Future State - The Oracle Consulting Blog

Learn how Oracle is helping financial institutions pave the way for success with an Open Banking solution

Learn how Oracle is helping financial institutions pave the way for success with an Open Banking solution

Meet the digital assistant providing fast, modern and convenient customer service without compromising customer satisfaction

Meet the digital assistant providing fast, modern and convenient customer service without compromising customer satisfaction

Oracle Eleven Tip 3, a series of Cloud Tips and Insights from Nordic Field Experts to make You More Cloud Confident.

Oracle Eleven Tip 3, a series of Cloud Tips and Insights from Nordic Field Experts to make You More Cloud Confident.

Oracle Eleven Tip 2, a series of Cloud Tips and Insights from Nordic Field Experts to make You More Cloud Confident.

Oracle Eleven Tip 2, a series of Cloud Tips and Insights from Nordic Field Experts to make You More Cloud Confident.

Struggling to understand your business' compliance position within the GDPR guidelines? We have a solution to help.

Struggling to understand your business' compliance position within the GDPR guidelines? We have a solution to help.

Oracle Eleven Tip 1, a series of Cloud Tips and Insights from 11 Nordic Field Experts to Make You Cloud Confident.

Oracle Eleven Tip 1, a series of Cloud Tips and Insights from 11 Nordic Field Experts to Make You Cloud Confident.

Life in many organisations I suppose - is hectic, and you seldom get the chance to stop and reflect. Therefore, when you actually do reflect, the value that comes out of the process is so much higher.

Life in many organisations I suppose - is hectic, and you seldom get the chance to stop and reflect. Therefore, when you actually do reflect, the value that comes out of the process is so much higher.

The Digital Experience team has created a modern portal solution that could save employees up to an hour and a half a week

The Digital Experience team has created a modern portal solution that could save employees up to an hour and a half a week

With fierce competition for revenue, changes to pension costs and investment in transformation programmes, there is an urgent need for Higher Education institutions to proactively control operational costs. We propose that cloud technologies for students, academic and professional services staff can be utilised to control spend, manage funding, partner for shared services, and drive benefits through data management.

With fierce competition for revenue, changes to pension costs and investment in transformation programmes, there is an urgent need for Higher Education institutions to proactively control operational...

How a solution the Digital Experience team has created could change the way we vote forever

How a solution the Digital Experience team has created could change the way we vote forever

In an era where technology is ever-present in our daily routine, security and privacy are issues of serious concern. Marcel Rizcallah, Security Domain Leader for EMEA region at Oracle, shared his thoughts on security, privacy and Oracle’s first autonomous database at the 12th Telecom Review Leaders’ Summit in Lebanon.

In an era where technology is ever-present in our daily routine, security and privacy are issues of serious concern. Marcel Rizcallah, Security Domain Leader for EMEA region at Oracle, shared his...

“We wanted ONE partner to provide the whole range of cloud services including infrastructure, platform, applications and professional services. We wanted simple and less complex…that's why we selected Oracle.” – Gilbert Torrance, IT Director, LifeScan, Inc. LifeScan, Inc., a diagnostic systems manufacturer with a blood glucose monitoring brand called OneTouch®, needed to move to cloud in a six-month timeframe in order to enable a divestiture from Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Company. This meant that all of their on-premises applications within J&J data centers needed to be externally hosted in the cloud in order for the divestiture to be successful. LifeScan turned to Oracle because they wanted one partner that could provide the entire lifecycle of cloud services including infrastructure, platform, applications and professional services. Oracle Consulting was selected as the implementation partner due to expert content knowledge on Oracle Cloud products, which provided confidence to LifeScan that the move to cloud would happen within the aggressive timeframe. Oracle Consulting was selected for two critical projects: Migration of JD Edwards ERP to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) by Oracle Consulting Technology Implementation Oracle Procurement Cloud and Financials Cloud by Oracle Consulting Applications “Oracle Consulting helped move the entire back office to the cloud freeing LifeScan to innovate as a standalone company.”  – Gilbert Torrance, IT Director, LifeScan, Inc. The Oracle Cloud platform with JD Edwards and Procurement Cloud will empower LifeScan to transform their business by freeing valuable resources to focus on the creation of innovative products and services that help save lives. To learn more about how Oracle Consulting can help you move to the cloud, please visit www.oracle.com/consulting.  Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Contact us at ask-oracleconsulting_us@oracle.com.

“We wanted ONEpartner to provide the whole range of cloud services including infrastructure, platform, applications and professional services. We wanted simple and less complex…that's why we...

This post was written by Mike Owens, Vice President, Cloud Advisory Practice, and Mary Melgaard, Group Vice President, Cloud Migration Services. Do you ever feel like you've been left behind in the on-premises world while everyone else has moved to the cloud? You want to move your applications to the cloud, but which of the many paths is the right one for you?   Moving Oracle Applications such as E-Business Suite, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, Siebel, and Hyperion to the cloud can introduce a complex landscape of alternatives and choices. It's important to select a partner who has the vision, experience, tools, and commitment to help you create your cloud adoption and migration strategy, and guide your migration to its successful conclusion. Join Oracle Consulting for our May 7 webinar on cloud application migration, in which we explain our cloud adoption and strategy methodology: Vision, Frame, and Mobilize.  Vision Establish your vision: Gather and organize key data about applications, infrastructure, and IT costs. Establish your project and transformation governance plan, and conduct a visioning workshop to ensure alignment with stakeholders. What are your business and technology objectives for your Oracle Cloud migration? What are the underlying drivers for your success? Organize for transformation: Compile and analyze an application inventory subset, build the business case, and identify prototype applications to migrate. What are the common characteristics or unique business requirements for your application portfolio? Frame Frame your path forward: Based on the application subset that you identified, determine the appropriate cloud deployment model for your applications, addressing regulatory, legal, and privacy considerations. Given your requirements, will you need multiple cloud vendors, or can one provider fulfill most of your business and workload objectives? Mobilize Map your journey: Determine the activities and actions needed to drive the migration, validate the business case, and reconcile any conflicts. Is this a "move and improve" initiative that will create a new way of working by changing the look and feel of your applications? Or, is this a technical move that lifts workloads "as-is" from on-premises to the cloud with limited impact on the business users? Mobilize for the future: Orchestrate the final application modernization, migration, and transformation analysis. Sequence the initiatives, and incorporate in-flight and planned projects. Develop your cloud transformation roadmap. What internal and external resource commitments are required to successfully migrate, and how will you manage the organizational change? Does the subscription include services that reduce your internal staffing requirements, and how will you communicate and adapt to these changes? Soar After your strategy is in place, flawless execution is critical. A strategic approach coupled with a partner that automates cloud migration can help to simplify the process of moving your applications to cloud. Leveraging the Oracle Soar methodology, you can move Oracle and non-Oracle applications to the cloud rapidly and efficiently with near-zero downtime. Join Us Are you ready to choose a path for cloud application migration that is right for you? Are you ready to soar? Join our webinar on May 7 at 9 a.m. PT to: Identify best practices for your cloud migration strategy Understand the paths for moving applications to the cloud Learn from real-life customer examples for moving E-Business Suite, JD Edwards, and third-party applications to Oracle Cloud Understand how to leverage Oracle Soar to rapidly and efficiently move your applications to Oracle Cloud with near-zero downtime. Check out Oracle Infrastructure Blogs. To learn more about how Oracle Consulting can help you move to the cloud, please visit www.oracle.com/consulting/technology.  Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Contact us at ask-oracleconsulting_us@oracle.com.

This post was written by Mike Owens, Vice President, Cloud Advisory Practice, and Mary Melgaard, Group Vice President, Cloud Migration Services. Do you ever feel like you've been left behind in the...

Digital Experience collaborates with a public-sector company to tackle digital transformation challenges

Digital Experience collaborates with a public-sector company to tackle digital transformation challenges

Find out how Digital Experience is helping car dealerships increase customer engagement and accelerate sales

Find out how Digital Experience is helping car dealerships increase customer engagement and accelerate sales

Employee Wellbeing makes absolute business sense, and employers are increasingly taking a more holistic approach. This article describes how Oracle and its customers are approaching mental, physical and financial wellness in the workplace. Researched and written by Oracle Consulting’s Business Transformation team, we consider some of the challenges that our customers experience in today’s workplace. We also offer suggestions in support of effective organisational wellbeing strategies.

Employee Wellbeing makes absolute business sense, and employers are increasingly taking a more holistic approach. This article describes how Oracle and its customers are approaching mental, physical...

Read how Digital Experience have helped an Andorran local council provide its citizens and tourists with information 24/7

Read how Digital Experience have helped an Andorran local council provide its citizens and tourists with information 24/7

Oracle participates for the first time in Cambridge Global Consulting Project, as Insight and Customer Strategy team leads four-week programme for MBA student interns.

Oracle participates for the first time in Cambridge Global Consulting Project, as Insight and Customer Strategy team leads four-week programme for MBA student interns.

The Experience Design team build on the powerful Oracle capability to give customers what they need

The Experience Design team build on the powerful Oracle capability to give customers what they need

Find your superpowers with Innovation-in-a-Box: the versatile toolkit from Oracle Consulting's Digital Experience team.

Find your superpowers with Innovation-in-a-Box: the versatile toolkit from Oracle Consulting's Digital Experience team.

Here’s a video showing how Oracle helped one of the largest social support funds quickly implement government changes, while continuing to meet the needs of millions of citizens every day.

Here’s a video showing how Oracle helped one of the largest social support funds quickly implement government changes, while continuing to meet the needs of millions of citizens every day.

Do you really know your customers? Read Stephen Hanvey´s article about audience segmentation.

Do you really know your customers? Read Stephen Hanvey´s article about audience segmentation.

