Posted on by AST LLC Posted in BI, Business Intelligence, Cloud — No Comments ↓
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Cloud BI tools level the playing field for small companies.  Armed with the same tools as their larger counterparts, small companies can compete like never before!  Cloud BI provides an integrated, affordable solution to any organization.  The new Cloud subscription model provides any business, including smaller entrepreneurs, access to Business Intelligence that they may not have previously had with costly, on-premise solutions.
The Cloud advantages are many.  Subscription levels allows solutions to grow as the business grows; Cloud makes BI more useful than ever for organizations, big and small, by integrating data from all corners of the enterprise, and it no longer requires a huge team and years of work to get up and running with a BI solution.
A Cloud solution can be implemented in a short amount of time and can integrate more data than ever before.  When it’s time to upgrade, hosted software in the Cloud removes the excess worry that existed with on-premise upgrades.
Brad Peters discusses this topic further in this article from CIOReview Magazine.

Posted on by AST LLC Posted in Cloud, Innovation, Middleware, On-premise — No Comments ↓
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Oracle has made great strides in becoming a leader in the Cloud business, including a giant leap with its announcement in a March 24thpress release titled, “Oracle Unveils Suite of Breakthrough Services to Help Simplify Cloud Adoption by Global Corporations”. How does the software giant’s announcement affect your IT?
Many organizations are working to leverage the value of Cloud computing. In evaluating Cloud providers, Oracle’s Cloud services have become a stand-out choice; however, security and privacy regulations such as PCI-DSS, HIPAA, and FedRAMP have made it challenging to take advantage of the Cloud services. Oracle is now extending its Cloud to an on-premise appliance providing the features of Oracle Cloud. Organizations will now have full control of their data, enable the same tools and APIs of the Oracle Cloud, and move workloads between on-premise Cloud and the Oracle Cloud, while remaining compliant with regulations.
If your IT department has been looking to leverage the value of Cloud, but has faced challenging regulations, it now has an alternative. Oracle Cloud at Customer now gives you the flexibility of Cloud computing, while keeping everything on-premise.

Posted on by AST LLC Posted in Growth, HR, Human Resources, New Hires, Team — No Comments ↓
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Springtime brings fresh flowers, green grass, sunny skies, and new team members to AST!
We are excited to welcome Deepa V. to our ERP practice and Joe R. to our Hyperion practice.
Welcome to Team AST (and thanks for bringing nicer temperatures with you)!

Posted on by AST LLC Posted in Collaborate, Collaborate 16, Conference, OAUG — No Comments ↓
We are having a great time here at Collaborate 16 in Las Vegas this week!  If you haven’t already, visit us at booth 1301 to talk about all things Oracle, how we can help you transform your business, and the future of Oracle Applications in the Cloud!
AST has the information you need from some of the industry’s most knowledgeable professionals.  Visit us at Booth 1301 to learn more and take a chance at winning a Bluetooth speaker – we’re giving 24 of them throughout Collaborate!
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Posted on by AST LLC Posted in Certification, Certified, Continuing Education, HR, Human Resources, Oracle Certified Professional — No Comments ↓
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We continue to be amazed by the achievements of our team!  AST team members have earned a total of 29 certifications since our last announcement!
Our ERP practice has added 22 certifications!
Sekhar N. is now an Oracle Applications Cloud Reporting 2016 Implementation Specialist, Oracle Applications Cloud Security 2016 Implementation Specialist, Oracle Fusion Applications 2014 User Experience Specialist, Oracle Fusion Financials 2014 Data Implementation Specialist, and an Oracle Fusion Financials 2014 Reporting Implementation Specialist.
Venu R. is now an Oracle Applications Cloud Data 2016 Implementation Specialist, Oracle Applications Cloud Reporting 2016 Implementation Specialist, Oracle Applications Cloud Security 2016 Implementation Specialist, Oracle Applications Cloud User Experience 2016 Implementation Specialist, and an Oracle Financials Cloud 2016 Sales Specialist.
Srinivasa G. is now an Oracle Applications Cloud Data 2016 Implementation Specialist, Oracle Applications Cloud Reporting 2016 Implementation Specialist, and an Oracle Applications Cloud Security 2016 Implementation Specialist.
Ali A. is now an Oracle Enterprise Manager Application Quality Management PreSales and Sales Specialist, Chris W. is an Oracle Enterprise Manager Application Quality Management 11g Essentials and General Product Support Specialist, and Ashish N. is an Oracle Applications Cloud Data 2016 Implementation Specialist, as well as an Oracle Financials Cloud: Receivables 2016 Certified Implementation Specialist.
Fatima G. completed her General Product Support Specialist certification, Raj J. completed his Oracle Applications Cloud Data 2016 Implementation Specialist exam, and Lisa R. is now an Oracle Human Resources Cloud 2016 Implementation Specialist Consultant.
Our Middlewarepractice also completed 5 certifications this month!
Abhay K. completed his Oracle IT Architecture Release 3 Essentials exam, Goutham G. is now an Oracle SOA Suite 11g Certified Implementation Specialist, Divya S. completed her Oracle SOA Suite 12c Presales Specialist certification, and Patrick N. completed his Oracle SOA Suite 12c Presales and Sales Specialist certifications.
Erwin R. from our BIpractice is now an Oracle Essbase 11 Certified Implementation Specialist.
Stephanie R. from our Marketingteam also completed her Oracle Planning and Budgeting 2015 Cloud Service Specialist certification.
Great job, everyone!

