Mar 02, 2017 10:12 AM EST By Erin Scott, UniversityHerald Reporter

US database technology giant Oracle is teaming with MasterCard to expand digital payments in the healthcare and retail industries. The companies made the huge announcement at the recently held Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain.

According to Business Insider, a new global partnership between US-based financial giant MasterCard and enterprise software behemoth Oracle will provide companies and organizations better access to digital payment solutions and to deliver a streamlined digital payment experience to the retail and hospitality industries.

The partnership will focus on three key areas in the retail and hospitality industries. These are the following: The in-store experiences, Oracle and MasterCard are teaming up to develop and scale enhanced in-store payment experiences which include Qkr!, an iOS and Android app that uses Masterpass, Mastercard's digital payment service, to allow users to pay at select establishments.

Oracle has the ability to bring this offering of Qkr! already integrated into their offering to the hundreds of thousands of merchants they have within their platform.

The second one is operational efficiency, the partnership between the two companies will allow for simpler transactions on the merchant side while preventing the need for vendors to build two separate payment solutions for in-store and online operations. They can now benefit from a fully-integrated digital offering from Mastercard Payment Gateway Services.

The third and the last one is cross-channel consistency. The partnership will allow for pre-integration, which means that Oracle users will now be able to integrate MasterCard digital offerings directly into their existing platforms.

The partnership is said to underscore Mastercard's plans to be a major player in the digital payments space as new players like Apple Pay and Samsung Pay started to make inroads in the digital mobile space.

This is not the first time the two have work together, the two companies have already worked in joint partners such as wagamama, Carluccio's, Young & Co.s Brewery and Geronimo Pubs. The two companies are using Qkr! to let their customers order additional items and pay when they are ready.

As mentioned earlier in Android Headlines, Mastercard has also announced plans to expand the Qkr! platform to six additional markets, which include Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Singapore, South Africa and the United States.

While some waiters have made complaints about their mobile payment solutions that reduced their ability to interact with customers and the reduced possibility of tips, MasterCard is making a bold claim that the Qkr! expansion is about improving customer relationship.

Overall, the partnership between the two companies will enable a whole new kind of payment experience. Oracle's deep software experience and vast resources will be helpful, for instances, to allows businesses to provide a smooth checkout experience to their customers across different payment channels.

See Now: Covert Team Inside Newsweek Revealed as Key Players in False Human Trafficking Lawsuit