Oracle Announces Next Generation of Oracle® Health Sciences Clinical Development Analytics

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Oracle Announces Next Generation of Oracle® Health Sciences Clinical Development Analytics

New Features Expand Visibility into Clinical Programs to Help Increase Productivity and Clinical Effectiveness while Helping to Reduce Costs

DIA Annual EuroMeeting, Copenhagen, Denmark – March 27, 2012

News Facts

Focused on helping health sciences organizations increase the productivity and effectiveness of their product development programs, Oracle Health Sciences today introduced the newest version of Oracle® Health Sciences Clinical Development Analytics.

Driven by input from industry partners, the comprehensive business intelligence application includes new functionality that expands visibility into clinical programs and studies, improves the quality and timeliness of clinical trial data and helps to simplify and prioritize the rapidly expanding responsibilities of study managers, clinical data managers, and site monitors.

The enhanced solution helps to increase resource utilization by delivering advanced dashboards specifically tailored to clinical trial roles. It features expanded drill-down functionality and key performance indicators that identify areas requiring action or attention, such as targeting underperforming sites.

The solution enables organizations to merge data from multiple clinical trial sources, providing a unified view across operational systems on a single screen. New de-duplication technology supports reports that combine both clinical operations and data management information to monitor enrollment progress, optimize productivity at site visits and help to reduce monitoring-related travel expenses.

Oracle Health Sciences Clinical Development Analytics also delivers visibility across the entire portfolio of clinical trials, which enables greater insight into subject recruitment and site performance to empower managers and clinical monitors to better target resources to key sites which will help accelerate trial completion.

With more than 100 pre-built reports and over 500 pre-built measurements and attributes for custom reporting, Oracle Health Sciences Clinical Development Analytics can provide immediate business benefit out of the box, while providing an extensible framework for adding additional metrics aligned to targeted business processes.

• To enable anytime, anywhere access, the solution can be used in conjunction with Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile application for Apple iPhone and iPad to give mobile users access to the latest performance management information.

Supporting Quote

“Clinical trial sponsors and their CRO partners, navigating increasingly complex and lengthy development cycles, are intently focused on improving data quality and clinical program productivity while reducing costs,” said Neil de Crescenzo, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Health Sciences. “The newest version of Oracle Health Sciences Clinical Development Analytics, which features integrated content, expanded dashboards, and optimized reporting, delivers the insight that study sponsors, managers, and monitors require to achieve these goals and accelerate the delivery of new products to the market.”

Supporting Resources

Oracle in Health Sciences

Follow Oracle Health Sciences on Twitter

Join the Oracle Health Sciences Community on Facebook

Oracle Health Sciences on YouTube

About Oracle

Oracle engineers hardware and software to work together in the cloud and in your data center.  For more information about Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL), visit www.oracle.com.

About Oracle in Industries

Oracle industry solutions leverage the company’s best-in-class portfolio of products to address complex business processes relevant to health sciences, helping speed time to market, reduce costs, and gain a competitive edge.

Trademark

Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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American Restaurant Industry Starts to Simmer, Says GE Capital

Press release:


27 March 2012

American Restaurant Industry Starts to Simmer, Says GE Capital

Increased consumer spending and foot traffic boost expectations

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--27 March 2012-- The American restaurant industry is starting to simmer. Consumers are spending more on meals, and foot traffic at establishments is improving, albeit from a diminished base, according to the 22nd edition of the Chain Restaurant Industry Review, released at this week’s Restaurant Leadership Conference by GE Capital, Franchise Finance. As sales trends recover, operators are translating those positive feelings into a greater willingness to invest in their businesses. And with increasingly accessible credit, they’re able to commit to higher capital expenditures.

“The restaurant industry has come through the upheaval of the past several years by listening closely to the consumer and adapting to their changing tastes – and they’ve done it well,” said Agustin Carcoba, president and CEO of GE Capital, Franchise Finance. “Depending on their segment, brand and focus, operators have emphasized food quality, service quality, menu options and other factors that will lead to renewed growth this year and in the years ahead. Even better, operators did it all while managing operational costs.”

