ORACLE EMEA

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O R A C L E

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Oracle continue to lead the technology industry through their extensive portfolio

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IN EUROPE For most enterprises, and certainly most of Oracle’s customers, a drive to simplify Information technology (IT) is becoming of ever-increasing importance. Oracle has become one of the largest technology companies in the world on the strength of its extensive portfolio of software and hardware products to facilitate this simplification.

In this special feature, Europe Outlook interviews senior managers in Oracle EMEA including the Vice Presidents of Product Strategy, Product Development and Security & Identity Solutions. Plus, we take an in-depth look inside the Oracle brand, showcasing how the company sees the importance of cloud, social, mobile and critical applications in changing the way we do business today.

Writers Matt Bone and Emily Jarvis Project Manager Donovan Smith

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SOCIAL What’s Oracle’s view on how social media is changing enterprise business?

Here’s a lesson CMOs and CIOs should take to heart: yesterday’s enterprise social strategy won’t work today, and today’s won’t work tomorrow. Why? Well, let’s examine a few core principles of the social environment.

Richard Beattie EMEA Applications Senior Director, Marketing Cloud & Social Cloud

Social is global. It’s important to realise that at least 75% of the traffic on Facebook and Twitter comes from outside the United States. To borrow a phrase, the world is flat. It’s a global marketplace, thanks in part to social networking, and brands are launching globally. No matter what type it is or where it’s located, a company today needs to have a presence that scales globally.

That’s where social marketing can play an important role. Social takes marketing global - but only if the capability is built in. That capability includes, for example, support for multiple languages, including idioms and slang, and for multiple social platforms, such as Renren, the Chinese version of Facebook.

Social is ubiquitous. At work, employees want to use the same tools, and have the same online experiences they have in their personal lives: content sharing, newsfeeds, messaging, etc.

Similarly, customers want to interact with their vendors the same way they interact with their friends. Today’s consumers don’t buy products; they invest in brands. And they don’t want to interact with a department; they want to do business with a peer.

In terms of enterprise strategy, social entered by way of the marketing department but is rapidly extending its reach across organisations’ various divisions. For example, human resource managers have realised that they can use social capability to help retain their best employees as well as to seek out the best new prospects.

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Social is real-time. Twitter upped the ante in terms of the time element involved in social networking. In the Twitter-sphere, conversations begin, explode and trail off in what seems like the blink of an eye. Unfortunately, the damage to a company’s reputation incurred from a negative Twitter blast can last a very long time.

So, I ask organisations everywhere: How well have you kept up? If you created your enterprise social strategy more than a year ago, chances are you weren’t factoring in at least some of these trends and capabilities. For instance, is your strategy truly global?

Does it extend internally across your organisation? Is Twitter a part of that strategy? And is the lesson of Twitter - listening closely and reacting in real time - a critical element?

How is social affecting modern marketing?

If you’re a marketing leader, you often need to think like an artist. Using the right tone and pitch in your Facebook messages; crafting the storyboard for your 25-second YouTube video; evoking an emotional response with one simple tweet–these things require intuition, a sense of taste, and the courage to act without precedent.

At the same time, marketing executives must understand hard science. If you’re looking to derive customer insights from social data and big data, you need tools that will allow you to be uncompromisingly objective.

That’s why marketing technologies are increasingly appropriating methods from behavioural economics,

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Mannai

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annai Corporation Q.S.C. is a public company headquartered in Qatar. It’s diverse range of business areas include Information and Communication Technology, automotive distribution and service, engineering services to the oil and gas sector, home appliances & electronics, travel services, logistics, geotechnical and geological services, facilities management, trading and commercial representation.

Mannai Group has grown over half a century into a major commercial enterprise employing over 3500 people.

delivery of software application development, integration and maintenance services.

Mannai Trading Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mannai Corporation and is responsible for all trading activities of the Group. The Computer and Office Systems (COS) Division, which is part of Mannai Trading Company, is responsible for all Software, Hardware, IT-network and office equipment related business of the Group.

Techsignia, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mannai, represents Mannai in other geographies.

A profitable entity in itself, Techsignia has established a large offshore development Mannai Corporation is a 64-year old global business conglomerate center in India with geography spreading across Europe, GCC, with operations spanning across Africa and India. We have a MEA and APAC geographies. pool of 200+ qualified technoOne of the key business units at Mannai is the Computer and Office functional consultants and project management personnel. Our Systems Division with Software, clientele cuts across multiple Hardware and Networking industry verticals – BFSI, Telecom, equipment as its principal Utilities, Healthcare and F&B. lines of business. This division currently operates from worldclass Onsite /Off-shore delivery Tel +974 4455 8888 centers in Qatar and Pune, India Email software@mannai.com.qa and has a global “state-of-thewww.mannai.com art” voice/data network for the

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psychology, and statistics–and eliminating unnecessary guesswork in the process.

