Zebra Technologies accelerates growth with Oracle Cloud

Based in Lincolnshire, Illinois, Zebra Technologies makes mobile data-capture devices—for example, hand-held barcode scanners used in stores, warehouses, and hospitals. NFL football players wear Zebra RFID sensors to capture on-field data and generate real-time stats that teams and fans love.

Zebra sells its products and solutions—which also include mobile computers, RFID readers, interactive kiosks, printers, tablets, software, and various supplies—through more than 10,000 channel partners in 100-plus countries. It also sells a wide variety of products to customers in the healthcare, transportation, logistics, manufacturing, retail, public service, and other sectors.

As digital experience became the primary engagement vehicle amid the pandemic, Zebra’s already fast-growing sales to distribution warehouses and logistics supply chains accelerated. The company realized that in order to meet demand, it would have to upgrade its product selection, configuration, and sales ordering process.

To improve order speed and accuracy, Zebra decided to move its sales applications and data to the cloud. The company’s ultimate goal was to improve brand experience and customer loyalty.

With about 8,800 employees worldwide, Zebra had to select a technology partner that could handle sales across languages, time zones, and industries. Data had to be accurate, consistently available, and shared across applications.

To meet these complex needs, Zebra opted for a range of Oracle marketing products, adding to the cloud-based Oracle Cloud ERP, Oracle Cloud SCM, and Oracle Eloqua Marketing Automation services the company already was using. Zebra implemented Oracle Commerce and Oracle CPQ, both part of the Oracle Advertising and Customer Experience suite of customer-facing applications, for their proven out-of-the-box ecommerce and price-quote capabilities. It chose Oracle Commerce because of the product’s strong B2B ecommerce capabilities and seamless integration with Oracle CPQ.

This integrated mix of Oracle Cloud products enabled Zebra to quickly launch an online one-stop shop for its distributors and partners. Features of the new partner ecommerce experience include widgets that show related products in order to support upselling, and accessories and services to round out partners’ quotations.

Zebra also selected the cloud-based Oracle Autonomous Database, Oracle Analytics Cloud, and Oracle Integration and Migration to pass consistent data across applications from multiple vendors, as well as simplify, automate, and improve data analysis.

With Oracle Commerce as its commerce hub, Zebra has improved its service to channel partners.

The Oracle Cloud application automates online sales orders, while Oracle Integration and Migration connects data from Zebra’s other on-premises applications. By consolidating multiple portals into a single ordering dashboard, Zebra makes it easy for partners to search for products that best meet their clients’ needs. With Oracle CPQ, partners can confidently configure price quotes for even the most complex applications, plus review promotions, negotiate the best deal, and take advantage of upsell or renewal opportunities. Moreover, all 10,000-plus partners have the flexibility to configure their own SKUs.

Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse, which includes automated transaction processing, feeds Oracle Analytics Cloud to provide a single view of sales orders in near real time. The solutions scale to support more than 1,000 users, providing response times of only 1 to 2 seconds, plus built-in security.

Another key advantage is zero downtime. “We field fewer partner support calls, because partners are easily able to access their ordering and analytics portals,” says Manav Purohit, Zebra senior manager for business intelligence and analytics. “They’re always available.”

Oracle Autonomous Database frees Zebra’s IT team to focus on delivering strategic insights instead of spending precious time on database administration.