail environment less inviting than consumers overall.
• Gen Z valued in-store interaction the least with 42 percent feeling more annoyed from increased interaction with retail associates. In contrast, millennials (56 percent), Gen X (44 percent) and baby boomer (43 percent) generations all noted they would feel more welcomed by more in-store interactions.

Retailers view emerging technologies through rose-colored glasses

While more than three quarters of retail executives (79 percent) believe having AI and VR in stores will increase sales, the study found that these technologies are not yet widely accepted by any generation.

• Overall, only 14 percent of consumers believe that emerging technologies like AI and VR will have a significant impact on their purchase decisions.
• Emerging tech in retail stores is most attractive to millennials (50 percent) followed by Gen Z (38 percent), Gen X (35 percent) and baby boomers (20 percent).
• Perceptions of VR varied widely across different generations. Fifty-eight percent of Gen Z said VR would have some influence on their purchase decisions, while 59 percent of baby boomers said VR would have no influence on their purchase decision.

Insta-famous brands reach Gen Z and millennial consumers, but not as much as retailers think

While almost all retail executives (98 percent) think that engaging customers on social media is important to building stronger relationships with them, the study found a big disconnect with consumers across all generations.

• Overall, only 12 percent of consumers think their engagement with brands on social media has a significant impact on the way they think or feel about a brand.
• Among those who engage with brands on social media, Gen Z (38 percent) consumers are much more likely than other generations to engage with retailers on social to get to know the brand compared to millennials (25 percent) and baby boomers (21 percent).
• Gen Z (65 percent) consumers and millennials (63 percent) believe their engagement with brands on social media platforms have an impact on their relationship with brands. 
• More than half of baby boomers (53 percent) and 29 percent of Gen X consumers do not engage with brands on social media.

“After all the talk about brick and mortar stores being dead, it’s interesting to see that ‘digital natives’ are more likely to increase their shopping in physical stores this year than any other generation,” said Greg Zakowicz, senior commerce marketing analyst, Oracle NetSuite. “Stepping back, these findings fit with broader trends we have been seeing around the importance of immediacy and underlines why retailers cannot afford to make assumptions about the needs and expectations of different generations. It really is a complex puzzle and as this study clearly shows, retailers need to think carefully about how they meet the needs of different generations.”

To read more about NetSuite’s insights into the report’s finding visit NetSuite’s cloud blog.

Methodology

For this survey, 1,200 consumers and 400 retail executives were surveyed around the overall retail environment, in-store and online shopping experiences and advanced technologies. Both retailers and consumers were surveyed from three global markets including the U.S., U.K. and Australia with retail executives representing organizations between $10-100 million in annual sales.

Proximus, a leading international communications service provider, has chosen Oracle Communications virtualized Oracle Session Border Controller as a core network component to enable the delivery of its residential and enterprise communications cloud-based solutions for voice. As such, Proximus will be able to deploy its internet communications offerings faster, while decreasing operational expenses and increasing services flexibility.

Oracle’s virtualized SBC platform will be running on Proximus’ telco cloud and used for residential VoIP and SIP trunking for enterprise customers. This will enable them to deliver trusted and first-class, real-time communications services across the Internet. The virtualization of Oracle’s SBC is an important step in Proximus’s overall network strategy to virtualize the majority of its telco and service applications on a multitenant and open telco cloud. In addition, the automated and orchestrated core network will allow for adaptable capacity planning.

“As a digital service provider, we want to deliver the latest technologies to our customers in a way that simplifies and improves their lives and work environments,” said Laurent Claus, director service platforms & cloud, Proximus. “This is why our choice of Oracle was on target. Oracle Communications’ SBC delivers unparalleled operational efficiency and flexibility, which are essential as we continue to scale our offerings and customer base.”

“Given the scale and complexity of Proximus’ network needs, Oracle Communications is a strong fit,” said Greg Collins, founder & principal analyst, Exact Ventures. “As a tier-one communications service provider, Proximus requires the speed, trust and innovation that Oracle can deliver.” 

“Promixus has been a long time customer of Oracle Communications and this deployment is an exciting next step in their digital transformation journey,” said Doug Suriano, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Communications. “Matching Promixus’ ambition to deliver innovative services in an easy-to-consume way, we are confident that Oracle’s virtualized Session Border Controller will provide them the security, comprehensive control and scalability needed to bring their customers into the next generation of communications services.”