Here are some of the social marketingrelated topics and questions that modern marketing leaders need to tackle:

tHe Science

It’s vital that marketers understand the technology of social networks, those that are here and those yet to come. what are their functions? what value proposition do they offer marketing?

Marketers must think about ways to integrate those networks into one manageable platform for efficient publishing and facilitating a comprehensive picture of your social analytics. with organic reach dropping and the importance of paid social rising, how can companies work with paid social media partners to quickly leverage top performing content and extend their reach and engagement?

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An enterprise workflow system means tasks can be assigned and managed and customer communications can be routed to the right person for the fastest response and resolution.

All these tools point to an ideal: the social-enabled enterprise, in which social weaves not only through marketing functions, but connects to other enterprise systems such as crM, sales, HR, and fulfilment for the most powerful use of big data imaginable.

tHe art

Tech is far from the answer to every marketing challenge. creativity is not only still vital - it’s even more door-die as content quality separates winners from losers.

As a marketing leader, what skills should you look for in identifying creative talent?

Brands now have to be “liked,” so you can’t realistically proceed with no brand voice and personality.

People don’t connect with entities, they connect with humans. There’s an intuitive art If you’re looking to derive to striking a chord with people and making them want to customer insights from social associate with you. data and big data, you need tools You often hear about how that will allow you to be effective it is to surprise and delight customers. Yes, tech uncompromisingly objective” can show what your audience tends to like, but creating something that truly catches them off guard and sweeps them off their feet is an art. listening to the customer has become every bit as important as Social is but one part of the pushing marketing messages. Your modern marketing ecosystem. social listening tool should alert But perhaps more than any other you to the current hot topic in your component, as a result of being in space, what the public is saying the trenches of day-to-day brand/ about you, where the competition customer relationship building and is messing up so you can offer nurturing, social is where you’re better solutions, how people are likely to find the most even mix of responding to your campaigns, and the overall sentiment for your brand. art and science.

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DelOitte Deloitte and Oracle, a powerful connection

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or more than a decade, Deloitte has been designated by Oracle as Diamond Partner. we are focused on effectively providing implementation-related services in support of Oracle services and solutions, designed to help organisations drive revenue growth and improve operating margins.

Implementing Oracle products effectively requires more than just technical know-how; it requires deep understanding of industryspecific business processes in order to support a company’s business objectives. Deloitte and Oracle team together to deliver services and solutions designed to help organisations solve their most pressing business challenges.

In short, it’s about helping organisations leverage technology as an enabler to solving their real business challenges. we call this approach “business-led, technologyenabled” and it stands at the heart of everything we do.

Our network of more than 13,800 Oracle professionals provides highly skilled, deeply experienced consultants to help support implementations virtually anywhere in the world. In addition we can engage professionals from our other functions like tax, risk and Hr to add value to your Oracle initiative. we have broad access to people who help companies address these issues every day.

For more information, go to www.deloitte.com/oracle Or contact Stef Oud, EMEA Oracle Practice leader, Deloitte (soud@deloitte.nl)

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Deloitte & Oracle Today, everything in your business is connected. But are you prepared to use those connections to drive better results?

With the combination of Deloitte’s business insights and Oracle’s deep technology capabilities, you can.

Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee (“DTTL”), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as “Deloitte Global”) does not provide services to clients. Please see www.deloitte.com/about for a more detailed description of DTTL and its member firms. © 2014. For information, contact Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited.

C l O u D

C O m p u t i n g

CLOUD briefly talk us through the core elements of cloud computing

Richard Garsthagen Director, cloud Business Development

cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, ondemand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This definition from the National Institute of Standards has gained broad support from the industry.

The NIST definition of cloud computing describes essential characteristics, service models and deployment models.

Five eSSential cHaracteriSticS On-demand self service resource pooling rapid elasticity (IT resources are able to scale out and in quickly and on an as-needed basis) Measured service, including chargeback Broad network access

tHree SerViCe mODelS Software as a Service (SaaS) – Applications delivered as a service to end-users typically through a web browser.

Ian Tickle Vice President, EMEA SaaS Solutions

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Platform as a Service (PaaS) – An application development and deployment platform delivered as a

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J.m.t. Al-gHAnim & SOnS J.M.T. Al-ghanim & Sons co.