None of us emerged from childhood without being told “you need to listen!” It’s one of the earliest messages that we receive in life—and it’s culturally universal. Listen to your parents. Listen to your teachers. Listen to your elders. Undoubtedly, some of us as children were better at it than others. If your parents still use family gatherings as a forum to gleefully recount your youthful disregard of their instructions, you’re not alone. But how good of a listener are you now? In the consulting business, there is no greater skill to possess. Winning our clients’ trust—and their business—requires us to not just hear what they say, but to demonstrate that we understand what they need. One of our Oracle Applications Consulting client partners, Josh Burch, consistently embodies the critical importance of active listening. We asked Josh to share his best practices for quickly earning the confidence of clients and colleagues through skillful listening and insightful responses. Q: What advice would you give to someone who asked you how to engage in an active listening process that earns the trust and confidence of clients and colleagues? A. First, make sure that you’re responding in the affirmative when someone is talking to you. Whether that’s a nod of the head, or verbally saying “I understand,” you’re relaying to them that you affirmatively hear them, and it instills confidence. I also happen to be a massive note-taker. Maybe that’s because I have a really bad memory, so I need to do it. But I just write notes. I jot them down. I make sure I revisit them. I type them back up. I archive them. I revisit them before the next meeting so that there’s continuity. You don't ever want a client to feel like they’re telling you something for the second time. You may think it’s a subtle thing, but it’s not lost on clients. It’s one of the biggest obstacles to success you can have. If a client has to repeat something, especially a central request, then you’re putting yourself at a clear disadvantage because you’re indicating that you’re just not getting it. A third critical component is not being afraid to literally say, “Let me make sure I heard you correctly. This is what you’re telling me.” Use those words and read your notes back to your client. If you got something wrong, edit your notes on the spot. If you got it right, then it’s written in stone, and it’ll hopefully live the life cycle of the project. Even if you repeat it back to them word by word, you’re indicating that you’re thinking about exactly what they told you. This sets you up to move into the advisory role. You may respond, “Okay. I fully agree with you. This is how we can move forward.” But it may be an opportunity to say, “Okay. I did hear you correctly. Have you thought about this instead?” If I hear something that I strongly feel is not in the client’s best interest, it’s appropriate—and necessary—to gracefully and elegantly present another solution or alternative. I’ve framed this in the context of client interactions, but all of these practices—affirmative responses, thorough note-taking, confirming what you’ve heard, and speaking up to suggest alternative solutions—apply to every business meeting. It’s important to be as buttoned-up in internal meetings as it is with clients, and I think we can overlook that too often. Q. Are you a student of body language in a face-to-face meeting? What steps do you take to “read the room”? A. I’m huge into that kind of observation, maybe to an extreme degree. My wife always laughs because I ask her after we go somewhere, “Did you see this? Did you see this person do that?” And she's like, “What are you talking about?”  When it comes to reading the room, the first step is understanding who the key stakeholders and decision-makers are. I generally take my cues from their demeanor. If they’re relaxed, and laid back, and start off with a joke or something lighthearted, it gives insight into what your approach should be. Some of the other people in the room may be more technical and regimented in what they want to talk about, and they want things well defined. That’s going to result in a much more formal and straightforward conversation.  You need to address them accordingly. Body language is a big part of that. You can pick up on cues by just looking across the table. How are they sitting? How are they responding? In short, be observant of the people who are running the meeting and mirror their tone and demeanor as much as possible. Q: Do you have any tips for reading a room when there isn't a room? What cues can you pick up on over the phone or in emails? A. With regards to email, people have different preferences that you can pick up on. Personally, I like bullets, and succinct, to-the-point, informational pieces as opposed to paragraph form. I think you can often interpret those preferences in an email thread—who needs things spelled out for them and who just wants bullet points—and provide it accordingly. Oftentimes, a client does need a longer narrative that’s explanatory of the work that we’re doing. In those cases, my advice is that’s it’s always better to give them more than you think they need. They can decide what pieces to edit, or how to escalate it. You don't want to make the client come back to you two or three times to get information. Trying to judge a room over the phone is by far, in my mind, the most difficult. You can’t see facial expressions, you can’t see body language, you can’t see how attentive they are. They may be multitasking. They may be at a coffee shop. You have no idea. That said, you can generally get an idea of who you need to address—and how—based on who is asking questions or speaking on a call. A client may have eight people on a call. It quickly becomes evident who the main players are or who your counterpart is. They don’t have to be a senior stakeholder. It may be the person who’s running quarterback for the client who’s asking for all the information. After a big conference call, my advice is to schedule a quick one-on-one call with your key point-person on the client side to review your notes and action items. It may sound inefficient to have a second call to go over something you just talked about. But I truly believe in the long run, it saves you time. If something was lost in translation on a conference call, a 10-minute review phone call will prevent significant problems days or weeks down the road.  How do you practice active listening at work? Give us your best advice in the comments section!

None of us emerged from childhood without being told “you need to listen!” It’s one of the earliest messages that we receive in life—and it’s culturally universal. Listen to your parents. Listen to...

Meet the digital assistant from digital experience that is revolutionising cloud adoption.

Meet the digital assistant from digital experience that is revolutionising cloud adoption.

Discover how Technology Consulting collaborates with Birmingham City University in innovation partnership

Discover how Technology Consulting collaborates with Birmingham City University in innovation partnership

Author: Nick Fleetwood, Director of Strategy and Analysis, Oracle Marketing Cloud EMEA Do you know the median tenure for a CMO is less than 3 years? In the last five years there has been a shift towards the CMO owning the revenue and growth metrics for the business that are driven by acquisition, customer value and retention marketing activities. CMOs are being asked to be the ‘Silver Bullet’ for CEOs as they seek to rapidly change or maintain business performance. Given the pressure and the reality of the length of the tenure, the challenge is always there to find the solution to rapidly increasing the return on investment from marketing spend: to find the unique combination of the right resources, strategy and technology that can rapidly adapt to the market conditions to get your products into the hands of the right people at the most efficient cost that can drive growth and average customer value. As Director of Strategy and Analytics for Oracle Marketing Cloud, my role and the role of my team has been to aid the acceleration of our client’s maturity in terms of their approaches to utilising marketing technology to achieve the strongest impact on their KPIs. In the last 3 years our engagements have been driven by one aspect more than any other: Customer Experience. What has become clear to me, is that marketing is now an output of effective Customer Experience. In fact you could say it is the science behind Customer Experience, as CX becomes focused on rapidly executing campaigns and strategies against measurable KPIs and then realising the value of those experiments across the marketing ecosystem as efficiently as possible. Framing the science Based on that concept we have been developing a new framework that has been focused on accelerating Customer Experience by focusing on the 3 fundamental factors that are driving modern CX: Technology: The age of point solutions operating individually in silos is now behind us. The focus is on an integrated suite of technologies that are driving a new set of marketing disciplines that are entirely focused on achieving seamless Customer Experience. Technology, however, is also moving faster than ever before so choosing the right technologies and adapting to market innovations will be the differential in winning the customer. Data: We are all coming to terms with the fact that data will be a central pillar of any marketing conversation for the rest of our lives. One challenge is defining what elements of the data strategy should be the responsibility of the CMO and which fall to the CTO or CDO? Taking the science analogy, data is a variable which needs to be controlled to be valuable to the CMO. In this instance we should use data to analyse performance, model future behavior and drive insight into our customers. The key is asking the right questions to ensure data provides the right opportunities for us in Marketing. Customer: It goes without saying that the Customer is central to Customer Experience. The need to have clarity on our target personas at an individual level, through a combination of persona driven marketing and behavioral real-time responsive cross-channel campaigns, are the key driving forces for many marketing teams at the current moment.   The Accelerator Model In order to display this, we think of Customer Experience as a DNA Helix with three elements – Technology, Data and Customer. This model is designed to not only show how each integral element of the Strategic Accelerator model aligns, but also to show how they flow together. Any of the individual elements can be treated in isolation to provide maturity in a specific area – for example a CMO who wishes to focus on the value of Data Modelling – but there will be a natural next step in the cycle for the CMO to take should they wish to continue. Let’s go through an illustration of the Accelerator model from end-to-end:   Technology is the starting point as so often a period of acceleration is driven by one of two events, a new technology providing new opportunities to the marketing team or the evaluation of an existing, possibly under-performing technology that is part of your mar-tech stack. Our advice is to take a Best Practice approach to evaluating how you are using your technology both in isolation and as a functioning whole within your ecosystem. This will drive new engagement activities at a strategic and campaign level for your marketing team. A new technology will then create an effect of re-evaluating your Marketing Disciplines. How does the new technology impact your website optimisation, your marketing automation programs or your digital advertising? As a result the opportunity comes to benchmark yourself against in each discipline in the context of your new technology to shape your approach to elevating your maturity in this area. Any new technology requires evaluation in the context of the Industry Trends and Innovations which are impacting your business. How are challengers in your market adopting new technologies to shape their go to market and reach your customer base more effectively? Is that an opportunity which is both relevant and cost effective for your business to pursue? This new technology now needs to be allied to your Business Objectives and KPIs to align how it impacts measurable performance at every level of your business. This will entail understanding the interplay between campaign level metrics (open rate, CTR, conversion rate), marketing level metrics (new customers, average customer value) and business metrics (revenue, growth etc). Analysis of your marketing data at a campaign, channel and holistic marketing level becomes the key measure for understanding the value of marketing technology, disciplines and marketing performance. This analysis should allow constant re-evaluation of spend and investment as well as putting Return on Investment on strategic initiatives. What opportunities does our data present in terms of Modelling to provide clear answers on customer’s behaviour and preferences. Can we use our data to segment our customer base into self-ordering groups or propensity to purchase or next best action? This is the clearest way for us to bridge the gap from Data to Customers. Using Data we can gain a clear view on who our Customer are in terms of data points and logical groupings, but until we start to build their Personas we are unable to use them to innovate around customer experience. Knowing our customer persona’s motivations, needs and influences allows us to build Customer Journey Mapping that not only recognises the reality of our current interactions with our customers, but also create innovative CX around moments that matter and understand the impact that innovation will have on KPIs and strategic initiatives. Finally the Customer Journey requires a consistent Digital Experience which examines how effectively your creative approach both delivers your brand identity and drives customers to complete your desired action in the acquisition or retention funnels. Which leads us back to Technology as you use the Customer Journey to understand which gaps now exist in your marketing architecture that are required to be filled in order to achieve the Customer Journey you have mapped out. In this way your customers inform your technology choices. This model is designed to be a virtuous circle with technology creating data modelling that drives new customer experience that creates need for enhanced technology. Those companies that embrace the acceleration model will be able to not only adopt new technologies faster and innovate new customer experiences more effectively, but they will also be able to measure the impact on those technologies and shape their approach through a robust KPI driven series of initiatives. Read more on Oracle Marketing here  Also, don't forget to read the blog post on What if e-mail died? You can contact us directly: Email or DM us on Twitter: @OracleConsult

Author: Nick Fleetwood, Director of Strategy and Analysis, Oracle Marketing Cloud EMEA Do you know the median tenure for a CMO is less than 3 years? In the last five years there has been a shift...

Accelerating Sales Engagement: how Prosegur have optimised their sales process with Digital Experience.

Accelerating Sales Engagement: how Prosegur have optimised their sales process with Digital Experience.

Athens International Airport chose Oracle Consulting to replace heart-of-business infrastructure with a futureproof solution, Oracle Database Exadata Cloud at Customer, and design new services and concepts to enrich the experience of the passengers.

Athens International Airport chose Oracle Consulting to replace heart-of-business infrastructure with a futureproof solution, Oracle Database Exadata Cloud at Customer, and design new services and...

A unique approach to conversational interface design from Oracle Consulting: how to make the most of digital assistants.

A unique approach to conversational interface design from Oracle Consulting: how to make the most of digital assistants.

Digital Experience from Oracle Consulting are using drones and artificial intelligence to help businesses overcome challenges in the renewable energy sector.

Digital Experience from Oracle Consulting are using drones and artificial intelligence to help businesses overcome challenges in the renewable energy sector.

Introducing Digital Experience from Oracle consulting: a team that provides solutions for business to overcome challenges by using cutting-edge technology, innovative solutions and leveraging Oracle Cloud.

Introducing Digital Experience from Oracle consulting: a team that provides solutions for business to overcome challenges by using cutting-edge technology, innovative solutions and leveraging...

Message from Kyriakos Rigas, Senior Director Oracle Consulting Middle East & Africa Join Oracle Consulting at Oracle OpenWorld Middle East 11-12 February 2019 Dubai!

Message from Kyriakos Rigas, Senior Director Oracle Consulting Middle East & Africa Join Oracle Consulting at Oracle OpenWorld Middle East 11-12 February 2019 Dubai!

