Business Intelligence (BI)

New York - The use of cloud-based enterprise storage and production applications, as well as enterprise spending on cloud technology, has increased in the past year to a tipping point. According to the Verizon 2013 State of the Enterprise Cloud Report, between January 2012 and June 2013 the use of cloud-based storage grew 90% and use of cloud-based memory increased 100%, mostly due to the shift of business-critical applications to the cloud.

Other findings of the report include:

To provide customers with true omnichannel shopping capabilities, retailers must internally align all store and ERP functions. Mike Burge, founder and CEO of integrated retail enterprise platform provider MI9, recently spoke with Chain Store Age about how effective omnichannel retailing works and how retailers can leverage IT systems to achieve success in an omnichannel environment.

What are the main objectives of omnichannel?

Schaumburg, Ill. – Sixty-six percent of warehouses plan to expand their IT investments by 2018, a 71% increase in the number of warehouses currently planning an IT expansion. A recent survey of 328 warehouse IT and operational professionals in the logistics, manufacturing, retail and wholesale market segments also indicates that 26% of respondents reported that company management views warehouses and distribution centers as an asset that can drive growth for the business.

Other results of the Motorola Solutions Future of Warehousing Survey include:

Bangkok, Thailand -- Berli Jucker PLC, (BJC), a Thailand-based provider of CPG goods, is adopting the Vision Suite enterprise platform from Jesta I.S. Merchandising and POS solutions are among the Vision technologies BJC is employing.

BJC will leverage the Vision Suite for managing its multi-channel retail operations in Thailand and Vietnam. Upon implementation, BJC will have an end-to-end integrated system delivering greater ability to analyze store strategy and visibility over retail decisions.

New York -- Improvements in housing and labor probably helped boost U.S. consumer spending last month. A Bloomberg survey of 59 economists in advance of the official Commerce Department July spending figures on Aug. 30 indicates purchases of goods and services increased 0.3% last month after a 0.5% increase in June.

Dublin, Calif. – Epicor Software announced the appointment of Noel Goggin as senior VP and general manager of the Epicor Retail solutions business reporting to Epicor president and CEO Pervez Qureshi.

In this strategic role, Goggin will have operating responsibility for the Epicor Retail solutions business which delivers a comprehensive retail management suite representing a complete range of advanced solutions for specialty, soft goods, and general merchandise retailers.

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Social Reality, a developer of platforms for social and digital advertising, has elected Malcolm CasSelle to the company's board of directors.

Redwood City, Calif. -- Sur La Table is deploying eCommera’s DynamicAction SaaS solution, which provides timely analysis of marketing, merchandising and inventory data, giving Sur La Table actionable insights and recommended business changes to improve omni-channel performance.