(JMT) is a kuwait-based company established in 1983 and is the distributor for Oracle corporation in kuwait. Through its local staff, JMT provides all Oracle products, support, training and consultancy services to an extensive list of customers. JMT has been a leading system integrator and implementation partner to Oracle for over 20 years and the company has managed to expand into other markets successfully due to its reputation of quality delivery and project completion.

Over the past three decades, JMT has maintained its reputation as a premiere solution provider in the Middle Eastern region, and the company’s goal is to penetrate new markets such as Africa, Europe, and Asia.

Founded with a primary focus on IT solution delivery, outsourcing and managed services, today, JMT has managed to acquire a number of major projects within the gulf region. The company has a diverse customer base including oil, banking, MrD and government. with its proven success, it is inevitable that the company will continue to flourish and maintain its strong presence in the region.

The cEO, Ms. Haya Al ghanim, is also the chairman of E-Portal Holding co. of which JMT is a subsidiary company. tel +965 22442645 email info@jmtco.com

www.jmtco.com

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C l o u dco m p u t i n g service to developers who use the platform to build, deploy and manage applications. The platform typically includes database, middleware, development and management tools Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – Compute servers, storage, and networking hardware delivered as a service. This infrastructure hardware is often virtualised, so virtualisation, operating system and management software are also part of IaaS as well.

D e p l o y m e n t Mod e l s

Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, ondemand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources”

Private Clouds – For exclusive use by a single organisation and typically controlled, managed and hosted by the organisation’s IT department.

The hosting and operation of private clouds may also be outsourced to a third party service provider, but a private cloud remains for the exclusive use of one organisation.

Public Clouds – For use by multiple organisations (tenants) on a shared basis and hosted and managed by a third party service provider. Public clouds are a form of outsourcing.

The degree of resource sharing varies – shared resources can include some or all of facilities, network, storage, computing servers, databases, middleware and applications.

Hybrid Clouds – When a single organisation adopts both private and public clouds for single and/or multiple applications in order to take advantage of the benefits of both.

Modern cloud computing technology can help organisations see new business opportunities and innovate faster, because less it reduces risk and speeds up provision of resources.

Whereas with traditional IT, organisations have to invest up front

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in resources to build the solution, not knowing if it will be successful. With most forms of cloud computing, this up front investment is replaced by a “pay as you go” model which allows organisations to grow or scale down their IT as needed. This is how Oracle Cloud Solutions – the most complete and integrated cloud offerings in the industry – are helping people at all levels of their organisations succeed in modern business: Oracle Cloud - Oracle’s broad portfolio of software as a service applications, platform as a service, and social capabilities, all on a subscription basis.

Oracle Private Cloud Products - Oracle’s comprehensive portfolio of best-in-class, integrated applications, platform, and infrastructure products and solutions.

Oracle Managed Cloud Services - Oracle’s enterprise-grade, end-to-end managed cloud services across its broad portfolio of business applications, middleware, database, and hardware technologies.

Oracle Services provides services across the lifecycle to help you plan your path to cloud and stay optimised.

What are the main trends in Europe around cloud computing?

Cloud computing is transforming the way businesses operate, streamlining processes and creating greater cost efficiencies. Demand for cloud is exploding. Of the 150 executives interviewed in UK, France and Germany for recent research for the Financial Times, 87% say their firm is already using cloud computing. (82% UK, 84% France, 94% Germany).

What’s driving cloud implementation? Cost is the overwhelming driving force behind corporate cloud implementation. When surveyed, 30% of respondents say that lower operating cost is the key driver. Reinforcing this point, a further 30% say that infrastructure costs are the major factor.

Businesses clearly recognise the transformational effect that cloud can have on corporate balance sheets. By shifting services onto the cloud, the costs associated with traditional IT, such as servers, software, staffing and maintenance, are considerably reduced. This has an impact on both capital and operational expenditure. “By implementing cloud,

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we end up paying a low, predictable, flat-rate monthly fee per user for the software that we use, which means that we can scale up or down as our business needs demand,” explains one UK-based CIO. “When we take on more staff, we can switch on new licences immediately, and similarly turn off the tap if we scale down.”

Improved resource allocation is also seen as important by respondents, with 19% highlighting a more efficient use of people and processes as their main reason for adopting cloud. For IT departments, this implies a transition to new value-added roles.

“The IT workload is reduced because of cloud and the team is able to focus on improving the company by bringing new ideas that could enhance our processes,” says a France-based CIO.

Geographical Differences

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Sales/CRM represents the single-most prominent department for cloud deployment, with 30% of firms implementing cloud solutions in this area. Marketing is the second most popular, with an average of 19% of organisations introducing cloud, followed by operations and logistics (15%) and product development (13%). Research, human resources and accounting amount to less than 10% each.

