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Premier League set to deliver advanced football analytics using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

Premier League set to deliver advanced football analytics using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

By Jeff Erickson | May 2021

This is a syndicated blog post. Please find the original post here. 

The feats of Premier League players—the goals they score, the passes they make, the endurance they show—seem almost impossible at times. Now the football competition has partnered with Oracle to bring a new level of analysis during live broadcasts, giving the Premier League’s global fan base more ways to appreciate key moments of every match.

As the 2021/22 Premier League season kicks off in August, its unparalleled global audience will see “Match Insights—Powered by Oracle Cloud” in real-time during television broadcasts.

The broadcasts will include insights such as Win Probability based on years of match data, Momentum Tracking, which measures the likelihood of scoring based on a combination of historical and in-match data, and a formation tracker that follows team tactics as they evolve during a match.

“We are always looking at new ways to bring the Premier League to life and enhance the analysis of the competition,” says Premier League Chief Executive Richard Masters.

For Oracle, the idea of linking on-field moves and tactics with terabytes of historical data to spark new levels of wonder is exactly the kind of challenge that Oracle Cloud’s data experts relish, says Toby McAuliffe, Oracle’s senior director of sports analytics.

“The Premier League has a passionate fan base around the world, and we’re part of that fan base,” he says. McAuliffe is based in Seattle, Washington, where Premier League fans gather at pubs on game days (early in the mornings on the West Coast of North America) in their team colors of Leicester blue, Wolverhampton gold, Newcastle’s black and white stripes, and many others, to cheer their teams. It’s a ritual that plays out in big cities and tiny villages around the globe.

 

“We are always looking at new ways to bring the Premier League to life and enhance the analysis of the competition.”

Richard Masters, Premier League Chief Executive

A player uses footwork and speed to overcome the odds.

“We’re thrilled that the Premier League has asked us to bring advanced analytics and insights into all of their broadcasts,” McAuliffe says. Using our cloud platform, “we’ll bring meaningful, fun, innovative insights to every match.”

So much data, so little time

Here’s how this will work. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure will take in real-time data from Premier League partners who use computer vision to track players’ every move on the field. Once in Oracle Cloud, machine learning models will go to work sifting data and uncovering insights, and then push those to broadcasters, mobile apps, and social media channels.

Split seconds count when players clash near the goal.

Premier League and Oracle teams are working together to develop those machine learning models and deliver analytics that fans will love. “We’ve got Oracle product managers involved, key members of our cloud infrastructure team, and some bona fide football experts within the company,” McAuliffe says. Beyond that, “we’re working closely with the Premier League to find the most interesting and useful angles to explore.”

The Premier League had a vision for in-game analytics, and it needed a technology partner to help execute it. “Oracle is a global brand with a great track record in driving innovation,” Masters says, “and we look forward to working together to bring new levels of engagement to fans around the world.”

As Premier League fans, Oracle’s data experts can’t wait to present “Match Insights—Powered by Oracle Cloud” when games kick off in August 2021.

Photography: Getty Images

Source : Oracle Blogs | Oracle Blogs Read More

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In Marketing, employees are adding D&I to Oracle’s DNA

In Marketing, employees are adding D&I to Oracle’s DNA

Mark Jackley
COPYWRITER, BRAND AND CONTENT MARKETING

This is a syndicated post, please find the original article here.

The summer of 2020 was difficult, for many reasons. But for Americans dealing with racial injustice, it was a season of trauma.

“It was something that affected me deeply,” says Faith Humbles, reflecting on George Floyd’s murder and the massive demonstrations that followed. “After taking part in protests, I kept reaching out to friends. The whole country was having conversations about race and social inequality.”

Some of those conversations happened at Oracle, where Humbles is a corporate marketing specialist and national cochair of Oracle’s Alliance of Black Leaders for Excellence (ABLE). She shared ideas with Christina Cavanna, vice president of global marketing operations and chief of staff, and Chip Woerner, vice president of marketing operations. Out of their discussions, Oracle Marketing’s Diversity and Inclusion Taskforce was born. It joined similar D&I groups in other parts of the company, including Development and Oracle’s global business units.