Consumers spent $406.6 billion at restaurants in 2011. For 21 consecutive months, they spent more at restaurants than grocery stores, and that trend is expected to continue. Last year, quick-service restaurants (QSR) accounted for 48.0 percent of that figure, while full-service restaurants (FSR) counted for 48.1 percent. The QSR category includes limited service, fast casual, take-out locations and snack and non-alcoholic beverage bars, while FSR includes family, casual, high-end casual and fine dining establishments.

Operators’ improved expectations can be partially attributed to positive results that were sustained throughout last year. QSR same-store sales grew 3.2% last year – ahead of the FSR rate of 2.4%. QSR benefitted from eight consecutive periods of growth due to more consistent traffic, while FSR relied more on menu price increases and higher average checks.

“Restaurateurs are no longer in survival mode; now they’re planning for the future,” said Trey Brown, commercial leader of GE Capital, Franchise Finance. “To capture that growth and maintain a competitive advantage, they’re investing in their businesses by building new stores, remodeling existing ones or investing in new equipment.”

The level of liquidity available in the restaurant space continues to improve. Merger and acquisition activity – an indicator of the popularity of the restaurant industry among investors – increased last year. Total syndicated volume in the restaurant space increased more than 26% to almost $12 billion in 2011. Strategic buyers returned, such as American Blue Ribbon Holdings LLC, Darden Restaurants and Landry’s Inc. Private equity firms were also active; for example, Golden Gate Capital acquired California Pizza Kitchen.

“We expect restaurants to continue to be appealing acquisition targets because of the ongoing increases in food dollars spent away from home, as well as the scalability of this business model,” Brown added.

About GE Capital, Franchise Finance

GE Capital, Franchise Finance is a leading lender for the franchise finance market via direct sales and portfolio acquisition. With more than 30 years of experience and $10 billion in served assets, we serve over 3,000 customers and over 18,000 property locations. We specialize in financing mid-market operators with multiple stores in the restaurant and hospitality industries. Our team of industry experts will work with you to help develop your own growth plan with access to our proprietary industry research and customized tools. More information is available atwww.gefranchisefinance.com.

GE Capital offers consumers and businesses around the globe an array of financial products and services. For more information, visitwww.gecapital.com or follow company news via Twitter (@GECapital).

GE (NYSE: GE) works on things that matter. The best people and the best technologies taking on the toughest challenges. Finding solutions in energy, health and home, transportation and finance. Building, powering, moving and curing the world. Not just imagining. Doing. GE works. For more information, visit the company's website at www.ge.com.

CCC Information Services Inc. Leverages Oracle Fusion Middleware to Help Optimize Efficiency, Increase Scalability and Support Performance Levels of its Claims Management Platform

Redwood Shores, Calif. – March 26, 2012

News Facts

CCC Information Services Inc. has selected an Oracle Fusion Middleware-based solution to help the company realize greater efficiency in its development environment and to deliver improved performance to its installed customer base of approximately 21,000 collision repair facilities, 350 insurance companies and a range of other claims industry participants.

CCC is the nation’s leading provider of advanced software, workflow tools and enabling technologies to the automotive claims and collision repair industries.

CCC is a customer advisor to Oracle through the Oracle Fusion Middleware Strategy Council.

With Oracle WebLogic Server, Oracle SOA Suite 11g, Oracle Coherence and other Oracle Fusion Middleware products, including Oracle Identity Management, Oracle JDeveloper, andOracle WebCenter, CCC can simplify its technology environment and minimize development time, improving the company’s ability to quickly deliver enhanced solutions to customers.

CCC leverages Oracle WebLogic Server as its corporate standard to deploy enterprise applications in a highly available, high performance clustered environment.