Where is cloud computing headed what’s next?

When it comes to the cloud, businesses are going to have one immediate responsibility: understanding which applications are going to increase productivity while making the business more efficient. This will involve deploying cloud solutions that will add value to the whole organisation including marketing, HR, the supply chain, customer engagement and sales, amongst others.

Concurrently, the Chief Information Officer will continue to evolve into the ‘Chief Innovation Officer’ – a role that feeds directly into the business goals of the organisation. The CIO will increasingly work much more closely to the CFO and the CEO to drive business growth through cloud applications and infrastructure. All three will become much more tech-savvy.

While there are significant areas of commonality between France, Germany and the UK, there are differences among respondents regarding the drivers underpinning cloud implementation.

This is clearly seen with lower infrastructure The Future of the Cloud also Lies in Openness costs: while 40% of French respondents point to this as the most important factor, only 20% of Customers want choice, and this will drive the development German respondents do so. In part, these national of interoperable cloud technologies that they can mix at will. variations can be accounted for by differences in Businesses will use both public cloud services and private cloud maturity levels. Businesses in Germany are ahead services in tandem across a unified infrastructure. Importantly, of their counterparts these services will be accessible via a range in France and the UK in of devices, many of which will be employeeterms of cloud adoption, owned. These services will also be ‘socialised’, with 94% of German firms making them easy to use and helping to increase in the survey already collaborative working. using cloud. Based on Another key issue, related to openness, our research, it seems is integration. It is essential, in a future, Modern cloud that organisations tend hybrid-cloud world, that cloud-based and oncomputing to de-emphasise the premises applications can talk to each other to technology can help importance of lower ensure an accurate and complete view of an infrastructure costs once organisation’s key data. As Larry Ellison himself organisations see new they start using cloud, put it, in a joint announcement with salesforce. business opportunities with firms shifting focus com: “When you move to the cloud, companies and innovate faster, to new areas don’t expect a multi hundred million dollar of differentiation. project to make their CRM from salesforce because less it reduces Where do firms deploy work with ERP from Oracle. We have to make risk and speeds up cloud? Cloud is seldom that implementation work out of the box.” provision of resources” implemented across an This announcement was the first in a series of entire organisation as a announcements of cloud connector capabilities single project. Instead, from Oracle, all of which go to underline the most organisations adopt importance of integration across a hybrid cloud a bespoke approach to environment for businesses as they plan their cloud adoption. future in the cloud.

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m o b i l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s

MOBILE

How is Oracle making the mobilisation of business applications more secure?

Alan Hartwell Vice President, Security & Identity Solutions, EMEA

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The emergence of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is technological trend which is set to have a massive impact on people’s business lives.

From the business perspective, the savings alone in procurement and network costs can mean that BYOD more than pays for itself - and that’s before you take into account its other advantages, such as increased employee productivity, reduced hardware costs for IT and an improved ability to attract the best of today’s young talent. And for people at work, BYOD offers clear advantages of familiarity and flexibility in getting to grips with the job at hand. So why, might you ask, are businesses not universally embracing such a clearly advantageous trend? It would seem that worries about security means that many companies across Europe are hanging back. Nearly half of businesses (44%) dislike BYOD or only allow it in exceptional circumstances. Security, be it of device or of information, is the main concern expressed by the vast majority of respondents, but that 44% of “BYOD Deniers” are even more concerned, as well they might be, since around two-thirds of them are permitting unmanaged and/or unencrypted business data on employees’ personal devices.

And it needn’t be so. As Alan Hartwell, Oracle EMEA’s VP of Security and Identity Solutions says, “Technologies such as containerisation, end-to-end encryption and device and application management integrated with a unified enterprise identity store can secure BYOD environments.

These are all capabilities available today within Oracle’s mobile portfolio and deployed by Global

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AOT

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OT is a one-stop shop IT services provider company, serving the Gulf market since 2003, with its headquarter in Riyadh. AOT offers IT consulting, IT infrastructure management, IT security solutions, enterprise application solutions, system integration as well as outsourcing, to help companies harness IT to drive operational cost efficiency as well as business growth.

AOT is the leader in e-Service applications, specializing in the e-Government sector. It offers 360 degree view and support of e-Service strategy and roadmap, utilizing very skilled and well diversified IT consultants, developers and solution architects. AOT is proud at serving key and strategic customers and government ministries.

AOT supports customers’ core applications that enable the customer’s business users to run its day-to-day business. It provides the business users with tools and up-to-date data view in running its business effectively and efficiently.

