El Corte Ingles Optimises Performance and Product Lifecycle Management with Oracle(R) Retail Applications

NEW YORK, Jan. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NRF 98th ANNUAL CONVENTION & EXPO --

    News Facts
    *  El Corte Ingles, Spain's largest retail group, has implemented
       Oracle(R) Retail planning applications to support its expansion plans
       and to help increase profitability through enhanced product lifecycle
       management across its 99 department stores in Spain and Portugal.
    *  The Oracle Retail applications are helping El Corte Ingles, one of the
       world's largest department store groups, to more effectively forecast
       and plan pre-season, track in-season performance, manage markdowns and
       improve margin control.
    *  Utilising Oracle Retail Merchandise Financial Planning
       (http://www.oracle.com/applications/retail/mp/merch_finan_plan.html),
       Oracle Retail Price Optimization
       (http://www.oracle.com/applications/retail/rpo/price_opt.html) and
       Oracle Retail Assortment Execution
       (http://www.oracle.com/applications/retail/rpo/assortment_exe.html),
       management has enhanced visibility to sales performance and can
       identify the impact of its planning, forecasting and pricing
       strategies.
    *  This is helping El Corte Ingles make decisions designed to ensure a
       faster sell-through of goods, deliver greater insight into customer
       preferences and help the business adapt to local market demands as it
       continues to expand the brand.
    *  The implementation marks an important step in the group's strategy to
       become more agile and competitive as it plans further expansion and is
       one of the first times El Corte Ingles department stores has chosen not
       to develop its systems in-house.
    *  El Corte Ingles quickly identified Oracle Retail as the strongest
       proposition for its department store business, providing a strategic,
       scalable planning system capable of delivering rapid value and
       supporting a consistent, high-quality shopping experience for its
       customers.
    *  The Spanish retailer implemented Oracle Retail Merchandise Financial
       Planning within six months and Oracle Retail Price Optimization within
       five months. It is currently implementing Oracle Retail Assortment
       Execution and expects to continue rolling out these applications across
       divisions of the business.

    Supporting Quote
    *  "We are committed to supporting El Corte Ingles in its strategy for
       developing a more agile and responsive business. Our success with
       global department stores like Arnotts and Galeries Lafayette
       demonstrates our strong proposition, not only to the department store
       business as a whole but around our capabilities in planning,
       forecasting and pricing strategies," said Patrick Bohannon, Vice
       President, EMEA, Oracle Retail.

    Supporting Resources
    *  About El Corte Ingles (http://www.elcorteingles.es/)
    *  Oracle in Retail (http://www.oracle.com/industries/retail/index.html)
    *  Oracle Retail Customer Success
       (http://www.oracle.com/customers/industries/retail_dist.html)

About Oracle Retail

Oracle is the number one provider of innovative and comprehensive industry software solutions for retailers -- enabling organizations to serve their customers better by applying insight into daily business decisions for more profitable results. With software that provides supply chain, operations, merchandising, store systems, optimization as well as enterprise applications and infrastructure software, Oracle partners with the world's leading retail companies, including 20 of the 20 top retailers worldwide, to transform the economics of their businesses.

About Oracle

Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) is the world's largest enterprise software company. For more information about Oracle, please visit our Web site at http://www.oracle.com.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020718/ORCLLOGO)

Trademarks

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.