Business Intelligence (BI)

Redwood Shores, Calif. – Oracle Corp. has acquired Micros Systems, a provider of integrated retail and hospitality enterprise solutions, for $5.3 billion. This figure is 27-times Micros’ current earnings.

Micros offers on-premise and hosted cloud implementations of front- and back-office applications. Retail solutions include POS, e-commerce, CRM, merchandise planning and loss prevention.

▲ Customer experience: Poorly maintained stores cost sales and dilute the brand and customer experience. Not giving facilities the funding required to keep stores clean and in good condition will impact the bottom line in that customers will shop elsewhere. Today, more than ever, shoppers have high expectations regarding the look and feel of a store, and they also have many more options from which to choose.

Digital receipts company flexReceipts has named Megan Licursi as its chief marketing officer.

In her new position, Licursi will oversee the company’s strategic vision and the implementation of its marketing approach. Previously, Licursi has helped national brands create and execute marketing programs, and will bring that to flexreceipts, which uses a software for clients to include promotions and social media links in electronic receipts they send to customers.

San Jose, Calif. - EBay Inc. has appointed Craig Hayman as president of its eBay Enterprise business. Hayman brings more than 30 years of enterprise technology leadership including executive positions at IBM’s Industry Cloud Solutions and WebSphere businesses.

▲ Cloud computing, the remote hosting of applications on virtual platforms for on-demand, Web-based delivery, is on the fast track. Analysts estimate that during the next six years, 90% of new spending on Internet and communications technologies will be on cloud-based technologies.

Cloud computing (which at its simplest means storing and accessing data and programs on the Internet — the cloud — instead of a personal computer) is profoundly impacting how IT professionals implement, deploy and manage technology solutions.

It’s a common retail scenario: Last year, several sites deployed consistent schedules and set-points and also staged energy-consuming assets into groups that engaged at different times of the day. These executed measures led to significant kWh savings.

Intense price competition during back-to-school season is nothing new, but the competition now occurs on the shifting sands of an increasingly dynamic online world.

The commerce technology and marketing arm of eBay has a new president. Craig Hayman, a 15-year veteran of IBM, has been named the head of eBay enterprise.

“Technology continues to have a significant impact on the overall commerce landscape,” eBay’s President and CEO John Donahoe said. “Craig’s experience will enhance our ability to serve retailers and brands in this online to offine world.”