Oracle – Future Trends

IFBTA Admin December 13, 2016

Rob – Hi this is Rob Grimes with the IFBTA and I have the pleasure of this morning of being with Dale Grant, the Senior Vice President of Global Food and Beverage for Oracle. So welcome Dale and welcome to the IFBTA.

Dale – Thanks Rob, good day to you! It’s great to be here.

R – So we brought up the word global and we brought up the world regional. And obviously, Oracle being a major player in servicing all industry segments, big and small, and then regional and global, it must really open your eyes to a lot of things. So, we know the IFBTA is sharing on an equal basis between the supplier partners and operator members, but what are the trends that you’re picking up on both regionally as well as globally that you are seeing out there given your reach?

D – The great question and I think this is the dynamic that’s important. If you think about all the customers in the industries that we serve, everything from a single operator to these large multinational brands. There are common threads that being able to engage and have those discussions, there are common threads that, as we think about our ability to invest, and if you think about Oracle as a technology company, it’s really clear that our ability and resources and technology and leverage in R&D and spend, is important. So for us to be able to talk to customers about those common threads, but also the ability to accelerate innovation. Mobility is a great example. We see mobility as such an important dynamic in all types of restaurant operations so us being able to listen to how we invest in the technology and engineering and development, Rob, really gives us a common thread that touches not only the single restaurant operator that might have multiple sites, or those large, more chain operations that may have global nature. So mobility would be one of those dynamics of how we deliver a guest experience and leverage mobility.

R – Do you think that some of the global trends are universally global at the local level and regional? And those that really require regional tweaks and nuances – the laws of physical printing being one of them, those are one of the things that’s not everywhere – how does an organization like Oracle react and respond to the need for certain things within regions or countries?

D – If you think about it, the one thing we have in a very good place is that we operate in over 180 countries, today. So we have an understanding of the dynamics of those countries that all have different fiscalization needs. Think about also within Oracle, we have a dedicated R&D organization that wakes up every day thinking about hospitality. And then we have the global consulting organization that is focus just on food and beverage as well. So we have the resources and the focus so it’s not a general observation. We actually focus on those things so we want to maintain that global and have those global standards and we have a group it’s absolutely focused. So as we think about the rigor that goes into releasing those products and solutions, we make sure that they go through that product lifecycle, that peel and process to deliver our systems, Rob, so that’s were absolutely dedicated and focused in that area.