Oracle in full bloom after signing Interflora contract

NEWS Interflora in the UK is to use various modules from the Oracle E-Business Suite of applications to help it cut costs and streamline its operations. The companies have not disclosed the exact value of the deal, which will affect 2,000 florists in the UK and Ireland, but it is thought to be worth several million pounds. Interflora will use Oracle Portal, Oracle Financials, Oracle Workflow, Oracle Discoverer, Oracle Purchasing, Oracle Telesales and Oracle Order Management modules. The florist said it looked at enterprise software offerings from several vendors before going ahead with Oracle, with which it expects to save 10 per cent in operational costs over the next three years by managing customer orders and invoicing centrally. Another aspect of the newer technology is that it allows Interflora to capture orders so they can later be mined for future business intelligence. Interflora operations director Maurice DeCastro said in a statement: "Our members will be able to concentrate on what they excel at - floristry."