AOT specializes in supporting back office applications that enable the back office operations including ERP, HCM, GRC and EAM. We complement the above by supporting applications that sustains the business operations and infrastructure, such as ECM, Project Management and Network Monitoring. We also support the integration of the customers’ core applications with external applications such as external government entities, and other supporting private sector entities.

AOT is proud to be a Platinum Oracle Partner.

Tel +966 (11) 2910605 Fax +966 (11) 2913328

www.aot.sa

www.linkedin.com/company/advancedoperations-technology

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Fortune 100 customers.

It is vital that stakeholders within the BYOD ecosystem make this clear to their businesses. This should result in a major increase in the number of European organisations gaining the benefits offered

by BYOD.” Oracle itself has a compelling offering here – the Oracle Mobile Security Suite, which can securely extend identity services and policies Henrik Stahl to mobile devices through authentication, Vice President, policy enforcement, Java Product Development and single sign-on between applications. It provides a trusted and independent mobile workspace for enterprise applications, email, and data; securely extends all identity services and policies of the enterprise user to their personal mobile device; and delivers centralised management for auditing and enforcement, reducing the cost of complex mobile environments.

Technology is set to have an increasingly significant impact on our business and personal lives. And these two research projects really underline and bring to life how IT is set to change our businesses and improve our lives.

J AVA

With Java being used by Smartphone developers, how is Oracle pushing Java’s use in other communication mediums?

One of the biggest technology trends in 2014 will be one that remains essentially invisible to the vast majority of people on the planet, even though its eventual impact on humankind will be dramatic. The Internet of Things (IoT) - also known as the Industrial Internet, the Internet of Everything, and the Internet of Nouns - will finally become a reality in 2014, principally due to the rapidly falling cost of manufacturing power-efficient wireless chipsets capable of sending and receiving WiFi and Bluetooth low-energy signals. The future will be significantly influenced by Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication. And Java has a key role to play in the development of the offerings.

The cost of adding connectivity to a device has now fallen to less than US$5.00, and these processors, with their built-in radios, can work for more than a year on batteries.

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Ultimately, these chips may even be able to “sip” energy harvested from their ambient environment, including stray electromagnetic radiation, thermal gradients, or even the rustle of a breeze. This will make them ubiquitous in machines, devices, transportation, and even individuals. While the most ubiquitous IoT device, the smartphone - which already incorporates sensors such as accelerometer, compass, and GPS - exists in hundreds of millions of pockets, 2014 will see cheap, ubiquitous, wireless sensors invade the physical environment. Smartphones will become wireless hubs for these low-energy devices, enabling consumers and infrastructure to become hyper-connected to each other, to their environment, and potentially to any other resource on the Internet.

The first applications of the Internet of Things will be in business processes such as the remote maintenance of industrial machinery, supply-chain optimisation and security, and infrastructure management.

The resultant streams of data, emerging in real or near real-time, will be a boon to networking, storage, analytics, and visualisation companies. The amount of data forecast from “things” is poised to dwarf that from humans. Providing actionable intelligence from these large, noisy, incomplete, and potentially conflicting streams of data will keep statisticians, analysts, and user interface/experience designers busy for decades. Indeed, one of the biggest challenges of the IoT will be turning the data into engaging “nudges” that modify human behavior in sustainable or habit-forming ways. (Of course, for consumer companies, habit-forming may include stoking an addiction to buying their particular product or service!)

There are many reasons why Oracle’s Java Embedded technologies are ideal for smart devices in M2M architectures. Java offers comprehensive functionality for resource-constrained devices, with the highest level of functionality, security, connectivity and scalability in the industry – all delivered through a massive ecosystem of more than nine million Java developers worldwide.

And, as a standards-based language, Java provides code portability in M2M environments, accelerating time to market as new generations of sensor technology emerge. In addition, secure, in-market device software updates extend product lifecycles and allow new services to be provisioned remotely.

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BIG

Paul Sonderegger Oracle’s Big Data Strategist

How should organisations incorporate big data into a competitive strategy?

The twin forces of digitisation and datafication seem to bring big data disruption to every industry.

Long-standing music, news, and television giants are reeling. Uber has taxi companies running scared across the globe. And Google’s might compelled two of the world’s leading advertising agencies to attempt an ultimately unsuccessful merger.

But digitisation and datafication are not specific technologies owned by one firm. They’re methods open to all. But getting disrupted by these methods depends not on whether you’re an incumbent or an upstart. It depends on your big data strategy.