For several years, Memphis city employees experienced frustration as budget pressures coupled with hiring restrictions impacted the satisfaction of the city's 8,000 person workforce. Private-sector veteran, Alexandria Smith, was hired by Mayor Jim Strickland as the new chief HR officer to improve the morale of employees and enhance the delivery of services to more than 652,000 citizens. Chief Smith's vision was to become a 21st-century model HR organization by improving recruiting, training and benefits for the city's workforce. One of her first decisions was to makeover the city’s HR functions while driving innovation and adoption of HR best practices. To ensure success, Chief Smith turned to Oracle and Oracle Consulting to replace its legacy HR applications with modern, cloud-based Oracle HCM and Oracle Talent Acquisition Cloud (OTAC). Oracle Consulting was selected as the implementation partner to enable the city’s journey to Oracle Cloud. Oracle Consulting worked with the city’s team to implement Oracle HCM Cloud modules including Core HR, Compensation, Performance and Goals Management, Succession Planning, Talent Review, Learn, Profile Management Taleo and Benefits and Absence. "As an implementation partner, Oracle Consulting was willing to listen and be accountable and adaptable throughout our implementation journey. They had experience with Oracle products, brought best practices to the table, and helped us every step of the way.” — Alex Smith, Chief HR Officer City of Memphis The new platform positions the HR team to recruit, hire and onboard new staff more efficiently through social sourcing and workflow. Some of the outcomes of this transformation include: Added 419 police recruits since 2016, resulting in a net gain in officers last year for the first time in seven years. Successfully recruited 363 new firefighters. Reduced attrition among police personnel by 25%, through a combination of improved compensation and benefits, management training opportunities, retention bonuses, and employee appreciation events. Increased employee engagement by 14 percentage points, as measured by an independent survey of employee opinions about city leadership, culture, and resources. Chief Smith recently elaborated on their transformation in Forbes - click here to read the full story. Visit www.oracle.com/consulting for more information. Email us at ask-oracleconsulting_us@oracle.com

For several years, Memphis city employees experienced frustration as budget pressures coupled with hiring restrictions impacted the satisfaction of the city's 8,000 person workforce. Private-sector...

Paul Davis, Head of Solutions at Oracle Consulting shares a run down of activities at the recent OOWLON

Paul Davis, Head of Solutions at Oracle Consulting shares a run down of activities at the recent OOWLON

Employee profile: Ali Mohammed, a fairly recent joiner, is a Cloud Infrastructure Consultant who moved to Sweden from India 10 years ago.

Employee profile: Ali Mohammed, a fairly recent joiner, is a Cloud Infrastructure Consultant who moved to Sweden from India 10 years ago.

Leaders from India Global Services Delivery share how North America Applications Consulting works as one team around the globe to deliver a first-class journey to the cloud.

Leaders from India Global Services Delivery share how North America Applications Consulting works as one team around the globe to deliver a first-class journey to the cloud.

Durham University Implements Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service to Forecast with Oracle Consulting and Support 10-Year Institutional Strategy.

Durham University Implements Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service to Forecast with Oracle Consulting and Support 10-Year Institutional Strategy.

In the current climate where competition outstrips demand it’s never been more important to convert every single customer. Learn the EIM tricks to keep the user engaged & encourage them to complete the transaction.

In the current climate where competition outstrips demand it’s never been more important to convert every single customer. Learn the EIM tricks to keep the user engaged & encourage them to complete...

Author : Phoenix HY, Associate Consultant, Oracle Consulting According to the statistical report on internet development in China published in January 2018, as of December 2017 China had 772 million ‘netizens’ and growing. To put this into perspective, the UK population in 2016 was 65.6 million. With these numbers it is no surprise that companies are making it a priority to enter this huge market. So what do I need to consider when marketing in China? 1. The two Ws - WeChat and Weibo WeChat recorded a billion monthly users in March, that’s right a billion. WeChat has the capability for a user to do pretty much any desired action they want to online: banking, call a cab, shop, transfer money to friends, the list goes on. It’s pretty much all of our everyday apps rolled into one. With this huge user base and the various capabilities to reach the consumer in all these ways it is now absolutely essential for companies entering the Chinese market to be on WeChat. Weibo is the largest social network in China, consider it their equivalent to a Facebook and Twitter fusion, and so is a great tool for building brand awareness. The same rules apply for marketing on social media on Weibo, with the ability to target audiences with mass amounts of data about each consumer at your disposal. A differentiator for Weibo is that it allows payments, so you are able to sell online in the app and offline using QR codes, which is common online consumer behaviour in China. Brand trust is even more prominent in China, especially when it comes to ‘foreign’ companies entering the market; thus a solid profile, content, verification, and connecting with the right influencers is even more important.   2. Utilise the B.A.T mobile Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent are the 3 largest players who dominate the digital marketing space, especially on mobile. Baidu is the most used search engine in China, Alibaba dominates e-commerce, and Tencent is the most valuable company which owns WeChat. All three companies have different apps and sometimes different app stores, where their apps do not interact with each other. Despite this users commonly have apps from each company, so as consumers are on all 3 platforms, so should companies entering this market, with each managed independently.    3. KOLs – Key Opinion Leaders China is more prone to influence than the western markets when it comes to KOLs. Thus it is now one of the most recommended ‘marketing tools’ where most agencies based in china are pushing companies to utilise. It is of course vital that the KOL you choose matches your brand and appeals to your target audience. Michael Kors has done this particular well, bringing in Yang Mi as their brand ambassador who boasts a following of 90.9 million on Weibo at the time of this post. She has featured in Vogue, Grazia and Elle, matching perfectly in line with the Michael Kors brand. They have also recently released a full WeChat store featuring a bag collaborated with Yang Mi.   4. The great firewall There are more than 60 internet restrictions in China, and the control of the internet is ever growing. Due to this China has not been accustomed to using Google, Facebook or Twitter and now have their own equivalents. So on top of understanding the platforms to utilise in China, it’s important to consider the laws too. As this can easily go wrong, for example Mercedes-Benz was forced to delete the below post for quoting the Dalai Lama:     This went against the law in china of “Advertisements shall not harm the dignity or interests of China”, and despite China not allowing access of Instagram, there was still enough outcry for this post to be deleted and an apology was made on Weibo. This shows when entering this market we need to fully understand what the laws and restrictions are, before it becomes a blocker to being successful in China.   5. Understand the culture and the language Part of understanding the Chinese culture is the significant periods of the year: Lunar New Year, Qingming festival, national day the list goes on. This will inform companies on when to increase promotional activity and tailor accordingly. This leads on to Cyber Days, which in China are different to the west. The most notable one is Singles’ Day, where in 2017 on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms alone $25 billion was spent; a substantial amount more than in the US on black Friday. Language is often overlooked when moving into new markets, this can lead into embarrassing and costly mistakes. Nike made a huge error: Alone the two words mean great things… together however it translated to “getting fat”. This illustrates the importance of having a local person translate, when it comes to any promotion, Google translate is not sufficient enough.   References WeChat hits one billion monthly users - are you one of them? Statistical Report on Internet Development in China Jan 2018 Chinese marketing trends in 2018: What Western brands need to know Marketing in China: a five-step guide SCMP Forbes   Learn more at: oracle.com/marketingcloud

Author : Phoenix HY, Associate Consultant, Oracle Consulting According to the statistical report on internet development in China published in January 2018, as of December 2017 China had 772 million...

A bigger role for the travel brands - Creating memorable experiences for your customers consolidating data and technologies. Find out what hot is Travel with changes taking up in 2018.

A bigger role for the travel brands - Creating memorable experiences for your customers consolidating data and technologies. Find out what hot is Travel with changes taking up in 2018.

Message from Phil Head, Vice President of Oracle Consulting in the UK Oracle OpenWorld comes to London on 16-17 January 2019, with 11 different tracks and hundreds of presentations there is something for everybody. It is the flagship customer event for Oracle in EMEA for this fiscal. Make sure your customers and prospects don’t miss it! Success today requires resiliency, reinvention and thinking ahead, your customers can bring the future into focus at Oracle OpenWorld. Gain enterprise expertise and start-up ingenuity directly from experts across retail, manufacturing, financial services, technology, the public sector, and more. Join innovators as they challenge assumptions, design for better outcomes, and leverage transformational technologies to create future possibilities now. Register here for a complementary invitation to join Oracle consulting and the rest of Oracle at Open World Europe!

Message from Phil Head, Vice President of Oracle Consulting in the UK Oracle OpenWorld comes to London on 16-17 January 2019, with 11 different tracks and hundreds of presentations there is...

I´ll start by asking a simple, but in the recent climate, often overlooked question which I believe is essential in understanding where we are: Why was DMP created?

I´ll start by asking a simple, but in the recent climate, often overlooked question which I believe is essential in understanding where we are: Why was DMP created?

You can learn how to efficiently and rapidly move to Oracle Cloud with near-zero downtime leveraging  Oracle Soar, Destination IaaS and PaaS. Check out the data sheet here.  MIGRATE Databases MOVE Oracle and Non-Oracle Applications DRIVE Insights with Analytics EMPOWER Autonomous Database Visit the Oracle Consulting kiosk at Oracle Cloud Day events in North America: Toronto, Dec. 4th; Dallas, Dec 6th; New York, Jan 15th; Atlanta, Jan 17th; Boston, Jan 30th and Chicago, Feb 5th. At Oracle Cloud Day you’ll get: A curated series of inspirational and informative talks Hands-on experiences Sessions on how Oracle can help you take advantage of the latest technologies including artificial intelligence, blockchain, machine learning, chatbots, and more Best practices and successful use-case deployments as experienced by some of our customers and partners Networking opportunities Register now, and seize the opportunity to transform your future.  Learn more about Oracle Consulting.  

You can learn how to efficiently and rapidly move to Oracle Cloud with near-zero downtime leveraging  Oracle Soar, Destination IaaS and PaaS. Check out the data sheet here.  MIGRATE Databases MOVE...

So, what if email just disappeared? What would the communication of 269+ billion daily emails be immediately converted to. We’d have to look at how we worked before email became so dominant. Hand written letters and the postal service, fax machines, face to face conversation, telephone, dictation.

So, what if email just disappeared? What would the communication of 269+ billion daily emails be immediately converted to. We’d have to look at how we worked before email became so dominant. Hand...

Gire SA chose Oracle Consulting in order to develop a customer behavior scorecard based on existing unstructured data sources with the help of Oracle Analytics Cloud and Oracle Big Data Cloud.

Gire SA chose Oracle Consulting in order to develop a customer behavior scorecard based on existing unstructured data sources with the help of Oracle Analytics Cloud and Oracle Big Data Cloud.

Oracle Marketing Cloud Creative Services Team Wins 3 W3 Awards

Oracle Marketing Cloud Creative Services Team Wins 3 W3 Awards

Oracle often talk of Fusion Cloud in terms such as rapid implementation, best practice and subscription, and I often look at the market and try to see what consulting propositions are available to match this ambition. Whilst I can identify organisations doing this within the traditional Financial space of Oracle ERP, we have had packaged solutions for Finance and Human Capital Management (HCM) for some time now, this same approach does not appear evident within Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Manufacturing, certainly not with the same quality and transparency as its financial cousin. But why is Supply Chain and Manufacturing different?