Posted on by AST LLC Posted in Collaborate 16, Conference, Education, OAUG, Schedule Builder — No Comments ↓
collaborate
Beginning this Sunday, April 10, OAUG Collaborate 16 will be offering attendees hundreds of educational sessions on various Oracle topics, ranging from E-Business Suite, to Hyperion, to everything Cloud!
Collaborate offers more sessions than are humanly possible to attend, which is great, but sometimes this abundance can seem overwhelming!  Where do you start?  How do you choose between sessions?  How can you get the best value for your money by attending the most sessions?
Save time and confusion by using Collaborate’s schedule builder!  Here you can search Collaborate 16 educational sessions by track, product, industry, or keyword, and even save your personalized agenda for easy access during the conference.
Don’t spend your time at Collaborate next week wandering around, confused about where to go; plan ahead with Collaborate’s schedule builder to save time and get the most value from the conference.
Don’t forget to add AST’s sessions to your schedule.  We’ll see you there!

Posted on by AST LLC Posted in Employee of the Month, HR, Human Resources, Recognition, Recognized — No Comments ↓
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Congratulations to Fatima G. for earning recognition as AST’s Employee of the Month for March 2016!
Fatima is being recognized for her ongoing dedication and hard work. Since her first day at AST’s Boot Camp, she has proven, time and again, that she is an outstanding consultant and a great team player. Notably, despite jumping into a project already in progress, she has produced outstanding results with emphasis on quality and quantity of delivery. She has quickly grasped her role and has taken her responsibilities seriously in building an excellent relationship not only with her functional peers, but also with the technical team. She has set a high standard for herself and her team, and we appreciate her hard work and late hours.
Congratulations, and keep up the great work, Fatima!

Posted on by AST LLC Posted in Office Culture, Office Events, Top Workplace — No Comments ↓

Thanks to Dog Patch Pet & Feed of Naperville for bringing these sweet pups in to visit us last Friday!

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Posted on by AST LLC Posted in Collaborate, Collaborate 16, OAUG, Oracle Applications User Group, Trade Show — No Comments ↓
COLLABORATE 16: Technology and Applications Forum for the Oracle Community (#C16LV) kicks off April 10th in Las Vegas!
This video of a recent webinar is a great opportunity for Oracle users who have never been to COLLABORATE to understand the conference experience, learn how to find and select educational sessions, gain approval to attend, and check out exciting networking events, perks and extras.
Learn more about this exciting annual event and register at http://collaborate.oaug.org!

Posted on by AST LLC Posted in Growth, HR, Human Resources, New Hires, recruiting, Team — No Comments ↓
ast-hires
At AST, we not only strive for growth, but quality growth.  We have achieved this goal this month with some fantastic additions to our team!
We have welcomed Subhasis G. to our Management team in our Managed Services practice, and Priyanka M. to our Enterprise Performance Management practice.
We are excited about the skills and experience these two bring to their roles.  Welcome to Team AST, Subhasis and Priyanka!