The Taskforce’s mission: make Marketing a magnet for talent from underrepresented communities, an inclusive place where people from diverse backgrounds feel supported and empowered to grow their careers. Currently, the Taskforce has 10 members from across the Marketing organization, including Humbles, Cavanna, and Woerner. It meets every other week and sets ambitious goals, such as hiring 20 diverse early-career new employees this year. To date, 17 have been onboarded with 4 offers pending.

“It’s time to step up our efforts,” says Cavanna. “When we created the Taskforce, we had been trying for years to improve diversity, but hadn’t really moved the needle. We felt like we wanted to put our money where our mouths were, to make a difference here at Oracle and in people’s lives.”

Across the business world, D&I change is increasingly coming from the grassroots. A study by PWC shows that employees’ ideas on diversity “can create value throughout the company,” often in ways leadership isn’t positioned to see. Alicia Vazquez of SHIFT Communications notes that “diversity needs to be authentic.” It won’t work unless it’s ingrained throughout the organization.

Diversifying the hiring pool

   DaLes Allen, D&I Taskforce member and Cochair of the Reston,
   VA chapter of the Alliance of Black Leaders for Excellence.

Woerner believes the D&I Taskforce represents a significant shift in efforts to diversify the pool of job applicants. “We’re being more intentional in the ways we reach out.” The Taskforce has crafted plans to focus on diversity recruiting, both among college students and seasoned professionals. For example, Marketing is leveraging Oracle’s more than 20-year relationship with the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) to provide underrepresented minorities access to the Oracle Corporate Scholars Program and career opportunities. The ultimate goal, of course, is to hire diverse top talent.

The Taskforce has also reexamined Oracle’s Marketing Class Of program, which onboards and trains new hires fresh out of college. To expand the applicant pool, Oracle marketers attend events by groups, such as the Hispanic Information Technology Council (HITEC), Out & Equal, and Fountain Blue’s When She Speaks women’s leadership series. Marketing also solicits referrals from employee resource groups, such as ABLE, Oracle Latinos Alliance (OLA), and Oracle Professional Asian Leadership (OPAL).

Cydney Walls joined the Marketing Class Of 2021 after graduating from Howard University last year. The Class Of program helped her establish the personal relationships that can help a new hire get up to speed—and keep pace with a fast-moving organization. “I was connected to a couple of mentors who I now meet with biweekly,” she says. “We have coffee catch-ups and talk about everything from my career path to favorite TV shows.” The whole class meets every Monday for a team huddle, where they discuss the week ahead and receive training assignments. On Fridays, they sometimes meet for virtual happy hours.

DaLes Allen, a North Carolina A&T graduate who joined Oracle Sales in 2016, agrees that mentoring programs make a difference. “The Marketing Class Of program is a great opportunity to land entry-level experience with a Fortune 100 company. That kind of support will ensure we’re recruiting and retaining great talent.”

New tone and tactics

Allen left Oracle to earn a master’s degree from Georgetown and rejoined the company in 2019 in Advertising and CX Marketing. She’s now a cochair of the Reston, Virginia chapter of ABLE and recently joined the D&I Taskforce. “I’ve seen great change since coming back,” she says. “We have conversations about race and equity and, to give one example, my GM openly acknowledged Juneteenth last year. I’m seeing a different side of Oracle. We’re moving down different paths.”

  Cydney Walls, recent hire and member of the Oracle Marketing
  Class of 2021.

The Taskforce blazed a path when it recommended holding recruitment fairs and advertising them on more diverse social media sites. Two virtual events took place in January, one for early-career candidates, and the other for tenured professionals. The results were impressive.

“For the first event, the one targeting early career professionals, we were hoping for at least 50 attendees,” says Chip Woerner. “We got close to 250, with about 30 really strong candidates. We’ve already hired three new employees from that one event.”

Beyond recruitment and hiring, the Taskforce works with the corporate D&I team and Human Resources on employee retention tactics, such as expanding mentoring programs. Cydney Walls is a fan. “I’d like to return the favor by mentoring someday. When you arrive at an unfamiliar place, building a network matters. I know it’s helped me.”