Oracle often talk of Fusion Cloud in terms such as rapid implementation, best practice and subscription, and I often look at the market and try to see what consulting propositions are available to...

Oracle was a VIP sponsor for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) thirty-seventh annual Gala Dinner in Boston on November 17th. The HRC is the largest national LGBTQ civil rights organization. HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ people are ensured of their basic equal rights, and can be open, honest and safe at home, at work and in the community.   Miriam Gallardo, Oracle Consulting Sales Executive, was a co-chair of this event, which drew an impressive crowd of 1,300 people. Miriam provided an impactful, authentic and heartfelt introduction of Patricia Velasquez, who utilized her fame to lay the foundation of an unprecedented support system that highlights the importance of encouraging others to live authentic lives. Patricia is the first Latina Supermodel in the 90s, an actress in The Mummy / The Mummy Returns and has appeared on many popular TV shows. The night was filled with remarkable speakers & honorees including Elizabeth Warren (U.S. Senator), Maura Healey (MA Attorney-General), Marty Walsh (Mayor of Boston), Sarah McBride (HRC National Press Secretary), Patricia Velasquez (Global Human Rights Advocate, Actress and Model), Teddy Quinlivan (Transgender Advocate, Model), Dana Goldberg (Comedian) and Brian Puccini (Restauranteur & LGBTQ Advocate/Employer). Aaron Millstone, Senior Vice President of Oracle Consulting, not only attended the event, but also ensured that Oracle secured the VIP sponsorship. Aaron states, “Oracle Consulting’s leadership team has set an objective of creating the best place to work across all of Oracle. A key aspect of building a best place culture is creating an inclusive and diverse environment, where people can be their authentic selves and have a full sense of belonging at work. By sponsoring, attending and supporting the HRC gala event in Boston, we were able to show through our actions that this is so much more than a phrase or program that we dutifully point to as a corporation.” Thank you to Kristine Lessard for her leadership engaging the Oracle Pride Employee Network (OPEN), John Marshall, Oracle Consulting Sales Executive, and the Oracle Diversity and Inclusion team for fostering an environment at Oracle that is inclusive of all employees. For more information on Oracle’s Diversity and Inclusion visit: https://www.oracle.com/corporate/careers/diversity/  

Oracle was a VIP sponsor for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) thirty-seventh annual Gala Dinner in Boston on November 17th. The HRC is the largest national LGBTQ civil rights organization. HRC...

Go for what interests you, and during the while you might find other things that make you even more excited. This is applicable to many things. Life does not need to end at a current choice be it education or career. You can always change, just don’t be afraid of trying.

Go for what interests you, and during the while you might find other things that make you even more excited. This is applicable to many things. Life does not need to end at a current choice be...

It’s now simpler to create systems and processes with nicer looking user interfaces, which are even more reliable and fast than before which is crucial for HR systems. Once your digital Cloud transformation has been completed successfully, you will be able to see that your HR systems can be used in a smarter and easier way and thus you can easier create a more competitive and productive organization.

It’s now simpler to create systems and processes with nicer looking user interfaces, which are even more reliable and fast than before which is crucial for HR systems. Once your digital...

Oracle Applications Consulting OpenWorld 2018 presentations are available to download

Oracle Applications Consulting OpenWorld 2018 presentations are available to download

Having seen several examples of projects where customers are moving towards SaaS Cloud with their applications, such as ERP, EPM, and HCM, I share some key points that should be considered when moving towards SaaS Cloud.

Having seen several examples of projects where customers are moving towards SaaS Cloud with their applications, such as ERP, EPM, and HCM, I share some key points that should be considered when...

South Asia’s largest garment manufacturer relies on Oracle Cloud and Oracle Consulting to help take care of its 93,000 employees around the world.

South Asia’s largest garment manufacturer relies on Oracle Cloud and Oracle Consulting to help take care of its 93,000 employees around the world.

If you work or have an interest in higher education you will be aware of how this field is changing. This article considers some of the challenges you may be facing & takes a look at some different strategies that are being adopted to ensure ongoing success.

If you work or have an interest in higher education you will be aware of how this field is changing. This article considers some of the challenges you may be facing & takes a look at some different...

Join us on the 20th of November for a Breakfast Interview together with Sandra Skoglund Henriksson - the HR Service Center Director of Nynas.

Join us on the 20th of November for a Breakfast Interview together with Sandra Skoglund Henriksson - the HR Service Center Director of Nynas.

For most organizations, the promise of trouble-free, cloud-based information systems remains an elusive goal.The vast majority of enterprise applications and infrastructure still remains on premises. But that’s changing fast. Oracle allows you to migrate any workload to the cloud, setting the stage for a new era of cloud-based data, applications, and infrastructure. Why Should Your Organization Migrate to the Cloud?

For most organizations, the promise of trouble-free, cloud-based information systems remains an elusive goal.The vast majority of enterprise applications and infrastructure still remains on premises....

why ISO 27001 certification important to Oracle Applications Consulting India

why ISO 27001 certification important to Oracle Applications Consulting India

¿Ha oído hablar de conceptos como Big Data, Machine Learning, Inteligencia Artificial, Analítica Predictiva o Algoritmos de Decisión en Tiempo Real y le gustaría saber de primera mano en qué consisten y cómo le pueden impactar a sus sistemas basados en tecnología Oracle?  Le invitamos a que conozca cuáles son algunas de las principales tendencias y cuál es la propuesta de Oracle para dar respuestas a estas nuevas necesidades, mientras se toma un café y conversa con los consultores expertos en los factores clave para su implantación exitosa.    Agenda del Evento:   9:45 – 10:00    Inscripción y café de bienvenida  10:00 – 10:30  Modernización de su Plataforma Analítica 10:30 – 11:15  Prepare su viaje al Cloud:     - Beneficios del Cloud y Estrategia de migración     - Reconocimiento de su inversión (Bring Your Own License Program)  11:15 – 12:00  Ecosistema de soluciones analíticas en Cloud:     - Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse     - Oracle  Data Integration Platform     - Oracle  Analytics Cloud  12:00 – 12:15   Coffe Break 12:15 – 13:00   Incorpore nuevas funcionalidades en su plataforma analítica:     - Global Data Warehouse (Relational + Big Data)     - Analítica Predictiva: Machine Learning     - Information Discovery     - Real Time Events and Decisions   Dónde y Cuándo: 16 noviembre 2018   9:45 - 13:00 Oficina de Oracle Madrid, Calle José Echegaray, 6B, 28232 Las Rozas, Madrid, España.   Comparte tu datos de contacto enviando un correo a paolo.gallo@oracle.com o haciendo clic aquí y Oracle Consulting se pondrá en contacto contigo.   Más Información:  Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse  Oracle Data Integration Platform  Oracle Analytics Cloud  Oracle Consulting 

¿Ha oído hablar de conceptos como Big Data, Machine Learning, Inteligencia Artificial, Analítica Predictiva o Algoritmos de Decisión en Tiempo Real y le gustaría saber de primera mano en qué...

Just like making cost savings, the motivation for moving to the Cloud could limit the positive outcomes you can achieve, thus choosing a vendor based on price alone would not be a recommendable approach. So what are the capabilities you should look for in a Cloud services provider?

Just like making cost savings, the motivation for moving to the Cloud could limit the positive outcomes you can achieve, thus choosing a vendor based on price alone would not be a...

One of the most frequent requests received as a consultant is to differentiate between the application of a DMP for key verticals. To answer the question: DMP by Vertical Series. Part 2: Retail

One of the most frequent requests received as a consultant is to differentiate between the application of a DMP for key verticals. To answer the question: DMP by Vertical Series. Part 2: Retail

On the transformation journey, you will not only need to consider the aspects that people inform you about – but also, what they don’t tell you about. Learn what preparations were the crucial ones – so that benefits can be harvested at the end of your Cloud journey?

On the transformation journey, you will not only need to consider the aspects that people inform you about – but also, what they don’t tell you about. Learn what preparations were the crucial ones –...

One of the most frequent requests received as a consultant is to differentiate between the application of a DMP for key verticals. To answer the question: DMP by Vertical Series. Part 1: Finance

One of the most frequent requests received as a consultant is to differentiate between the application of a DMP for key verticals. To answer the question: DMP by Vertical Series. Part 1: Finance

Oracle Hyperion Enterprise has been vital for our customer’s finance and accounting teams for their consolidations and reporting needs over the past 20 years. This customer worked together with Oracle Consulting to understand how the next generation in Financial Consolidation & Close Service (FCS) could meet their ever-growing complexity in reporting.

Oracle Hyperion Enterprise has been vital for our customer’s finance and accounting teams for their consolidations and reporting needs over the past 20 years. This customer worked together with Oracle...

Oracle Applications Consulting leadership team shares priorities and values they plan to infuse throughout the year for their customers, their teams, and themselves

Oracle Applications Consulting leadership team shares priorities and values they plan to infuse throughout the year for their customers, their teams, and themselves

If you feel passionate, motivated and challenged by what you are working with - that's a job you love!

If you feel passionate, motivated and challenged by what you are working with - that's a job you love!

RedMart CFO Jim Boland talks about how Oracle Consulting ensured smooth communication and went above and beyond to ensure a successful implementation.

RedMart CFO Jim Boland talks about how Oracle Consulting ensured smooth communication and went above and beyond to ensure a successful implementation.