Oracle WebLogic Server will also support a roles-based workflow to provide CCC customers with more intelligent routing and automatic approval for streamlined processing of claims.

CCC uses Oracle SOA Suite to manage processing for its more than one million daily claims-related transactions, which must be processed within a set timeframe. These transactions are of varying sizes and are distributed into the application grid, which then useOracle BPEL Process Manager to successfully process the transactions.

CCC is also in the process of consolidating several server racks into a dedicated Oracle Exadata Database Machine, to speed the processing of queries to its data warehouse.

Supporting Quote

“CCC’s relationship with Oracle has proven to be very valuable,” said Pervinder Johar, CTO and EVP Global Technology and Products for CCC Information Services Inc. “The Oracle solution has helped CCC improve our internal development run rate and offer more creative solutions for our clients. We are also pleased that our participation on the Oracle Fusion Middleware Strategy Council allows us to give direct feedback to Oracle executives based on our experiences with Oracle products and technologies.”

Supporting Resources

Oracle Fusion Middleware

Oracle Cloud Application Foundation blog

Oracle WebLogic Server on OTN

Connect with Oracle WebLogic Server via Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

About Oracle

Oracle engineers hardware and software to work together in the cloud and in your data center.  For more information about Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL), visit www.oracle.com.

Adobe Announces LiveCycle Enterprise Suite 3

Adobe Announces LiveCycle Enterprise Suite 3

News Release from EMC - Documentum xCP

Global Financial Services Firm Increases Capacity 35% With EMC Documentum xCP

Viteos Capital Market Services Ltd. Automates Business Processes to Achieve Global Compliance and Gain Competitive Advantage

HOPKINTON, Mass. - March 7, 2012

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) today announced that Viteos Capital Market Services Ltd. has significantly improved operational efficiency, achieved global industry compliance, reduced customer onboarding time, and expanded its business, gaining a 35% increase in transaction capacity by deploying EMC® Documentum® xCP, an integrated platform for building dynamic business solutions and an action engine for Big Data.

Customer Benefits:

• Increased Efficiency and Capacity by 35% — As a result of deploying Documentum xCP, Viteos enhanced efficiency and capacity by automating its organizational processes to reduce paperwork and errors. Time to onboard new clients has decreased from months to weeks.
• Achieved Global Industry Compliance — Automated enforcement of policies, process repeatability, and full audit trails enabled Viteos to reduce risk and achieve both regulatory and legal compliance in each country in which the company operates.
• Significant Cost Savings via Paperless Environment — Viteos dramatically reduced operational costs by employing Web-based access and eliminating paper-based processes resulting in dramatic cost reductions, improved worker productivity, better decision making, and enhanced service levels across its global clients.

Customer Challenges and Solution:

Viteos Capital Market Services is a global fund administrator and operational outsourcing service provider to the alternative investment community, offering tailored solutions for hedge funds and institutional investors. With a global delivery model combining real-time technology with 24x7 operations worldwide, Viteos required a more robust and scalable information management infrastructure that would support its growing business, and extend its existing Microsoft SharePoint interface without disrupting its current users.

Viteos began working with EMC as part of a project aimed at improving operational growth, meeting regulatory compliance, and increasing efficiency. Viteos selected Documentum xCP as the back-end document repository and leveraged its existing SharePoint deployment as the front-end user interface providing transparency to its customers while saving time and costs associated with training.

Using Documentum xCP, Viteos was able to establish a standardized platform, which included EMC® Captiva® for integrated enterprise capture, business process management (BPM), and document management, along with a broad feature set, enabling the company to address applications and processes in every area of the business. Tasks that were once tedious and error-prone are now automated and seamless. The solution, which is fully compliant with industry and legal regulations, also includes VMware for virtualization, reducing data center power and the number of physical servers.

