ORCL: Oracle Announces Merchandising Solution for Mid-Market Retailers

Oracle today announced Oracle(r) Retail Merchandising Standard Edition (SE), a highly scalable merchandising solution that helps lower the cost of entry and speed the time to benefit for retailers of all sizes. Oracle anticipates that this value proposition will be particularly attractive to mid-market retailers, while also appealing to larger retailers with speed and simplicity requirements. Based on the same technology as the proven Oracle Retail Merchandising System, this new solution provides a simplified approach to merchandising that enables retailers to profitably and efficiently execute on core merchandising activities such as inventory replenishment, purchasing and vendor management across multiple channels.

With Oracle Retail Merchandising SE, retailers can improve the return on their merchandising systems investment by up to 90 percent and may accelerate payback by as much as six months. The benefits of Oracle Retail Merchandising SE stem from three sources: speed-to-benefit, reduced deployment and system operating expense, and reduced hardware procurement and maintenance expense.

Speed-to-benefit and reduced deployment costs are enabled by powerful new Oracle Retail Merchandising SE toolsets and accelerators designed to streamline and standardize data conversions, business processes and configurations. With these accelerators, implementation times and costs may be reduced by 40 percent or more. Additionally, Oracle Retail Merchandising SE's certification on Linux with Oracle's Grid Computing can help reduce hardware, procurement, and system maintenance costs by up to 80 percent.

"There is a need among retailers of all sizes for proven merchandising solutions with a low cost of entry and the option to scale as their business grows," said Hung LeHong, Research Vice President in Gartner's Retail Industry Advisory Service.

Oracle Retail Merchandising SE includes functional enhancements that help reduce complexity inherent in merchandising processes. Enabling retailers to implement all the core functions of merchandising and turn on more complex functionality as needed, the solution allows retailers to enable efficiencies and manage change as dictated by the needs of the business. The reduction in complexity within the Oracle Retail core merchandising solution leverages the fully integrated and globally proven solution suite to enable a faster implementation at a significantly reduced cost.

"Retail businesses of all sizes must streamline their business systems and unify business practices across their entire organization in order to be successful," said Duncan Angove, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Oracle Retail. "Retailers from across the globe have helped us design and build what we believe to be the ideal combination of simplicity and flexibility into a single package. Oracle Retail Merchandising SE is easy to understand, simple to maintain and cost effective to own."