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cloud-service-specialist
Uma N. takes the cake this month with 10 certifications completed! She earned her Oracle Hyperion Planning 11.1.2 PreSales and Sales Specialist, Oracle Planning and Budgeting 2015 Cloud Service Specialist, Oracle Business Intelligence Cloud Service Specialist, Enterprise Performance Reporting 2016 Cloud Service Specialist, Oracle Business Intelligence Foundation Suite 11g PreSales Specialist, Oracle Exadata Database Machine 2014 Sales and PreSales Specialist, Oracle Essbase 11 Implementation Specialist, and Oracle Hyperion Planning 11 Certified Implementation Specialist Certifications! Wow!
The achievements don’t stop there!  Sonal K. earned her Oracle E-Business Suite R12 HCM CIS certification, and Shoba P. and Lynn S. earned their Oracle E-Business Suite 12 Financial Management CIS certifications in Receivables and Payables, respectively.
Excellent job, everyone!  Keep up the good work!

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kscope
Exciting News!  ODTUG’s Kscope 2016 will be held right in our backyard, in the heart of Downtown Chicago at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers on June 26-30, 2016.  The conference promises to provide high-quality presentations, first-class participants, and valuable knowledge on all things Oracle Developer Tools.
We don’t want you to miss this great opportunity, so we are offering you, our valued customers, a $100 discount toward your registration to Kscope16 with special code AST!  Enter this code at checkout in your registration process and instantly receive $100 off!
Ideally situated on the Chicago River, within walking distance of Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile and Millennium Park, your only challenge will be fitting in all that Kscope and Chicago have to offer.  We are looking forward to seeing you in June for the big event!
Visit http://www.kscope16.com/for more information and to register with exclusive discount code “AST”.

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ebs
Today’s Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) customers face a variety of day to day maintenance challenges, such as keeping up with patches and point releases and freeing up resources to perform user testing.  Some organizations also struggle with out-of-sync instances or difficulty supporting user enhancement requests.  Given these challenges, the potential move to the cloud can seem daunting.  Don’t despair!  Adopt proven practices now to alleviate existing pain and position your organization for a seamless transition to cloud services in the future.
Join AST on September 17, 2015 at 1:00 PM CST for a free webinar on Preparing Today for a Future in the Cloud.  We will present our validated strategies to increase efficiencies, improve quality, raise user satisfaction levels with your EBS system, and prepare for a move to the Cloud.  Several customer case studies and experiences with adopting these strategies will be shared.
 
Click here to register.

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ast-hires
The busyness of summer may be coming to an end, but our recruiting and hiring team at AST is still hard at work. In August, we have added 6 new employees to our team!
‘Welcome aboard!’ to Bryan R. in our corporate office, Dave J. in our Hyperion practice, and Scott H. in our CRM team.  Our Middleware practice has really grown, with the addition of three new employees: Michael K., Patrick N., and Vikas T.
Welcome to AST Corporation, everyone!

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oaug
On Friday, August 14th, four golfers represented AST at the 12th Annual Pittsburgh OAUG Golf Outing.  The “AST Foursome”, along with 56 other golfers from the Oracle community, enjoyed a day of networking and friendly competition at the Buffalo Golf Course in Sarver, PA.  AST has been active at Pittsburgh OAUG events, and has been a sponsor and a participant in the annual golf outing, since 2013.  The AST Foursome did very well at this year’s outing, finishing 7 under par!
 
The annual event is hosted by the Pittsburgh OAUG (PittOAUG) Committee.  PittOAUG was founded in January 2001 as a local geographic users group dedicated to Oracle Applications, serving the PA, WV, OH, and MD areas.
 
For more information on PittOAUG events, visit their website at https://pittoaug.oaug.org/

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oracle
More than one-third of customers prefer to contact brands through social channels versus traditional channels (i.e., phone and email). Oracle recognizes this trend and has improved both its Service and Social Clouds in its latest release to accommodate this.
 
Today, competitive advantage is established when organizations provide a unified experience where and when the customer wants. Oracle Service Cloud now features a community self-service function, wherein customers can contact others with similar inquires. Oracle Social Cloud now allows business users to upload or attach notes based on social media posts, allowing organizations to “improve service quality, drive efficiencies, and improve resolution time”.  The latest release of both of these products includes extended social listening and analytics capabilities.  A focus on improving customer experiences drives more revenue for these organizations, which is why Oracle is always improving CX structures.
 

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ast-employee
Let’s congratulate Usha V. for becoming AST’s Employee of the Month for August 2015!
 

Usha is being recognized for her management of one of our largest projects. She has been proactive in working with team members to resolve issues before they become bigger problems. She has shown flexibility and resourcefulness when managing the ongoing implementation project. Usha has been a great communicator with her team and treats both the team and the client with respect while they are surrounded by scrutiny and working long hours. Her openness to suggestions and approach has been greatly appreciated. Keep up the good work Usha!

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ast-employee
Congratulations to Patrick N. who received the Superintendent’s Award of Merit from the Chicago Police Department on Tuesday, August 18, 2015.  This award is granted to any department-sworn or civilian member for an outstanding accomplishment that has resulted in improved administration, improved operations or substantial savings in manpower or operational costs, wherein the member has gone far beyond the requirements of their normal assignment.  Patrick was recognized for going beyond his normal responsibilities as the Project Manager of the Troubled Buildings project. The Troubled Buildings project integrated various City of Chicago systems providing valuable information to first responders, which greatly impacted their safety and the safety of the community.  Patrick received a medallion, ribbon bar and certificate in recognition of these contributions to the Chicago Police Department.

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event-at-astIt may be baseball season in Chicago, but AST is targeting a different pitch as we field two teams for a Cricket match on Friday, August 28.  We will take the field from 3:30 – 7:00 PM at Nike Park in Naperville, IL.  AST’s avid Cricket fans will be schooling the rest of us on bowling, batting and scoring. It should be entertaining, if not entirely productive. Come on out and join us for the fun!

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openworld


It’s still more than two months until Oracle OpenWorld, but our plans are heavily underway.  We cannot wait to unveil our new booth in the South Exhibit Hall (Booth #1921).  We are also excited to have two confirmed sessions!  Our expert DBA team will present “Configuring a DMZ in an Oracle E-Business Suite 12.2 Environment with Reverse Proxy”.  In addition, our talented Hyperion Team will be presenting alongside one of our customers in a panel regarding “First Movers: Results from the Cloud Frontline- EPM”.
Stay tuned for more updates as OpenWorld approaches, including a special offer for any OOW attendees who “share” an AST OpenWorld-related post on LinkedIn!