Oracle announced the availability of Oracle Financial Services Anti Money Laundering (AML) Express Edition targeted at small- and mid-sized banks. It provides a single, unified platform to efficiently detect, investigate, and report suspected money laundering and terrorist financing activity to comply with evolving regulations and guidelines.

Smaller banks need to address regulations and compliance the same as global top-tier banks but must do so with significantly smaller IT budgets and limited resources. AML Express uses new architecture principles to offer a choice of deployment and includes all the core functionality needed to fight financial crime.

“The largest financial institutions in the world have been using Oracle Anti Money Laundering solutions for decades. Today, the same comprehensive financial crime technology is now accessible for small- and mid-sized financial institutions. Lowering the total cost of ownership without compromising on the core functional capabilities is an engineering breakthrough made possible with the use of modern, cloud-compatible architectures,” said Sonny Singh, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Financial Services.

To address the unique challenges of smaller banks, Oracle Financial Services created this scalable, out-of-the-box AML solution. Key features of AML Express include:

• Architecture designed for rapid deployment on premise or on cloud infrastructures allowing firms to transition to their future states faster and at reduced implementation costs
• In-built library of scenarios that detect the most common money laundering behaviors coupled with in-built case management abilities that reduce the time and resources needed for scenario configuration and case investigation.
• Modern solution design that allows visual scenario configuration, reducing coding overheads, and enabling easy adaption to ever-changing compliance demands

For more information about AML Express, please click here.

Stein Mart, a national specialty off-price retailer, has gained a holistic view of its inventory and a more streamlined approach to merchandise planning with Oracle Cloud.

By consolidating the planning and forecasting process for its physical stores, online store and warehouses into one solution, Stein Mart will be better equipped to manage its inventory to support the needs of its customers, regardless of how they choose to shop. With Oracle Retail Cloud Services, Stein Mart has the tools to keep its merchandise assortments fresh and relevant for buyers.

“We have been focused on simplifying our merchandising processes while expanding our omni-channel capabilities and new business initiatives. The enhanced functionality of Oracle’s Merchandise Financial Planning solution will help us analyze data faster to create better plans up front so we can buy smarter and manage inventory more effectively,” said Nick Swetonic, Stein Mart’s senior vice president of planning and allocation.

“Today, retailers sell whatever they buy, often at the expense of the bottom line. Tomorrow, they will be able to more accurately predict placement, price, and sizes across every store and market. This is the promise of the Oracle Retail Cloud,” noted Mike Webster, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Retail. “We are helping companies like Stein Mart refine their approach to inventory and purchasing, so they can continually delight customers while improving results with merchandise that turns quickly.”

Stein Mart partnered with Cognira, experts in analytics, configuration and integration, and retail consulting firm The Parker Avery Group to re-engineer business processes and implement Oracle Retail Merchandise Financial Planning Cloud Service. Both Cognira and Parker Avery are members of the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN). Previously, Stein Mart also implemented Oracle Retail Merchandising, Oracle Retail Store Inventory Management, Oracle GoldenGate, Oracle JD Edwards, and Oracle Retail Point of Sale.

Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) has been named a Leader in Gartner’s 2019 “Magic Quadrant for Cloud Core Financial Management Suites for Midsize, Large and Global Enterprises” report¹. Oracle ERP Cloud is positioned as a Leader based on its ability to execute and completeness of vision. A complimentary copy of the report is available here.

This is the third consecutive year that Oracle ERP Cloud has been recognized as a Leader in Gartner’s report, and out of 10 products evaluated, Oracle ERP Cloud is positioned highest for ability to execute as well as furthest to the right for completeness of vision.

According to the report, “Leaders demonstrate a market-defining vision of how core financial management systems and processes can be supported and improved by moving them to the cloud. They couple this with a clear ability to execute this vision through products, services and go-to-market strategies. They have a strong presence in the market and are growing their revenue and market share. In this market, Leaders show a consistent ability to secure deals with enterprises of different sizes, and have a good depth of functionality across all areas of core financial management. They have multiple proofs of successful deployments by customers, both in their home region and elsewhere. Their offerings are often used by system integrator partners to support financial transformation initiatives. Leaders typically address a wide market audience by supporting broad market requirements. However, they may fail to meet the specific needs of vertical markets or other, more specialized segments, which might be better addressed by Niche Players in particular.”