The ultimate measure of success for a cloud applications provider lies not in winning a customer’s business. It doesn’t reside in an on-time, on-budget go-live either. While these are critical goals to meet, they represent milestones along the path to the brass ring of achievement: ensuring customers receive enduring value from their applications.   This goal drives both the philosophic and practical approaches Oracle Applications Consulting instills in every customer project. In this interview, Steve Reeter, Oracle’s Vice President of ERP Consulting, discusses how we collaborate with customers to establish a strong foundation of ownership and knowledge of Oracle Cloud Applications that pays long-term dividends. Q: At a recent event, I heard you define a happy customer as one who finds lasting value with Oracle. How does Oracle Applications Consulting help customers achieve that lasting value starting from the implementation experience to beyond the go-live? A: For some time, certainly all the way back to on-premises, we’ve ascribed to a philosophy that it’s not just about a go-live event, it’s a commitment to agility. For cloud, it's all about long-term agility, long-term sustainability, long-term flexibility. Staying current becomes vastly easier in the cloud, which gives customers a roadmap that is an appreciating asset. Our ability to get customers to that place in deployment is key, and the way in which we get the customer onboarded adds signature value both in the implementation and over time because we are arguably the most transparent partner. Oracle Consulting is the most aggressive in making sure that our customers are self-sufficient. We have a multi-decade reputation of getting customers better trained and more knowledgeable. I like to think of our work as ensuring customers become better custodians of their Oracle applications. We not only get customers live, but very quickly on the heels of the go-live, we position them to be great custodians for change. We empower them to continue to optimize and take advantage of business events in the cloud, not just application updates or unlocking software value. It’s about addressing business change, mergers and acquisitions, expansion, globalization, technology innovations—all the things that we want them to be able to capitalize on. Our litmus test within the first year, second year, and third year is to confirm that value is appreciating faster than they’ve experienced before. That embodies lasting value for us, not a “one and done” go-live. Q: You mentioned our reputation for delivering better training and knowledge transfer. What is different about our approach? How does Oracle Applications Consulting deploy the strategy and tactics to enable that custodianship from day one? A: It begins with the transparency and the explicitness of what it’s going to take to be a successful customer. The best enablement for success that a customer can acknowledge is they’re going to have to be a critical participant. They’re going to have to be a decision-maker. They're going to have to commit resources. This is not a back-office project, and it’s critical for customers to align with that mindset to ensure they’re truly prepared. The process that begins from there, the way we deploy cloud, we believe is markedly different. With our implementation methodology, True Cloud Method, we have customers engage with the software extremely early—right up front—instilling the notion that their role as an informed participant is critical to success. Specifically, that starts with things like familiarization workshops as a part of True Cloud Method, which serves as early application education awareness. That lays a foundation so that, once we start making decisions, making setups, and establishing, confirming, and accepting designs, they’re truly an informed participant. We progress from there with customers working side by side with us. We look at the project as a bell curve—it shifts over time to less dependency on Oracle Consulting and more responsibility on the customer. That’s deliberate, so the customer begins to validate the system. By validating it, they’re creating muscle memory as opposed to just intellectual understanding of their processes on the cloud. That’s vital because, again, you can throw a lot of consultants at testing and validation, but that doesn't cement that necessary sense of ownership for the customer. Empowering our customers to own validation carries them forward. It prepares them for their first month-end close, for the first unexpected production support, for the first proactive business event that needs to be conducted in the cloud. The last milestone before go-live is when a big part of the customer’s organization—not just their core team—is validating with hands on a keyboard, and they have been properly prepared to do that. That makes for a successful cut-over, and it makes for a successful cloud custodian relationship with the applications. Q: Your description of the transfer of responsibility over the course of the project brings to mind a common challenge I’ve heard from many customers during my career: “How do I dedicate the internal resources necessary for this implementation without disrupting my day-to-day operations?” What approach does Oracle Consulting take with customers to ensure they can successfully run their business while doing the implementation in parallel? A: The last technology event that many of our customers have seen is an upgrade, which can create a false sense of interaction. So, at times, our customers will say, “Well, this is maybe a little more work than the upgrade,” or “You, the consultants, will do a little more work than the upgrade.” My response is, “No, that’s like the difference between some house maintenance and building a brand-new home.” We prepare customers accordingly in several ways. We make it clear they’ll be making key decisions that impact their business. And as a result, they need to assemble the right team to support it. That requires the executive sponsors of the project to assemble their best people to fingerprint this new cloud design. This sounds obvious, but it can be difficult to assign your most in-demand talent to another project. We go an extra step to understand not only what the demands are for some of these key folks, but to determine what other capital projects are going on in parallel that may be fighting for resources. Sometimes that’s as innocuous as an expected audit. Sometimes it’s as strategic as an acquisition during the life of the project, and those same critical resources will get tapped. Once the team is assembled, executive sponsors must deputize individuals by clearly making the project a priority for them, and empower them to make decisions on behalf of the company. The C-level executives won’t be at every meeting. Responsibility assignments and governance structures only work if there is a true delegation of authority. In absence of that, you get decision volleys, secondary reviews, and decisions that lack staying power. So, we are candid about the level of commitment needed and the importance of mapping the right resources to the project. The power to make things go quickly requires an empowered team. Customers want to know how fast we can run. And the answer is, it’s a three-legged race. The consulting team can only run as fast as we can run together.  

The ultimate measure of success for a cloud applications provider lies not in winning a customer’s business. It doesn’t reside in an on-time, on-budget go-live either. While these are critical...

Erste Group Bank Gains 360° View of Customers and Increases Business Performance by Consolidating Big Data Analytics on a Single Cloud Platform   "We used Oracle Big Data Appliance to consolidate the data analytics of our parent company, Erste Group Bank, on a single, modern system. The powerful technology - which is easy to set up and run - enables us to gain a 360º view of customers, deliver innovative services, and strengthen our brand." -  Branislav Šebo, CEO, Erste Group IT International GmbH     Erste Group Bank is a financial services provider in Central and Eastern Europe, offering retail banking for private customers, as well as corporate banking, mainly for small and medium-sized enterprises. Part of Erste’s growth strategy is the acquisition of financial services institutions across Central and Eastern European countries. However, a growing demand for more powerful big data analytics capabilities and for consolidation of acquired companies with established business processes and IT infrastructures led to Erste’s decision to modernize its big data infrastructure.     Challenges Deliver real-time data from consolidated sources, as well as modeling capabilities integrated with historical data, to support 360º customer profiles, individual recommendations, and an omnichannel digital customer experience Implement a coordinated approach for regulatory, risk, and finance reporting and analysis to bring data quality and data security to a new level of excellence in all local markets where the bank is present Consolidate big data analysis solutions from Erste’s subsidiaries onto a single platform to reduce administration efforts and to achieve high quality results—sharing components and data where possible and using open-source technologies where appropriate Secure investments by making sure that the platform can be sustained in the future and will be able to handle big data analytics projects across all countries that Erste serves   Results Enabled Erste to generate 360º customer profiles, deduce individual recommendations, and ensure a consistent customer experience across all digital channels and throughout all branches by consolidating the bank’s heterogeneous big data analytics infrastructure onto Oracle Big Data Appliance with Oracle Datasource for Apache Hadoop Reduced development and delivery times for new data analytics projects and tasks by avoiding complex integration of local data sources and processes—empowering Erste to set up a data lake and a risk assessment tool for the whole group, implement a science lab for data scientists, and develop an internationally consistent online banking interface Improved data quality for regulatory, risk, and financial reporting and analysis by eliminating sources of errors in data capture and transfer from and between national subsidiaries Reduced maintenance efforts and costs, and improved data security by replacing national subsidiaries’ data analytics solutions with Oracle Big Data Appliance as one comprehensive and powerful platform Achieved flexibility and performance of big data analytics by leveraging the capabilities of Oracle Big Data Appliance to employ open source technologies such as Hadoop, Spark, or Kafka, as well as big data analytics services in the cloud Secured investment by implementing a group-wide, standard platform to deliver Big Data as a Service to Erste’s subsidiaries in all countries, which will cover the needs of future digital projects entirely Leveraged expert knowledge and avoided strain on in-house IT teams by outsourcing both implementation and operation of the big data analytics platform to Oracle Consulting Slovakia   "We have a long-lasting, trustful partnership with Oracle. It was really good news when the proof of concept showed that Oracle Big Data Appliance is the best technology for big data analytics available on the market. Oracle’s clear commitment, intensive support, and ability to seamlessly integrate our partner, Cloudera, in the project guaranteed its complete success." - Michael Schneglberger, Area Head of Business Competence Center of Regulatory Reporting, Erste Group Bank AG     About Erste Group Bank AG Founded in 1819 as the first Austrian savings bank, Erste Group Bank went public in 1997 with a strategy to expand its retail business into Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Since then, Erste Group has grown through numerous acquisitions and organic growth to one of the largest financial service providers in the CEE in terms of clients and total assets. The bank offers its services to more than 19 million private and business clients online and in over 2,500 branches in 7 CEE countries, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Hong Kong.     Partners Several Oracle Partners were involved in the project. Cloudera supplied the Hadoop distribution that is deployed on Oracle Big Data Appliance and assisted Oracle Consulting Slovakia during the proof of concept. Arrow ECS sponsored the hardware that was used during the proof of concept. Fujitsu contributed to the hardware sales process. SAS supplied the corporate risk solution for Erste Group that was deployed as the first productive application on the platform. The project was completed on time and within budget.   Read more: Oracle and Oracle Consulting teams up with Kenya’s largest bank as the African country goes cashless Embarking on an Oracle Documents journey Oracle’s ERP Cloud for banking and financial services ​BAMF Uses Oracle PaaS to Support 3x Volume of Data Data Warehouse Modernization project for a top MEA bank

Erste Group Bank Gains 360° View of Customers and Increases Business Performance by Consolidating Big Data Analytics on a Single Cloud Platform   "We used Oracle Big Data Appliance to consolidate the...

At Meliá Hotels International we imagined a new type of vacation in which guests could enjoy all of our hotel services without having to worry about carrying around cash or ID, and that is now a reality thanks to an innovative project carried out with Oracle.

At Meliá Hotels International we imagined a new type of vacation in which guests could enjoy all of our hotel services without having to worry about carrying around cash or ID, and that is now...

Join us for breakfast on October 17th at Oracle’s London City Office and discover how Oracle Warehouse Management Cloud Solution can help you achieve better multi-channel performance and fulfillment in a secure and scalable platform, lowering your logistics costs and total cost of ownership.

Join us for breakfast on October 17th at Oracle’s London City Office and discover how Oracle Warehouse Management Cloud Solution can help you achieve better multi-channel performance and fulfillment...

We understand business dynamics and the interrelationships these business drivers have on individuals, organisations, and environments. We study and help organisations change and adapt over time to realising the positive impact of outcomes enterprises are striving to achieve.

We understand business dynamics and the interrelationships these business drivers have on individuals, organisations, and environments. We study and help organisations change and adapt over time to...

Oracle Applications Consulting infuses a culture of learning and leadership throughout our organization. It’s a personal mission for me to ensure our people feel connected, supported, and inspired to take our organization—and in turn, our clients—to the next level.   Leadership isn’t just about a job title for us. Our goal is to ensure every member of our team feels empowered to demonstrate leadership in their interactions within and outside our organization. Our culture is driven by a servant leadership style—we are here to serve our clients and each other.     I’ve found the best way to inspire leadership at every level of our team is to show it in action. I recently engaged our team in an online conversation around leadership advice and inspiration. To kick off the dialogue, I asked them to share their best career advice. The responses were inspiring and insightful. They amped up my energy and excitement for where our team can go. Here is a sampling of some the conversation—I hope these words of wisdom motivate you as much as they did me.    Swarnali Bag, Consulting Practice Director I think my biggest inspiration and motivation comes from my amazing and fearless mother, who has given me multiple pieces of advice (which I only realize now) on how to be successful in life. I would like to share a few of them:   1. “If you get an opportunity in life, never say no. Say yes, and work endlessly until you learn it.” Guess what, I was walking by an Oracle office at HQ the other day, and I saw a very similar quote by Richard Branson: “If someone offers you an amazing opportunity, and you're not sure if you can do it, say ‘yes’ then learn how to do it later.” 2. “Whatever you do, you need to be the best at it, which means even if you are a sweeper, you gotta be the best sweeper in town.” 3. “If you find hurdles that don't let you do the right thing, never be afraid to go to the highest level to achieve your objective.”   Jenna Loos, Managing Principal, Expert Services My career has revolved around marketing so it’s probably no surprise that the best career advice I’ve received is this: Treat your career like a brand—manage it, cultivate it, and remain true to your brand’s identity. Work for its success, and fight hard for opportunities as they come up. All the actions you make, or don't make, will affect how people see you and your brand.   Rick Hassman, Vice President, NA Customer Advocacy “To have power is to give power away.” I realized early in my career that to be successful, I needed to create an amazing team. I needed to understand everyone’s strengths and use them to make whatever we were doing successful. I needed to trust and grow the entire team. Success comes from a great team...not individual power.   Bruno Binkley, Group Vice President, NAA Consulting Strategy  One principle of leadership that I have found critical is flexibility. A mentor of mine early in my career pulled me aside and had me think through an ancient story: “The Oak and the Reed” from Aesop’s Fables. It is summarized in the following verse: A reed before the wind lives on, while mighty oaks do fall. He added...” you’ll have happy clients if you act like a reed.” When you think of things as either/or, you will tend to pick what you think is right and stick to it...as a mighty oak. Instead, think of the AND...how can you blend your perspective with others to develop something better.   Guy Purvis, Senior Practice Director Advice I have liked over the years:   1. Do more listening than speaking. 2. Understand before judging. 3. Leadership is set by example.   Dinesh Nagaraj, Project Director, Global Services Delivery One of the best career conversations that I have had was with my manager during my early working days: Work hard, work smart, be curious, yearn to learn (always!), spread the knowledge (sharing is learning!), be kind to others. At the end of the day, your life and career is as good as the human being you are. Everything else we aspire to will eventually fall in place!   We are taking these and other concepts more broadly throughout our organization. The photo above was taken at a recent leadership meeting for Oracle North America Applications Consulting. The theme of the meeting was Painting Our Future Together (we took a literal interpretation on the theme, too, as evidenced by the personalized artwork we're holding). We spent several days together planning for FY2019, and inspiring our team through leadership was a continuous thread in our conversations.   We know that as we demonstrate—and reward—servant leadership at all levels of our organization, our team and our clients reap the benefits. How do you inspire leadership within your organization? And what’s your best career advice? Let us know in the comments—we’d love to learn from our community.

