Artificial Intelligence

New York  -- Experts from Oracle, Google, Red Hat Inc. and other top technology and Internet companies are joining the effort to "address the problems around Healthcare.gov," the  health-insurance exchange website for the Affordable Care Act, according to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The website has been plagued by slowdowns and severely limited functionality since its rollout on Oct. 1.

Waldorf, Germany -- By 2015, retailing will be marked by redefined customer interaction, a new level of real-time customer data, and a global, verticalized supply chain. According to an SAP-sponsored webinar hosted by Chain Store Age on Oct. 29, “Improving Retail Decisions with Big Data and Predictive Analysis,” the plethora of Big Data retailers can now process will make this evolution possible.

Hayward, Calif. -- Posiflex’s new TX4200E is a small industrial PC multipurpose controller that runs virtually any software to drive digital signage, kitchen control configurations, PC replacement, surveillance systems, point-of-purchase displays, POS and service, and wired or wireless vending or kiosk applications.

Waldorf, Germany – Retailers see a need for functional competencies leaning toward technology and data skills, even more than general business and people management. But a new survey of 76 retail managers from top retailers conducted by SAP during the recent SAP Retail Forum North America in Dallas, Texas revealed that 84% of retailers are worried that it will be challenging to find employees with these skills.

ArbiterSports, a leading game management solutions provider, has named Jeremy Brown as the company’s chief technology officer.

According to the company, they brought in Brown because he is a software architect, user-interface designer and quality assurance expert. To address the company’s accelerated growth, a decision was made to divide the responsibilities of CTO and chief infrastructure officer between two individuals. Both roles were previously handled by Troy Black, who will retain the job of chief infrastructure officer.

Promotion and pricing intelligence leader Market Track has acquired Competitrack to bolster its digital and electronic media capabilities and provide richer insights to retailers and consumer goods companies.
 
Chicago-based Market Track provides clients with retail promotion, real-time e-commerce and pricing intelligence solutions in North America while New York-based Competitrack is a leading provider of directly placed product and image data across 22 media channels including TV, print, radio, online display, online video, social and mobile advertising.

Bedford, Mass. – Daily mobile/online retail revenues surge an average of 55% on Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving), but a corresponding surge in attacks drives hard losses, on average, as much as $500,000 per hour or $8,000 per minute. In addition, a new study of 1,100 U.S., and U.K., retail IT staffers from RSA and the Ponemon Institute shows that 66% of respondents expect that disruption would result in customer churn that would damage reputation and brand and could push losses as high as $3.4 million from a single hour of disruption.

New York -- Amazon.com narrowed its loss in the third quarter and posted a better-than-expected 25% increase in sales. The online giant reported a net loss of $41 million, down from $274 million in the year-ago period, in line with expectations.

Amazon reported revenue of $17.1 billion, beating expectations by about 2% on strong sales growth, particularly in the U.S. market.