Strategy, according to Michael Porter, the world’s foremost authority on the topic, is choosing to create a unique value in a unique way. It’s not enough to offer a

product or service customers can get only from you. You also have to create and deliver those products and services in ways your competition can’t easily copy. Because every activity in a company both uses and produces information, data can make new products and services, and new ways of delivering them, possible.

But how do you incorporate big data into your competitive strategy?

Here are the four critical steps:

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DATAFY MORE ACTIVITIES Data comes from digitising activities. Putting vibration sensors on calibrated manufacturing equipment, providing mobile diagnostic apps to patients with chronic medical conditions, even automating additional human resource processes adds potential value to your stock of data.

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CREATE PROPRIETARY DATA ASSETS Think of interactions with customers and suppliers as territory to claim before the competition does. If you can get a mobile app into their hands first, you alone capture the data from using it.

When tapping third party data like twitter feeds and facebook posts which may be equally accessible to rivals, combine it with customer or transaction data only you have. Like pouring milk into a cup of coffee, a dollop of private data mixed with public data makes the whole concoction unique.

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USE DATA TO MAKE DATA The very act of using data creates additional data for further use. A financial services firm checks person-to-person mobile payments for fraud with machinelearning algorithms. The data produced by scoring each of the transactions then becomes input to make the algorithm more effective.

This big data flywheel effect is a key part of the most successful online consumer services like Google, Amazon, and Uber.

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FIND YOUR INNER PLATFORM Technology competition tends to revolve around platforms with winner-take-all network effects. This happened with PCs, and is happening again with Smartphones. As digitisation and datafication spread into more industries, platform competition follows. For many companies, this may require some bold thinking. For example, a large bank in Spain started a mobile ad-delivery service that helps retailers tailor offers to consumers based on combinations of banking and social media data, plus geographic data from ATM use. Inviting other banks to participate in this already innovative service could transform it into a true platform whose increased value would more than make up for having to give pieces of the pie to other banks.

Never send to know for whom the big data bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

But an effective big data strategy can turn digitisation and datafication to your advantage.

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E n g i n e e r e d S y s t e m s

ENGINEERED SYSTEMS What’s the business value of Oracle’s “Engineered Systems” approach?

The basic integration of hardware, virtualisation and management software into factory-assembled products has been happening for several years, largely driven by the desire to help the owners and operators of data centers to do more with less cost and risk. Oracle has taken a unique approach that reached further up the technology stack to include, and optimise, the application software that lies at the heart of the enterprise.

For most enterprises, and certainly most of Oracle’s customers, it is the applications (and their enabling middleware and database software) that matter John Abel most. Oracle has become one of the largest Senior Director, technology companies in the world on the strength of our extensive portfolio of software products, Business and our strategy with Oracle Engineered Systems Development has therefore been to develop infrastructure that is both easier for data center operators to deploy and operate and which delivers unique optimisations which enhance the performance, reliability, manageability, efficiency to the owners of the applications and software that are essential to the business and Oracle has taken a unique are driving the lions share of overall IT investment. Simply approach that reached put, Oracle’s Engineered further up the technology stack to Systems are more than include, and optimise, the reference architectures or application software that lies at pre-integrated hardware infrastructure building blocks. the heart of the enterprise” Oracle’s Engineered Systems are each designed to support specific high-value, mission

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TransSys TransSys – The trusted partner for your Oracle Cloud solution initiatives

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s a multiple award-winning Platinum partner and a specialised partner in multiple streams of Fusion Applications, TransSys is an established leader when it comes to Oracle SaaS solutions delivery. We are the go-to partner for customers wanting to adopt comprehensive SaaS solutions from Oracle Corporation. Based in Dubai, TransSys is currently operational in the Middle East & Africa region and has ambitions to reach out to wider European market.

TransSys’s SaaS offerings has got many firsts to its credits including first multi-pillar fusion deployment in the region, first endto-end CXM solutions on the cloud covering sales, marketing and service clouds, first full suite HCM Cloud solution deployment for a bank, first ERP & advanced procurement cloud solution deployment.

www.transsyssolutions.com

SPRY Consult Limited

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PRY Consult Limited (SPRY) is an ICT consultancy company and Oracle Gold partner providing business process re-engineering, supervision, quality assurance and audit implementation services to financial organisations, the government, production industries and corporate business communities in Zambia. Spry also works with NGO agencies and smallmedium enterprises focusing on Growth, Profitability and Investment in the future.

SPRY experts model and analyse increasingly complex applications and their information that sustain today’s fast-paced business processes.

Our vision is to be a leading service provider of end to end solutions by creating innovative business models that provide value, quality and execution excellence to its customers.