Oracle Applications Consulting infuses a culture of learning and leadership throughout our organization. It’s a personal mission for me to ensure our people feel connected, supported, and inspired...

Video: Beyond the Horizon - Cross Baltic Challenge 2018 with Oracle Cloud. A challenge that had never been completed before; to relay swim 170 km across the Baltic Sea - from Poland to Sweden.

Video: Beyond the Horizon - Cross Baltic Challenge 2018 with Oracle Cloud. A challenge that had never been completed before; to relay swim 170 km across the Baltic Sea - from Poland to Sweden.

We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive

We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive

Aaron Millstone joined Oracle as the Senior Vice President for Oracle Consulting Technology and Public Sector Consulting.  Aaron comes to Oracle from Accenture where he spent twenty-three years and was most recently Managing Director responsible for Accenture’s enterprise transformation offerings and practices in their Health and Public Service business. Aaron’s ability to drive change coupled with his experience in complex enterprise architectures makes him an optimal choice to lead his team through an ambitious transformation process.  Oracle Consulting is transforming in order to accelerate the move to Oracle Cloud through faster, smarter and simpler solutions that drive the innovation required to help customers thrive in today’s fast-paced cloud world.   In his first initiative at Oracle, Aaron created a cross-functional team to develop a charter and collaborate on a comprehensive plan to drive transformation through every aspect of the organization. Appropriately named, Oracle Elevate, the initiative’s goal is to transform Oracle Consulting Technology & Public Sector Consulting into the #1 implementation partner for Oracle Cloud. “I am delighted to lead Tech and Public Sector Consulting as we look to disrupt the market and become the number one preferred cloud consulting partner for our customers. Every company is dealing with a seismic shift in their business due to IaaS, PaaS and SaaS services.  There is no better company in the world than Oracle to help our customers transform to be more successful.  I am excited that we have launched Oracle Elevate to drive our own transformation so that we can help execute the strategic vision of Oracle.” – Aaron, Millstone, SVP, Oracle Consulting Workgroups were tasked with identifying the current situation, determining opportunities and creating execution requirements that include the following areas: Exceed customer expectations Grow our world class cloud talent Define new and differentiated services and offerings for Oracle Cloud Improve alignment with other Oracle teams Create strategic partnerships to provide maximum value to our customers Reimagine the Oracle Consulting brand both internally and externally “I left energized by the unity and powerful perspectives of other Oracle Consulting colleagues as we brainstormed together to define potential solutions to elevate and transform consulting.” Karen Munoz, Senior Technical Director “The power of Oracle Consulting’s brand is unquestionable and is illustrated by the Oracle Elevate initiative, which will positively impact our ability to successfully sell and execute in the market.” Brett Deininger, Vice President, Consulting Sales

Aaron Millstone joined Oracle as the Senior Vice President for Oracle Consulting Technology and Public Sector Consulting.  Aaron comes to Oracle from Accenture where he spent twenty-three years and...

Cross Baltic Challenge 2018 with Oracle Cloud. Relay swim across the Baltic Sea - from Poland to Sweden.

Cross Baltic Challenge 2018 with Oracle Cloud. Relay swim across the Baltic Sea - from Poland to Sweden.

Video Achieve Your Goals in the Cloud With Oracle Applications Consulting

Video Achieve Your Goals in the Cloud With Oracle Applications Consulting

Email marketing remains the most cost-effective channel in the promotional toolkit, but it still presents challenges for B2C marketers. Companies continue to search for new and better strategies to personalize emails with customer data, drive sustained engagement, and coordinate email marketing with other marketing efforts. It’s no wonder then that so many companies turn to email marketing service providers to help them optimize what has become a mainstay of B2C marketing.   So how can marketing professionals choose the right provider for email marketing services? Forrester shines light on the current vendor landscape via The Forrester Wave™: Email Marketing Service Providers, Q2 2018. The report notes that Oracle Responsys “believes leveling up operations, tech, and creative services to its strategy and analytics offerings will differentiate Oracle from other marketing clouds.” The report also cites Oracle Responsys’ “great services combined with already strong reporting, collaboration, and global support.”   Forrester focused its evaluation criteria on email marketing fundamentals as well as capabilities that help marketers advance their email marketing applications. Of the eight email marketing services vendors Forrester evaluated, Oracle was one of two companies recognized as a leader across 26 criteria, which were segmented into three categories: current offering, strategy, and market presence. Oracle received the highest possible scores for the criteria of collaboration, security, distributed business model support, globalization, agency relationships, strength of management team, and employee retention.   Oracle Responsys features award-winning email marketing capabilities that drive conversions, deepen the customer relationship, and reduce messaging fragmentation. Oracle Responsys is part of Oracle Marketing Cloud, an integrated portfolio of best-in-class B2B and B2C applications that empowers marketers to deliver irresistible, consistent, and connected customer experiences that help drive sales and increase brand loyalty. Harnessing the power of artificial intelligence, Oracle Marketing Cloud provides contextually informed, personalized experiences at scale and in real time so marketers can reach customers wherever they are, and however they choose to engage.   A complimentary copy of the full Forrester report can be downloaded here. Read the Oracle press release here.

Email marketing remains the most cost-effective channel in the promotional toolkit, but it still presents challenges for B2C marketers. Companies continue to search for new and better strategies to...

Banking on a Cloud Transformation

Banking on a Cloud Transformation

Towards a Balanced Supply Chain Practice with Manufacturing in a Box - What is Manufacturing-In-A-Box (MAIB)? - What does MAIB contain?

Towards a Balanced Supply Chain Practice with Manufacturing in a Box - What is Manufacturing-In-A-Box (MAIB)? - What does MAIB contain?

Meet the Consultant: Craig Coleman EXPERTISE: Aerospace & Defense, Industrial Products, Medical Devices Author Craig Coleman, Senior Principle Consultant, Oracle Consulting in UK and Ireland   "I work on the UK & Ireland´s go to market approach for deploying Supply Chain cloud applications in our small and mid-market customer. I´m also working out how the Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and Oracle cloud software (manufacturing and supply chain) can be used to leapfrog our customers ahead of their competitors in terms of operational efficiency, effectiveness, zero touch processes and transparency." - Craig Coleman, Senior Principle Consultant, Oracle Consulting   I am a Senior Principal Consultant working within the ERPM applications delivery team in the UK. I am a Cloud certified implementation specialist in Manufacturing and I have over thirteen years’ experience designing and deploying Oracle Supply Chain Management solutions in manufacturing, warehousing and order management. Additionally I have worked in a number of sectors over the years including Aerospace, Industrial Products, Medical Devices, Financial Services and the Public Sector. Deploying systems for more traditional uses such as building landing gear and manufacturing coils & stents, the most unusual use of Oracle Manufacturing and Supply Chain that I have been involved with was using the product to manage the creation and cradle-to-grave trace-ability of cryptographic material (material used to secure or authenticate a network/information). Most recently I have been working on the UK Oracle Consulting approach for how best to engage with small to medium size enterprises in relation to deploying Supply Chain cloud applications, and also how the Internet of Things (IOT) sensors and software can be leveraged using such offerings, to enable customers to use Oracle Cloud solutions as a differentiator from their competition. As well as working on the most interesting element of Cloud applications (in my personal view!), you could say that I have a busy life outside of work with 3 young children, 2 gold fish, and a puppy to look after. I am more than happy however to discuss any SCM/Manufacturing matters in my “spare time”, and would welcome any approach in relation to how the supply chain consulting team can help you, or provide solutions for any customers you are currently engaged with.   Learn more about working at Oracle Consulting: Meet the Consultant: Alex Barnes, Oracle Cloud Financials and Public Sector Industry Specialist Step OUT of your Comfort Zone Three behaviors a Project Manager should practice Do this to keep challenging yourself. Why is organization culture important? It is never boring to work at Oracle Consulting

Meet the Consultant: Craig Coleman EXPERTISE: Aerospace & Defense, Industrial Products, Medical Devices Author Craig Coleman, Senior Principle Consultant, Oracle Consulting in UK and Ireland   "I work on...

Sonoco awarded its 2018 Operational Excellence Supplier Performance Award to Oracle Consulting

Sonoco awarded its 2018 Operational Excellence Supplier Performance Award to Oracle Consulting

Operating globally in multiple industries, including the challenging aerospace and defense sector, Textron provides complex and sophisticated solutions to its customers. Constrained by a 20-year-old on-premises, highly customized, and off-support financial management system, Textron realized it needed to move to a modern financials management solution that is easy to use with additional functionality to support future growth. Textron chose Oracle Financials Cloud applications to establish a solution that is functionally deep and scalable and to reduce extensive application upgrades. The company partnered with Oracle Consulting to ensure a fast, seamless implementation. "Oracle Consulting provided us with a sense of value and reliability that we couldn’t find with any other partner," said Mike Skibo, Executive Director, Enterprise Business Solutions, Textron Information Services. "We knew that Oracle Consulting had the resources, tenacity, and skills necessary to get this project done on time." Textron and Oracle Consulting embarked on a project that would enable Textron to maintain its normal course of business throughout an aggressive 14-week implementation journey. Oracle Consulting invested the time necessary to understand Textron’s business, process requirements, and unique customer reporting, guiding the Textron team as they adopted the modern best business practices inherent in the solution and tailored out-of-the-box reports. The project was completed on time and under budget, while also ensuring the ownership and adoption of Oracle Financials Cloud applications by Textron users in a short time frame. "Because it was all one Oracle team, it was a seamless system implementation," said Kelli Gudz, Senior Finance Systems Manager at Textron. "Oracle Consulting always communicated well and made sure that our questions were answered, providing us with best practices to use in our system. Not only do they have all the resources available to them to get answers rapidly, but they are also very well-versed in Oracle applications. The consultants on the project have seen the growth of the product and how the customer is going to use it in different ways. As Textron and Oracle together, we were able to roll out a system that’s been reliable and quickly accepted." Watch the video highlighting how Textron partnered with Oracle Consulting to successfully implement Oracle Financials Cloud here.