Listening to everyone

To make it easy to find D&I events, resources, and training, the Taskforce created an Inclusive Culture tab on the Global Marketing Hub. The tab also points the way to employees’ personal D&I stories. Looking outside the company, the Taskforce works with the Brand and Content Marketing teams to ensure the Oracle brand reflects a diverse organization.

And there’s a simpler way to keep people: “Pay attention to what they’re saying,” says Humbles. “Employees at all levels have good ideas and want to be heard.”

DaLes Allen agrees. “People are dealing with so much outside the workplace these days—systemic racism, women’s issues, you name it. When you spend 40 hours a week or more at your job, you want to be heard and valued. People are raising their hands here because they’re passionate about their beliefs and want to keep an inclusive work environment.”

Illustration: Wes Rowell

Source : Oracle Blogs | Oracle Blogs Read More

By Data Mining

Honoring Juneteenth’s history as it officially becomes a federal holiday

Honoring Juneteenth’s history as it officially becomes a federal holiday

This is a syndicated post. Please find the original post here. 

By Alex Chan, Writer, Brand and Content Marketing

June 19 is Juneteenth—the day in 1865 when approximately 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas to declare more than 250,000 formerly enslaved people emancipated by executive order. More than 150 years later, Juneteenth’s historical significance has culminated in the establishment of a new national holiday: Juneteenth National Independence Day.

Next year, Oracle colleagues will mark the day together as an official paid holiday for United States employees. But today, Black colleagues and allies throughout Oracle see an opportunity for a reckoning and reflection on this crucial moment in American history.

“I would like everyone to understand the historic opportunity Juneteenth represents to bring all Americans together to promote greater understanding of freedom, racial reconciliation, and healing from the legacy of slavery,” said Desiree Terrell, senior principal technical support engineer at Oracle.

Jared Williams, a UX researcher at Oracle, explains that regardless of the holiday’s federal status, colleagues should understand how systemic inequity in the US has direct ties to enslavement. Having the consciousness to interrogate one’s actions, values, and perceptions could shift systems that are inherently inequitable, he states.

“I’d want us to collectively see the celebration of Juneteenth as some deeper call to action toward an aspirational, more equitable future,” Williams said.

Reckoning with history

That call to action rings through 16 decades of American history. In 1863, as the US entered its third year of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which states that “persons held as slaves” would be free in the successionist states.

But after the end of the Civil War, news of the Emancipation Proclamation needed to travel through the former Confederacy. It took more than two years for that news to spread and to be enforced, causing enslaved people in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas to remain in bondage until well after the end of the war. On June 19, 1865, approximately 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas to declare that more than 250,000 Black citizens were now free by executive decree. This day is known as Juneteenth.

“I would like my colleagues to know that June 19th is the day that African-Americans celebrate freedom,” says Terrell.

For years, Oracle’s employee resource group Alliance of Black Leaders for Excellence (ABLE) has commemorated the day with various activities. This year, ABLE Austin issued a Juneteenth Challenge, beginning on Thursday with a two-mile walk/run and continuing through to Saturday with the promotion of Black-owned business and support of Black nonprofit organizations through Oracle MyGiving. Additionally, ABLE national and the ABLE Colorado chapter invited guests to join an interactive online session to discuss the historical significance of Juneteenth.

For allies, Juneteenth represents an opportunity to learn about a history that had not necessarily been freely told. Tyler Mangum, a principal user researcher at Oracle, explains the limits of his own awareness to the challenges that his peers face as people of color. For example, Mangum, who grew up in Oregon where Black home ownership was prohibited until 1926, had been for too long unaware of his state’s Black exclusion laws.

“When I think of Juneteenth today, for me it’s a reminder that I need to be an active ally,” says Mangum. “It’s a constant reminder that listening and understanding are the most powerful tools we have.”

Dig deeper

Oracle celebrates Black history
Oracle’s new ABLE leaders
Black History Month at Oracle
Workforce diversity is built on corporate policy and grassroots effort

Source : Oracle Blogs | Oracle Blogs Read More