Tel +260 955 234016 Email info@spryconsult.co.zm

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E n g i n e e r e d S y s t e m s critical software workloads, from industry-specific applications and ERP to database, middleware, big data and analytics.

Oracle’s unique position as the only vendor offering a complete portfolio of applications, database, middleware, storage, compute platforms, networking, virtualisation, operating systems and management has given us a huge advantage over our competitors which we are augmenting at an already rapid and accelerating pace.

The benefits of Oracle’s Engineered Systems are not at all hard to characterise and are, at some level, common to all of the products in our Engineered systems portfolio: Shorter implementation time

For most enterprises, and certainly most of Oracle’s customers, it is the applications (and their enabling middleware and database software) that matter most”

Better reliability and reduced downtime Better performance and resource efficiency Lower software license and ongoing costs and higher software ROI

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n the past 28 years of using Oracle for banking software development and consulting, it is undisputable that Oracle’s products has successfully covered the length and breathe of business requirements.

Olla Systems Limited has successfully combined a unique advisory approach and variety of Oracle’s cutting edge technology to become a leading partner in Nigeria.

Olla Systems Limited is technologically inclined with the bestproven solutions. Our primary goal is to provide swift and dependable technical assistance, delivery and maintenance of software, data storage as well as security and fraud solutions to our customers.

Tel +234 8087183222 Email olla@ollasystems.com

www.ollasystems.com

Better investment protection and business continuity Oracle customers all over Europe are making the decision to take steps now, in the right direction.

Here is just a sample of the customers in Europe who have gained major business benefit from adopting Oracle Engineered Systems: Banca Transilvania Atos IT Solutions Deutsche Telekom Raiffeisen Swiss Re Immonet GmbH dunnhumby DB Schenker Rail Centrica CaixaBank Kabel Deutschland

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olla systems ltd

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Oracle’s unique position as the only vendor offering a complete portfolio of applications, database, middleware, storage, compute platforms, networking, virtualisation, operating systems and management has given us a huge advantage over our competitors”

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Building bridges between requirements and technologies.

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OPN Specialized Red Stack Partner 2013 – Germany OPN Specialized Database Partner 2012 – EMEA OPN Specialized Database Partner 2012 – Germany OPN Specialized Database Partner 2011 – Germany OPN Specialized Database Partner 2010 – Germany

Direct contact Gabriele Bardelang Tel.: 089 – 944940 - 141 Gabriele.Bardelang@inforsacom.com

inforsacom Informationssysteme GmbH Martin-Behaim-Strasse 19 – 21 63263 Neu-Isenburg www.inforsacom.com

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H u m a n

R e so u r c e s

HUMAN RESOURCES How can forward-looking HR professionals gain advantage using analytical tools?

Andy Campbell HCM, Cloud Sales Evangelist

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in high-quality, no matter what device they are viewing it on.

Given that the complexity of HR data increases as a business expands The traditional business analysis tools its offerings, a tool that quickly available to most HR executives often consolidates this data to help perform limit their ability to shape company a holistic HR investigation becomes an strategy, and provide little more than indispensable analytics asset. When the ability to scrutinise backwardHR data is combined with additional looking efficiency metrics to gauge company data, the operational success. When one compares a business’ payroll costs to its overall expenses however, divides that traditionally exist within a business are broken down. With the it becomes evident that its people are, as the saying power to overcome this silo effect in a goes, its most valuable assets. With this in mind, it whole new way, companies can convert becomes critical to provide HR directors with a set what were once discrete sets of static of comprehensive analytical tools that simplify the synthesis of relevant data and promote the realisation information into powerful business intelligence. For example, a retail store of valuable business intelligence. manager who collects HR information The more complete a business’s data is, the relating to employee income, and more thorough its analytics will be. By embedding studies these in light of broader the availability of HR data into their workforce’s sales, profit, and customer footfall business processes, organisations can promote a steady flow of relevant information. This ultimately data, will gain unique insight into his or her staff’s performance means that people that will in turn enable better have access to the right workforce management. information when and The ability to anticipate where they need it, and changes in workforce behaviour can therefore perform and performance is extremely their jobs more easily constructive, and gives and more effectively. businesses an unprecedented In addition, keeping The ability to in developing and the data channel open anticipate changes head-start retaining their top talent. to employees even in workforce behaviour Predictive HR analytics provide when they are mobile businesses with the insight they will ensure that this and performance is need to make more proactive exchange remains active extremely constructive” personnel decisions. This enables at all times. Therefore, HR executives to develop an ideal HR analytics tool forward-thinking strategies should also be pervasive, aimed at ensuring that their and allow businesses present and future hires make to share relevant the most positive long-term information with their impact on their business. employees quickly and

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REACH NEW

HEIGHTS Africa Outlook is a fantastic platform to share success stories and find ways of growing your business in Africa. To discuss your options, contact Ben Weaver ben.weaver@outlookpublishing.com

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C u s t o m e r E x p e r i e n c e

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE How does an organisation become the brand of choice?