“Oracle remains laser-focused on our customer’s success. We are committed to continued significant investments in innovation that can help our 6,000+ ERP Cloud customers drive operational excellence in finance,” said Rondy Ng, Senior Vice President, Applications Development, Oracle. “We are ecstatic to be acknowledged once again as a Leader by Gartner. We believe this report is a validation of our product strengths, investment focus, and customer successes.”

Oracle ERP Cloud includes complete ERP capabilities across Financials, Procurement, and Project Portfolio Management (PPM), as well as Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) and Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC). Together with Supply Chain Management (SCM) and native integration with the broader Oracle Cloud Applications suite, which includes Human Capital Management (HCM) and Customer Experience (CX) SaaS applications, Oracle helps customers to stay ahead of changing expectations, build adaptable organizations, and realize the potential of the latest innovations.

Oracle portfolio of financial management and planning cloud offerings have garnered industry recognition. Oracle ERP Cloud was named the sole Leader in Gartner’s 2018 Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP for Product-Centric Midsize Enterprises.² Oracle was also named the Leader in the Gartner 2018 Magic Quadrant for Cloud Financial Planning and Analysis Solutions³ (with the highest position for its ability to execute) and was named a Leader in the 2018 Magic Quadrant for Cloud Financial Close Solutions.⁴

1Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud Core Financial Management Suites for Midsize, Large and Global Enterprises, John Van Decker, Robert Anderson, Greg Leiter, 13 May 2019
2 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP for Product-Centric Midsize Enterprises, Mike Guay, John Van Decker, Christian Hestermann, Nigel Montgomery, Duy Nguyen, Denis Torii, Paul Saunders, Paul Schenck, Tim Faith, 31 October 2018
3 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud Financial Planning and Analysis Solutions, Christopher Iervolino, John Van Decker, 24 July 2018
4 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud Financial Close Solutions, John Van Decker, Christopher Iervolino, 26 July 2018

Gartner Disclaimer

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Additional Information

For additional information on Oracle ERP Cloud applications, visit Oracle Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Cloud’s Facebook and Twitter or the Modern Finance Leader blog.

Credit: Baylor University

To compete more aggressively at the pinnacle of higher education, Baylor University—the oldest continuously operating university in Texas—has adopted Oracle Cloud Applications. With cloud-based applications for finance, planning and human resources, Baylor will be able to improve productivity and business insights by transforming administrative operations and employee experience and gaining real-time access to data from across its growing operations.

From its beginning as a small Baptist college in 1845, Baylor has grown to serve more than 16,000 students annually and has become a world-class brand in higher education. Oracle Cloud Applications play a supportive role in Baylor’s aspiration to become a preeminent research university as outlined in the institution’s academic strategic plan, Illuminate.

To stay at the forefront of higher education as it continues to evolve, Baylor is replacing its manual systems with an integrated suite of applications that can provide real-time insights into key business processes. To meet these needs and gain a competitive edge over peer-institutions, Baylor selected Oracle Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Cloud, Oracle Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) Cloud, and Oracle Human Capital Management (HCM) Cloud  

“Education is evolving and the technology that drives our organization forward needs to reflect modern education best practices,” said Becky King, associate vice president of IT, Baylor University. “Shifting to Oracle Cloud Applications will help us introduce modern best practices that will make our organization more efficient and reach our goal of becoming a top-tier, Christian research institution. Moving core finance, planning and HR systems to one cloud-based platform will also improve business insight and enhance our ability to respond to changing dynamics in education.”

With Oracle ERP Cloud, Oracle EPM Cloud and Oracle HCM Cloud, Baylor will be able to take advantage of the cloud to break down organizational silos, standardize processes and manage financial, planning and workforce data on a single integrated cloud platform. Oracle Cloud Applications’ common and intuitive interface enables rapid user adoption, delivers enhanced employee experience and improves productivity.

“To compete at the leading edge of higher education, institutions need real-time visibility across the entire organization in order to respond to rapidly changing educational needs and expectations,” said Hari Sankar, Group Vice President, Product Management. “With Oracle Cloud Applications, Baylor will be able to make smarter decisions about the direction of the organization while delivering better experiences to end users, improving its agility and enabling it to better compete in higher education.”

For additional information on Oracle Cloud Applications visit oracle.com/cloud/applications.