Viteos has received several accolades for its business transformation achievements with the most recent recognition by Workflow Management Coalition and BPM.com. Viteos was selected as a finalist in the 2011 Global Awards for Excellence in BPM and Workflow for implementing an innovative business process solution to meet strategic business objectives.

Customer Quote:

K.B. Venkataramanan, senior vice president and CIO of Viteos

"We were outgrowing our previous infrastructure and needed a solution that could automate repeatable manual processes, reduce paperwork, meet compliance standards, scale up or down to meet changing business environments – all while keeping costs down. Not only have we met all our goals with Documentum xCP, we have grown our business by 15 percent year over year."

Executive Quote:

Rohit Ghai, Vice President and General Manager, Content and Case Management Group, EMC Information Intelligence Group

"EMC is pleased to work with Viteos to transform their operations. The financial services market is a key vertical market for us, as compliance, operational efficiency and delivering optimal customer service are key requirements. Global brands around the world rely on the EMC Documentum brand for meeting those and a variety of other needs. Increasing business transactions 35% and growing 15% year over year are impressive accomplishments; we're thrilled to play a part in the success at Viteos."

Additional Resources

• Learn more about EMC Documentum xCP.
• Learn more about EMC Captiva.
• Join the EMC Documentum communities on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, SlideShare, the EMC Community Network
• Join the EMC Captiva communities on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and SlideShare

Optimism About Year Ahead

News release from General Electric:

31 January 2012

Construction Equipment Dealers Optimistic About Year Ahead, GE Capital Survey Reveals

77% of respondents say the best time to increase inventory levels is first half

IRVING, TX – Construction equipment dealers are looking forward to improving trends in 2012 while acknowledging the challenges facing the industry, according to survey results released today by GE Capital, Dealer Finance.

Forty percent of respondents said they expect sales to increase 3%-5% this year, while 25% said they expect sales to increase 6%-8%. A full 77% said the best time to increase inventory is within the first half of 2012.

At the same time, 57% cited slack demand for new construction – both residential and commercial – as the biggest hurdle that construction equipment distributors have to overcome this year.

Slightly more than half of respondents said improvement in the U.S. economy will have the greatest impact on the construction industry. The other important factors affecting the industry are access to credit for end users (23%) and reauthorization of the federal highway spending bill (20%).

When asked what single category of construction equipment they believe will be in greatest demand this year, 37% cited earthmoving equipment and 23% cited specialty equipment such as pavers, compactors, drills, crushers and grinders.

The full survey results are available here:http://www.gelending.com/misc/Construction_Flash_Survey_Results_1-12.pdf

To stay on top of developing trends, participants can sign up for GE Capital’s Construction Industry Research Monitor here:http://www.americas.gecapital.com/insights-ideas/industry-research-monitor

“We’re dedicated to helping our customers be successful,” said Kristi Webb, commercial leader of GE Capital, Dealer Finance. “In addition to financing, we provide construction industry insights and expertise to help dealers and end-users tackle their biggest challenges so they can thrive in the year ahead.”

The Construction Equipment Distributor Survey of 65 respondents was conducted Jan. 18-19, 2012. Respondents included a variety of construction industry participants.

About GE Capital, Dealer FinanceGE Capital’s Dealer Finance business provides commercial leases and loans ranging from $5,000 to $25 million for the wholesale and retail financing of equipment to thousands in North America in over 12 industries. With long-term relationships and dedicated channel support, Dealer Finance works with small, medium and large enterprises as well as state and local governments. From web-based application submittals to online account management, its dedicated industry professionals bring knowledge and expertise to every relationship.

GE Capital offers consumers and businesses around the globe an array of financial products and services. For more information, visitwww.gecapital.com or follow company news via Twitter (@GECapital).

GE (NYSE: GE) works on things that matter. The best people and the best technologies taking on the toughest challenges. Finding solutions in energy, health and home, transportation and finance. Building, powering, moving and curing the world. Not just imagining. Doing. GE works. For more information, visit the company's website at www.ge.com.