Issue #16 – 31st May 2013
News and Latest Developments
Oracle Releases latest version of Oracle Service Cloud
On Tuesday Oracle announced the latest release of the Oracle Service Cloud which includes Oracle RightNow and the debut of the catchily named ‘Oracle RightNow Mobile Agent App for the iPad’.
What Oracle is Doing with its Tekelec Acquisition 
At the time, some people dismissed Oracle’s acquisition of Tekelec as a niche purchase within a specific vertical (that of Telecoms). However – with the proliferation of smart devices, mobile applications, and connected services – it’s a far more strategic purchase.
100 Partners Later
The customer outreach arm of the Applications User Experience, or Apps UX, team held its first demo reception in front of non-Oracle people earlier this month. As a rule, Oracle does not share much before an application becomes generally available so transparency like this – allowing customers and partners to get excited about upcoming products – is a positive move.
Functional
And suddenly … Payroll matters again!
Holger Mueller from the Enterprise Software Musings blog discusses Payroll 2.0 and why it’s important. He also proposes some interesting ideas for improving payroll further.
Technical
Oracle CloudWorld in London 
Succeeder Duncan attended the Oracle CloudWorld event in London, and this is his write-up of the event and the key take-aways.
Oracle ADF 11gR2 Development Beginner’s Guide
Alexander Hansal reviews Vinod Krishnan’s ‘Oracle ADF 11gR2 Development Beginner’s Guide’, a book aimed at those at the bottom of the steep slope that marks the learning curve for ADF.
Reading
Who has the Best Position in the ERP Market
A post from Lloyd Gordon on the UKOUG blog discussing which of the Enterprise Software giants is in the best position – and with Fusion applications set to storm the market whether this will turn the tide Oracle’s way.
Trying to Build Better Workers with Big Data 
Work-force science – the term for what happens when Big Data meets H.R. – is a hot topic at the moment. This post covers the essentials, and also mentions in passing that online dating company eHarmony is retooling its algorithm for employee / employer matching and will enter the talent search business later this year!
Watching
Transforming a Day in the Life of a CFO
Videos where someone draws the content on a whiteboard instead of flicking through a slide deck are very popular at the moment. This one is light on screenshots, but still articulates why Oracle solutions – in the cloud – deliver all that is required by a modern CFO.
WEX Blueprint for HR Transformation
A short interview with Kelley Shimancky (VP of Organizational Development at WEX) who outlines the path WEX took to move from a primarily US-only operation to a successful global company with Oracle Fusion HCM.
and finally…
Is it Time to Ditch the Apostrophe?
Found via the NextDraft newsletter, an interesting opinion piece on whether the apostrophe serves a useful enough function to maintain its place in language. It does add clarity where there could be multiple meanings to a passage of text, but it also slows down our typing – especially on mobile devices.
The Oracle Cloud Weekly 