Brian Curran Vice President, Product Strategy

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to the brands they interact with, including immediate response via the social media channels that have The unifying thread between the brands consistently voted the world’s become so central to peoples’ lives.

In addition, they expect all “best” is a high level of brand equity. communications with a brand to be These companies consistently strike a visceral and highly emotional chord seamless and efficient, especially as the shopping experience now crosses with consumers.

To build exceptional brand equity, multiple platforms – online, mobile, inbusinesses must first establish what store – in the course of one purchase. their brand stands for explicitly. Brand equity The Role of Emotion in Brand Equity is built on emotion, and ultimately customers’ perceptions of a company will impact how it The way that customers think about defines its brand image. As such, the extent brands is essentially through a series to which businesses can gain insight into this of associations made up of feelings, sentiment determines in large part how well their sounds, images and understandings. brand is received.

Every one of these has an impact on To tap into customers’ emotions, businesses how the brand is perceived, its equity need to anticipate their needs and intentions and ultimately whether a purchase and engage with them is made or not. As proactively based on such, brand equity is their learnings. built through eliciting For this approach to positive emotional succeed, companies must responses from ensure that every aspect customers; the goal of their business is geared of the business should towards delivering on be to shape brand their brand’s promises. associations so that To build exceptional To achieve this, they positive associations first need to fully map come to mind brand equity, peoples’ customer journey, easily and, in turn, businesses must first including how they predispose consumers establish what their brand inform themselves, how to their brands. they interact with their If businesses can stands for explicitly” products, and how their provide control and relationship with a brand ease of engagement evolves over time. to customers then Customers today are this emotional need motivated by two drivers: is largely met. If the desire for control and customers are able the desire for ease. People to contact the brand today expect 24/7 access however they want

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C u s t o m e r E x p e r i e n c e In practice this requires something very special.

Intrapreneurs bring an entrepreneurial flair to the business.

They are disruptors that take on the How can companies be successful critical task of forcing-through muchby meeting customers’ needs? needed internal innovation by legacyTraditional means of boosting customer burdened companies.

A major challenge for businesses engagement are no longer enough, today is to align their internal as people today have become more structure with how their brand is discerning than ever and have begun perceived by consumers. People to impose their own terms on how the do not see the silos – marketing, brand experience is delivered to them.

Businesses now need to connect with sales, service and so on – that have customers on an emotional level – a task historically divided companies. What that has become very difficult to achieve they see and interact with is one consistent brand and image. in today’s fast-shifting market.

Intrapreneurs realise every Established companies have struggled department across a business must with the scale of change required to adapt in-full, and have instead opted for come together for it to start considering strategy in simpler, more unified terms, and fulfil the needs a half-way house. As a result, many of of modern customers. them are failing to make the wholesale Put plainly, those businesses that still operate transformation required to prosper in in siloes will fail. They will be supplanted by today’s consumer-driven environment. organisations that are tightly-woven, with To overcome the limitations that legacy systems place on their evolution, processes and methodologies specifically designed businesses need to turn to the customer to get the organisation working as one to deliver the very best customer experiences. The key for (CX) specialists in their company, organisations now is to and empower them ensure they have the by tapping into their right intrapreneurial “intrapreneurial” spirit. talent in place to To lighten the load, help instigate and what’srequired is drive this disruptive nothing less than a The key for transformation before fundamental change in organisations now legacy-free competitors how businesses think win the race for and work. The rule book is to ensure they have market share. For needs to be torn up the right intrapreneurial customer experience and organisations need talent in place to help professionals the onus to look afresh at what is on them to grab the the customer journey instigate and drive this challenge by the horns looks like today – how disruptive transformation and see what they can customers engage with before legacy-free do to change how their brands and how they business understands fulfil their needs in a competitors win the race and engages with its meaningful way. Based for market share” customers. They must on what they find they transform themselves then need to rebuild into intrapreneurs their entire organisation before they can transform around the new the company. customer-centric reality. and get through immediately to have their needs met with minimal fuss boosts satisfaction and the brand’s equity increases accordingly.

Steve Walker Vice President, Corporate Communications Oracle EMEA

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E nq u i r ies Tel (UK): +44 (0) 1603 559 151

ORACLE EMEA

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Software sales:

S U B S CR I P T I O N S

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Applications and midsize companies:

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