EMO Trans is a global shipping and logistics company in business for more than 50 years, with offices in 17 countries on 5 continents. As established as they are, you have to stay on your toes. As Andy Grove famously said in his book, “Only the Paranoid Survive” EMO Trans knew they faced potential disruptions from small startups in this new digital age. As a strong Oracle customer, EMO Trans has been able to stay ahead with the Oracle Cloud, IaaS and PaaS solutions and infrastructure. That includes Oracle Docs, WebCenter, and Mobile Cloud Service. 

Marco Rohrer, EMO Trans President and CEO notes “Five years from now most of our business will be done through mobility tools. We are preparing for that now.”  Adding to this, Andy Richardson, EMO’s executive director of IT: “It’s mobile out of the gate. We can easily bring the information we need into mobile apps with Oracle Mobile Cloud Service. We can push technology to clients’ mobile devices. We can say, ‘There’s a typhoon in the East China Sea. Your shipment’s going to be four days late’ well in advance of the problem, and we can service our customers much more efficiently because of it.”

I’ve highlighted a few of the mobile quotes but you should read the full detailed Forbes story here, detailing how an established brand, can take on new digital disrupters with a cloud & mobile strategy and Oracle as their key technology partners. As Rohrer said: "EMO Trans doesn’t just want to keep up. It is using the cloud to be a leader in customer experience and “take a quantum leap over the competition”

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Customer and employee engagement is critical to a successful business model, and in this on-demand world, engagement on and through mobile devices has been shown to yield very positive returns.  Oracle Mobile customers Dubai Airports and National Pharmacies discovered this after using Oracle Mobile Cloud Service to automate their employee processes and to acquire and engage customers. You can read, and watch, each of their stories below:

Dubai Airports

Dubai Airports, one of the largest airports in the world with over 60 million annual passengers and $1.7 billion in revenue, wanted to automate all of its employee lifecycle processes. It turned to Oracle, and was able to use Oracle Mobile Cloud Service (MCS), combined with Oracle Java Cloud Service and Oracle SOA Cloud Service, to build out and fill process gaps, integrate those processes with its existing architecture (which included Oracle HCM Cloud, Oracle EBS-HR and Taleo), and then extend those processes onto mobile devices so that employees could access them anywhere, anytime.  The entire implementation took only 16 weeks to deploy, and the mobile deployment through Oracle MCS only took three weeks!  This solution maximized both employee and HR productivity by making talent development and management completely available through mobile devices.

National Pharmacies

National Pharmacies, an Australian pharmacy group with 100+ stores that has been serving the Australian health community since 1911, wanted to empower its customers and increase both their membership and engagement. The healthcare retailer uses a membership model, where its customers pay an annual fee to secure special benefits and discounts on products that the company sells.  As National Pharmacies expanded, it realized that it needed to meet the needs of modern consumers, with their desires to connect, engage, and purchase through mobile channels. Using Oracle Mobile Cloud Service, National Pharmacies was able to provide 24 hour, real-time access to customer membership profiles and registration/renewal information, as well as access to a mobile purchasing catalog, a health appointment booking tool, and a members-only health knowledge base.  By providing these mobile tools, the pharmacy group reduced new member on-boarding time from 14 days down to several minutes, it reduced call center volume by 30%, and postage costs (member applications used to be mailed) by 50%. Using Oracle MCS simplified several of National Pharmacies' more traditional customer engagement strategies, and has allowed the company to scale in the on-demand world.

Please share these customer stories with your friends and colleagues, and don't forget to follow us @OracleMobile and to join the conversation on LinkedIn.

Chatbots employ a conversational interface that is both lean and smart, and if designed properly, is even charming. They can help people find the things they want and need, in real-time, without the hassle of searching online or navigating a complex customer service organization. Think about how much work it takes to book travel and check-in on an airline.  You have to search for flights, then compare prices, departure times and amenities, then enter your information, and finally choose which add-ons you would like. After that, there’s an entirely separate process for check-in!  What if you could accomplish all of this in one interactive experience by answering only a few questions?  Chatbots are the singularity that both “smart” and “mobile” devices have been waiting for.

But how easy (or difficult) is it actually to build a chatbot? Tamer Qumhieh, Principal Solutions Architect on Oracle's A-Team, answers this question in a blog post that serves as a tutorial on how to create and deploy a chatbot on Facebook Messenger.

First, Tamer discusses how to create both a Facebook page and an actual Facebook app.  Then, he moves into how you can implement a chatbot in your Facebook app using Webhook and NodeJS.  Next, Tamer will show you how to set up your chatbot to receive Facebook messages, and how to test your bot using Facebook Messenger.  Finally, you'll be able to deploy your chatbot to Oracle Application Container Cloud Service (ACCS).

The blog post has code snippets pasted throughout so non-developers should understand that this tutorial is a bit technical. However, all the code can be copied and pasted so no code writing is necessary! It's a very interesting read, could be a fun side project over the holidays, and you can check it out here!

Don't forget to follow us @OracleMobile and to join the conversation on LinkedIn.

Author: Suhas Uliyar, Oracle VP Mobile Strategy 

No Code API Authoring, Zero Footprint SSO, and SMS

I am delighted to announce the availability of Oracle Mobile Cloud Service, Version 3.1. Our goal with every release is to deliver high quality differentiating features. Mobile Cloud Service is ranked as a leader in Forrester Wave and now ranked leader in the IDC Mobile App Development Report. In this latest release, we are announcing Express API, an exciting new feature that allows you to design and author APIs, in less than 5 minutes without writing any code, Zero footprint Enterprise SSO a way to Authenticate and Authorize mobile users without the need to import them to Shared Identity Manager, and SMS notifications for engaging customers in Apps. In addition, we continue to innovate with our Bots platform and Advanced analytics coming soon. We are confident that these features will help your customers build amazing and differentiated apps faster and better than ever before.

Express API: Build APIs at Supersonic Speeds!

Write an API in less than 5 minutes and collaborate with your development team immediately. We are introducing a very unique and differentiated way to build APIs without writing a single line of code. Start with your sample data and auto create APIs with all the methods and end points for your APIs. Create Mock APIs and get your client developers to start building apps without waiting for service developers to implement the APIs. Service developers can implement the services to this mock API anytime and all in line within the same environment in JavaScript with Node.JS. A fully integrated API design, authoring, mock and implementation service in one service and in one place. See video here and test drive it on your Mobile Cloud Service instance today. Click here to learn more about Express API builder. To view an on-demand webcast on this topic, click RESTful APIs and Oracle MAX, Enabling Codeless Development for Everyone.

Zero Footprint SSO

Does your company use a third party identity provider? Now, Customers no longer need to import their users into SIM (Shared Identity Manager) for Single Sign On, thanks to our new virtual user or zero footprint enterprise SSO feature. Simply obtain a SAML token, and then exchange it for an MCS token to access MCS APIs. Click here to learn more about Oracle MCS SSO with Zero Footprint.

Increase Engagement with SMS

Every day, consumers turn to their mobile devices to interact with the brands they love. From making purchases in their favorite retail app, to viewing their flight status, or checking their bank balance, consumers want seamless experiences and relevant communications. So how can you reach and improve your relationships with your customers? With text messaging! Mobile Cloud Service is now integrated with Syniverse, which allows you to send SMS messages to your mobile app users irrespective of their mobile platform. Oracle Mobile Cloud Service (MCS) provides a Notifications API and testing UI to simplify sending SMS notifications to all the devices running your mobile apps. Click here to learn more on enabling SMS.

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