Oracle Announces Largest-Ever Retail Solution Release

Oracle Retail has announced Oracle Retail Release 14 with new features across the entire Oracle Retail solution set, which is the “first major release in four years,” said Mike Webster, SVP and General Manager, Oracle Retail, in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. The solution was offered for “general availability” to customers on December 14.

To formulate this latest launch, Oracle collected “more customer input than we ever had previously,” Webster said. “We have been collaborating with thought leaders in different parts of the world. Initial feedback has been extremely positive.”

During the interview, Webster outlined four new capabilities of the Oracle Retail solution:

1. Completing the customer journey: “Now, whenever you buy, pickup or return, it is all connected,” said Webster. “We also have updated our mobile POS offering with a new tablet edition and built a new set of customer analytics.”
2. Targeting assortments: “With a richer understanding of consumer preferences, and a view of how they interact across all touch points, we can use that information to shape assortments.”
3. Providing Inventory transparency: A single view of inventory data allows inventory to be visible and accessible across all channels for employees and consumers. “It’s great to throw up social and mobile sites and give tablets to store associates, but if we don’t know where the inventory is on a real-time basis, it’s all for naught.”
4. Facilitating Right Time Integration: “We now have the ability to interact between fulfillment and store processes, and integrate the information in a near real-term basis.”

Enabling Commerce Anywhere
Release 14 is an extension of Oracle Retail’s continued commitment to “Commerce Anywhere,” according to Webster. “We are delivering enterprise process enablement to make commerce happen.”

Webster said that all types of business executives should benefit from the new release, including merchants, planners, buyers, supply chain executives and digital store associates. Although, he added: “This is a board-level conversation. The CEOs are providing active governance.”

Oracle will be publicly launching the solution during the NRF Big Show in January.