Operating globally in multiple industries, including the challenging aerospace and defense sector, Textron provides complex and sophisticated solutions to its customers. Constrained by a 20-year-old...

"When I speak to our customers, they are looking to us as experts to guide them on Oracle "Best Practices" and help them move away from their inefficient inherited processes. Consulting´s TCM methodology, which I contributed to the development of, incorporates Modern Best Practices so is a great starting point for straight-forward processes with no expensive customisations"

"When I speak to our customers, they are looking to us as experts to guide them on Oracle "Best Practices" and help them move away from their inefficient inherited processes. Consulting´s...

Moving to the cloud just got a lot easier—and faster. On June 5, Oracle Executive Chairman and CTO Larry Ellison announced the “Soar to the Cloud” solution, the world’s first automated enterprise cloud application upgrade product. What does that mean for Oracle’s on-premises customers? It will enable them to reduce the time and cost of cloud migration by up to 30 percent by leveraging a complete set of automated tools and proven methodologies. And, it’s the last upgrade they will ever need, as Larry stated during the launch event. I was excited to be a part of that event—but I’m even more excited to be a part of Oracle Soar. It will drive a fast, predictable, and cost-effective cloud journey because it applies the same power of automation that is infused in every Oracle Cloud application. As a result, Oracle customers can quickly enhance their finance, HR, and supply chain applications—and take advantage of machine learning. It’s the combination of tools, methods, and people that makes Soar work. I’m proud that many of those people are part of my Oracle Applications Consulting team, and they are intimately familiar with the tools and methodology that drive Soar. The solution includes a discovery assessment, process analyzer, automated data and configuration migration tools, and rapid integration tools. Guided by a dedicated Oracle concierge service, the Soar automated process is fueled by True Cloud Method, Oracle’s proprietary approach to support customers throughout the cloud journey. True Cloud Method is the underpinning of every Oracle Applications Consulting implementation project. So, we know that it ensures a rapid, “no surprises” migration that aligns with industry modern best practices because we’ve proven it time and again. One of the coolest parts of the Soar solution is the fact that customers can monitor the status of their cloud journey with a mobile application that includes a step-by-step implementation guide. The intuitive app lets customers know what needs to be done daily to ensure the project stays on course. And without a doubt, staying the course will be driven by an experienced Oracle launch team. The people behind the development, direction, and deployment of Soar represent the best in the business. I’m thrilled to call them colleagues and friends. Oracle Applications Consulting is excited to dig into the work of catapulting our clients to success with the hottest cloud technology on the market. Are you ready to Soar to the Cloud with Oracle? Your launch team is ready for you. Learn more here.  

Moving to the cloud just got a lot easier—and faster. On June 5, Oracle Executive Chairman and CTO Larry Ellison announced the “Soar to the Cloud” solution, the world’s first automated enterprise cloud...

Sharing new perspective and thoughts of how it is to work at Oracle and some good career advice.

Sharing new perspective and thoughts of how it is to work at Oracle and some good career advice.

How Oracle Applications Consulting Works with Partners

How Oracle Applications Consulting Works with Partners

The Energy industry has always been a fast evolving and competitive sector where innovation and adaptation are key for success. Oracle Sales Cloud implemented to simplify growth and organisational plans.

The Energy industry has always been a fast evolving and competitive sector where innovation and adaptation are key for success. Oracle Sales Cloud implemented to simplify growth and...

DP World digital capabilities get a boost

DP World digital capabilities get a boost

Fernando Lozano, Casas Javer CHRO, tells us how Oracle HCM gives him the peace of mind of having immediate information on different devices, anytime, anywhere.

Fernando Lozano, Casas Javer CHRO, tells us how Oracle HCM gives him the peace of mind of having immediate information on different devices, anytime, anywhere.

Guillermo Romay, CIO of Estrella Roja, a Mexican transportation company, decides to transform his platform and migrate to Oracle cloud with Oracle Consulting.

Guillermo Romay, CIO of Estrella Roja, a Mexican transportation company, decides to transform his platform and migrate to Oracle cloud with Oracle Consulting.

As conventional supply chain operations are being revolutionized by increasing volatility and heightened competition, cloud applications present an opportunity for companies to gain the visibility and agility required to make faster, more profitable decisions. So, what’s the best path to start or expand on a journey to supply chain management (SCM) in the cloud? At Oracle’s Modern Supply Chain Experience 2018, Ninja Subramanian, Oracle Consulting Senior Director, discussed in this interview three trends he sees in deployment models for companies looking to take their SCM applications to the cloud. Deploying SCM in the Cloud 1. Innovate Around the Edges Ninja noted that supply chain management is a prime target area for customers planning a journey to the cloud. “When we interact with customers across different industries, we see opportunities that exist in specialized SCM domains like logistics, PLM [product lifecycle management], and S&OP [sales and operations planning],” he said. “There we see what we call the ‘strategy to innovate around the edges,’ and it’s a common model for customers moving to the cloud.” 2. Pilot a Prototype When a company has a smaller business unit or acquired entity, they often target those areas for an initial SCM cloud implementation. Ninja noted that Oracle Consulting often recommends that companies start that smaller business unit “as a prototype, put it on the cloud, and then migrate the parent enterprise into the cloud as well.” Establishing an SCM cloud application pilot enables the company to establish best practices and define operational parameters that they can subsequently scale to a larger implementation. 3. Build a Cloud Platform for the Future Customers who are already using Oracle on-premises SCM application products often look to establish a standard around Oracle Cloud as a platform to grow their business to the next level, Ninja shared in the interview. He added, “Customers are leveraging some of the disruptive technologies and digital trends that we have to offer at Oracle and are building the solution for the future based on our cloud platform.” For example, Oracle IoT Production Monitoring Cloud can be extended across Oracle Blockchain Cloud Service to support full traceability of a product to its raw material source. The Role and Vision of Oracle Consulting When implementing Oracle Cloud Applications for clients, Oracle Consulting is inherently invested in the success of the project. “Oracle Consulting is part of the Oracle ecosystem, and we carry the Oracle brand, so we take pride in specializing in and implementing Oracle Cloud Applications,” Ninja said. “We want to be the best in terms of Oracle expertise. That’s all we live and breathe by.” Key to Oracle Consulting’s strategy to deliver client success is co-existing with partners. “We want to put the best solutions in front of customers, and that is our overall prerogative that we drive toward,” Ninja said. “And as part of the journey, we work with partners in the same ecosystem to leverage Oracle applications and technology for the best fit across industry verticals.” Working with partners means that Oracle Consulting also shares best practices throughout the network. “Since we are both part of the Oracle ecosystem and parent company, we are usually the pioneers in some of the emerging technologies,” Ninja said. “For example, with the digital supply chain applications, we want to be on the leading edge, deploy it, take the learnings from the different customers we work with, and share it with our partners for the betterment of the overall Oracle ecosystem. That is a strategy that we are consciously implementing right now in the field. With SCM Cloud Release 13, there are a lot of emerging apps. We want to be at the forefront to make our customers successful.”

As conventional supply chain operations are being revolutionized by increasing volatility and heightened competition, cloud applications present an opportunity for companies to gain the visibility and...

Oracle Consulting: Your Guide to the Digital Future

Oracle Consulting: Your Guide to the Digital Future

Listen to why Sam Changizi, Executive, Enterprise Business Systems Corelogic partners with Oracle Consulting to adopt and take their business to the cloud

Listen to why Sam Changizi, Executive, Enterprise Business Systems Corelogic partners with Oracle Consulting to adopt and take their business to the cloud

Author Andres Farias Riquelme, Senior Principal Consultant, Oracle   Java is an object-oriented programming language that provides a solid platform to build pieces of software using other paradigms, for example those based on components, aspects and services. However, since it first appeared in the late 80s, it has been said that Java’s days are numbered or that is being gradually dropped by the market. This has proven to be outright false, and in this article I will explain why we think Java’s demise is still in the distant future and why it is a good choice as an ingredient for development.     Java Will Be Gone In a Couple of Years... This is what we have been hearing for the last decades [5]. Sometimes those who make this claim are big fans of other languages, such as C or Python. Other times, these claims aim at sparking a debate about it. There are also universities, such as the University of Chile and the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, or Standford University in the United States—this one being such an iconic example—, that have opted for another language such as Python [4] to teach the fundamentals of programming [3]. But the truth is that regardless the intention, these prophecies have not been fulfilled and it is only reasonable to wonder if they will ever be and if so, when.   The thing is that by 2012 there was enough evidence that Java was the second most used language in the world, after C, naturally. Nowadays, the same evidence positions Java as the most used language [1]. Trends indicate that it is not a language that is falling into disuse, but we must admit that Java started with a frenzy of trying to program every type of component using this technology, even executing code on web clients (with Applets) or providing APIs and languages to program on databases. Years have proven that Java is a language fit for programming components to be executed on the middleware.    Is Java Better Than Other Languages? Why is it important to answer the question whether Java is the best language to build your pieces of software? Probably because you want to choose the language that will bring more benefits than disadvantages. Betting on technologies that will eventually become obsolete—as was the case with Robi, Perl or Object Pascal—would have been negative for systems that might have required maintenance afterwards. Engineers or programmers tend to look for objective and technical variables to choose the best language, arguing in their favor that it is a strongly typed object-oriented language with a balanced mix of primitive and complex data types supported on a solid theory of data types, with parametric types, lambda expressions, etc.       The problem is that most languages share those features. That is definitely not the reason why I choose Java. I strongly believe there is a more important criterion than the technical one, although its properties are necessary and not sufficient. Esperanto was a language created, by definition, to be used universally. If we had to choose the best language in the world, it would be reasonable to consider Esperanto as the top contender. However, and in my opinion, it is not the best language and the reason is quite simple: I cannot speak Esperanto, nor I know anyone who can (Google Translator can, though), but I do speak English and so do most people in the world. English is then the best language for me because learning it and being able to speak it maximizes the number of people I can communicate with. With Java something similar happens. It is the most used language in the world [1], particularly in Chile—even though it may be in second place after C due to the amount of legacy software that still prevails.              The Truck Factor This metrics in software engineering allows to estimate the risk in a project indicating how many people in my development team need to be “hit by a truck” for the project to be at risk. When the Truck Factor is very low (e.g. one person) it means the project is always at risk and I must look after my resources, and maybe even secure them.    The development of a portal in Zope (a CMS framework to create portals based on Python) has a Truck Factor much lower than a framework based on Java, for the simple reason that it is more difficult to find experts in Python in the market—even though this is changing as Python become more and more massive. Maintenance of this system will be the same or more expensive depending on the purpose of the underlying platform. Zope had its moment of (relative) glory toward the end of the decade in 2010, but nowadays there must be very few programmers, particularly in Chile, who know this language and therefore maintaining a system based on Zope will be expensive and have a very low Truck Factor.   Why Should I Choose Java and What For? Systems are not programmed in Java. They are programmed in frameworks based on Java. Object-oriented programming makes it easy for us to build business systems, that is, systems that are fault-tolerant, resilient, highly available, concurrent, etc. To do this there are other paradigms that have delivered better results, namely: component-based or service-oriented programming, both approaches supported by Java Enterprise Edition. The main reasons to keep using Java today are:  - Skilled labor: Although not properly qualified maybe, in any case, Java programmers are far from being a scarce resource. - Library ecosystems, add-ons and online tutorial, communities and support available: The fact that Java is a widely adopted language means that there is an overwhelming amount of support for any type of framework based on this language. When starting a development it is very important to have access to support in case of errors made by oneself or product failures. This support is critical to be able to overcome real problems, both at the time of development and at the time of operating in production. Furthermore, forums related to technologies based on Java have been growing non-stsoaop [6]. - Business solutions with support (WebLogic, PrimeFaces, etc.)           If This is Black, Then Gray is... I used to play a game with my daughter where we said phrases that were always true. It is a challenging task. If we played that game in this scenario, it would be clear that there cannot be an absolute truth about whether Java is the perfect language for everything. The way I see it, Java is a good language because, as I said before, it has the advantage of being widely adopted in the market and having great support by the community, with tutorials, add-ons, etc.   Actually, the idea of a perfect language is quite subjective and I think that at a more general level it loses relevance. These days, the most important factors for organizations to consider at the time of acquiring or developing solutions or software components are: scalability, high availability of services and interoperability (communication) with other components in the ecosystem. The age of adapters is behind us, and software components intercommunicate based on standards such as XML or Json. A few years ago, I had the opportunity to see how an educational organization adopted an Oracle SOA infrastructure, that was based on Java. Since the organization had developed its own solutions in .NET, it was natural to think they might need to change their programmers for others who knew Java. However, once the adoption process was completed, it turned out it was never necessary to change the language. The components were exposed as web services through the bus, and thus they achieved an excellent level of interoperability.                 Reference [1] https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index// [2] https://pypi.python.org/pypi/Zope2 [3] https://thenextweb.com/dd/2017/04/24/universities-finally-realize-java-bad-introductory-programming-language/ [4] https://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/176450-python-is-now-the-most-popular-introductory-teaching-language-at-top-u-s-universities/fulltext [5] https://developers.slashdot.org/story/13/10/10/1327239/if-java-is-dying-it-sure-looks-awfully-healthy [6] https://www.unocero.com/noticias/java-los-rumores-acerca-de-mi-muerte-han-sido-exagerados/

Author Andres Farias Riquelme, Senior Principal Consultant, Oracle   Java is an object-oriented programming language that provides a solid platform to build pieces of software using other paradigms,...

Author Kathy Wu, Social Media Coordinator at Oracle Consulting Nordics Ever wondered what kind of personal qualifications you need to succeed as a project manager? Well, there are three personal behaviors my colleague Teemu Lepola thinks are important to understand and practice. He is not only a Project Manager at Oracle Consulting but also a floor ball coach.   Besides working, different sport activities have major role in my life. I have been playing floorball for more than 20 years, still today two or three times a week. It is hobby for whole year and during summer I also play football and golf as much as possible. At winter, those changes to skiing and ice hockey. I also try to keep fit with running and going to the gym regularly. The long experience in floorball and love for the sports has taken me a level of coaching a team of 30 kids in the age of 10. It is very fun but in the meantime exhausting. With kids you are interacting in a very different way than with adults, mainly because of the age difference. It sounds like I am a very sporty person, but I do have a musical side as well. Trying out new things is fun and I like to sing and play guitar for family parties and gatherings. With my friends we have tradition of doing golf-trips to new countries. Together we have been to Malaga, Belleek at Turkey and Mallorca, and for this year we are still in a planning-mode.   My career in IT-business started in 2005 and for the last 9 years before moving to Oracle I worked as Project Manager, Service Manager and also Head of PMO in a Finnish IT integrator. I studied my M. Sc. in Helsinki University of Technology in department of Electrical engineering. My major subject was media technology, but already at that point I was very interested in my minor subject: Leadership and Work psychology. Even though I consider myself quite Technic oriented (even nerd some might say), social interaction has always been important for me. From my studies, it is good to have a solid understand of organizational theories, theory of management and leadership and also the rewarding systems, what motivates and drives others. Very applicable in both personal life as a floorball coach and in a professional way as a project manager or team leader.    "...Feedback can be informal during a conversation. Usually people don’t say that I’m giving you a feedback now, so listen. It is an important personal skill to be able to pick-up the comments from conversation, so you can constantly develop yourself. "   What makes me feel passionate in my recent career change to Oracle Consulting is the diversity of people. Every meeting with new people makes me excited, and that is a good way of learning new things. By discussing with new people you will widen your eyes of ideas and knowledge, and possible you will start to reflect over things you already knew or did not know. Another thing I am looking forward are my new colleagues, always a pleasure to work with talented people who are professionals in their own area. Professionalism is not only about being good at what you are doing, but being able to present it for others. In that way, a confidence will be found and that’s why our customer trust us.   There are some personal behaviors a Project Manager needs to practice. First you must be able to be proactive. You cannot wait for things to happen, you have to make sure that it will happen. By actively understanding the current situation and the dependencies between different things will make it easier for you to think a few step further. Knowing how to prioritize the tasks and be able to handle the small things while seeing the big picture of the project.   Second, if you want to be able to make progress you need to know how to receive and give feedback. It does not mean you necessarily all the time must give feedback, but when you do, you should be precise with an example of what could have been better and what was great. Sometimes, the feedback can be informal during a conversation. Usually people don’t say that I’m giving you a feedback now, so listen. It is an important personal skill to be able to pick-up the comments from conversation, so you can constantly develop yourself. Of course, many people think of feedback as something negative but it is not! I try as much as I can to give positive feedback because that’s a good way to motivate your colleagues.   The last personal skill to practice is don’t be afraid of asking questions, especially not from people involved in your project. Because, if you don’t ask you won’t know and instead of wasting your time figuring out what the others might think, just ask and you will get the answer directly. The most important task for a Project Manager is to know the current situation and can present it to others as agreed. You will also feel much more confident in yourself and for the project when you know what is going on. Of course, you can also first try to find the answers by yourself. However, do not feel it is a burden to raise questions, because it usually generate new discussions and thoughts.   That’s also what I like with the work culture in Oracle.It is a very open environment for discussions and you can get help when needed. As a new starter at Oracle I feel I have been taken care very well – also because of the new employee introduction we have, but mainly because I have received so much help from my colleagues. For the near future, I look forward to work in different interesting and challenging projects with Cloud Applications and Tech projects.    Do you agree these are necessary personal skills a project manager should have? Or do you have other qualifications you consider as valuable?  Click on the + sign to join the discussion.   Hope you enjoyed reading this post. If you want to read previous articles you find them here:  Why is organization culture important? It is never boring to work at Oracle Consulting Do this to keep challenging yourself

Author Kathy Wu, Social Media Coordinator at Oracle Consulting Nordics Ever wondered what kind of personal qualifications you need to succeed as a project manager? Well, there are three...

Author Jorge Antonio Plascencia, Architecture Manager for the Public Sector, Oracle Mexico.   For quite some time, we’ve had individuals and forums saying that governments should be treating their citizens just like companies treat their clients. They use examples that go from fully customer-centric online stores to service providers that have revolutionized public transport. All of these companies are focused on providing the best solution to their clients and improving their satisfaction.       I do believe governments must provide an excellent service to their citizens. But, how acceptable is it to consider citizens as the government’s clients? Is it okay to apply the same techniques and technologies that companies do? To answer this, let’s analyze the main question from three perspectives: differences between citizens and clients, between companies and governments, and finally what clients look for when they interact with companies and what citizens look for when they interact with their government.   So, the first perspective to consider is the differences between citizens and clients. Clients have some distinctive characteristics that define them quite clearly, for example, they choose to carry out a transaction with a certain company because they perceive an added value in that company. If this value is not delivered, clients might choose another company to obtain the desired good or service, with the quality they expect. Therefore, clients have considerable power within the ecosystem, integrating markets and sectors that are the goal of several companies. However, clients do not participate in the decisions made by the company. That is, they are not involved in the selection of their board members. These are two characteristics that clearly differentiate citizens from clients, since the former cannot choose what government they pay their taxes to, or with what government they do business with. In this sense, they are subject to legal and regulatory frameworks that eliminate their ability to select the good or service they want. Also, citizens do participate in the election of the main actors in their governments, at least in today’s democratic societies. In these societies, citizens are able to choose representatives at different levels of government.     The second perspective is the differences between companies and governments. In this sense, the first distinct difference is the competition. Companies have to come up with products and services that set them apart from the competition, since there is a common market that many companies target. As for governments, such competition does not exist. A citizen cannot choose between many governments for an administrative procedure. But, although governments are closer to being an example of a monopoly, there are still elements that distinguish a monopoly from a government. For example, in a monopoly, the company will still seek to make a profit from clients since, above all, their goal is to be profitable. This does not apply to governments as they are the authority that run, control and manage the governmental institutions, without looking for a profit in return. It is also important to mention that companies are limited in their operations by a legal framework, which restricts their activities. Whereas governments are entitled to only carry out the actions that the law allows them to. That is, a company can do everything but what the law forbids it to do, while a government can only do what the law allows it to do. This limits a government’s actions exclusively to its powers.   Last but not least, the third perspective is to analyze what clients want when they interact with companies and what citizens want when they interact with their government. In the first case, clients seek for a good or a service for which their are willing to pay or exchange something. That is, typically pay for a good or a service that has the required characteristics that make it valuable to the client. On the other hand, when citizens interact with governments they typically need to carry out an administrative procedure or have access to some benefit, which will not necessarily have a good quality or high level of service. However, it is important to point out that the differences are minimal in this third perspective. Both clients and citizens wish to receive some kind of value when carrying out an operation, transaction or procedure.      In conclusion, us citizens represent a much larger universe that includes clients, but these two concepts should never be considered synonyms. Even though there are certain models that can be employed and extrapolated, it is important to consider some differences, such as the inability by citizens to choose or decide with which government they carry out a procedure, or the inability by governments to undertake an activity that they are not lawfully entitled to do. But what is perfectly possible for governments to do is to provide services of the highest quality so that citizens can get the best possible experience.    This is why I think it is possible to extrapolate concepts and practices from the private sector and apply them to governments, such as high quality in service, attention and communication using multiple channels, personalized service, among others. The adoption of these practices and concepts will allow governments to offer their citizens a high-quality experience, similar to that offered by leading companies in customer service, delivering value to their citizens.  

Author Jorge Antonio Plascencia, Architecture Manager for the Public Sector, Oracle Mexico.   For quite some time, we’ve had individuals and forums saying that governments should be treating their...

​Nestlé BabyNes switched from the old CRM system and found in Oracle Service Cloud a truly omni-channel and flexible platform that is used globally.  If you want to learn more about how Nestlé BabyNes deployed Oracle Service Cloud with Oracle Consulting read Nestlé BabyNes Boosts Customer Satisfaction with Oracle Service Cloud.

​Nestlé BabyNes switched from the old CRM system and found in Oracle Service Cloud a truly omni-channel and flexible platform that is used globally.  If you want to learn more about how Nestlé BabyNes...

Great Cloud Consulting Project More Personal Less Virtual

Great Cloud Consulting Project More Personal Less Virtual