Analysts: Oracle applauded for 'practising what it preaches`

Any company doubting the effectiveness of customer relationship management (CRM) and the ability to leverage the Internet to impact a company`s bottom line, should think again in the light of what Oracle has achieved in these areas over the past three years.

So says Joe Heunes, director of support services at Oracle SA, commenting on the success of the company`s evolution to a proactive service organisation and the accolades it has received recently from several industry commentators.

"Two years ago our call centres were handling 500 000 in-bound calls a quarter. We reduced that by two-thirds last year and this year we have achieved a similar reduction. By implementing robust self-service knowledge repository, technical repositories and forums, it`s now down to 60 000 calls a quarter with the average time to resolution slashed by 41%," he says.

The company has combined the Internet and its own CRM software to provide customers, as well as its support engineers, with a variety of innovative tools and services aimed at resolving customer`s software issues faster.

"Given that we have increased our customer base substantially over the same period, we can safely claim to have improved our customer satisfaction levels considerably - not to mention favourably impacting our bottom line."

Oracle`s performance in the customer support arena has been applauded by at least four industry commentators recently.

Forester Research says it is a "testimony" to how seriously Oracle has heard its customers, while the Service and Support Professionals Association (SSPA), a leading industry organisation for IT support professionals, has presented Oracle Support Services with its 2002 STAR Award for excellence in customer support service.

The award in the "Innovative Support" category recognised Oracle`s efforts to enhance the Oracle customer experience by delivering proactive technical support services. These new services include bringing its call centre online in the form of OracleMetalink.

This customer-facing application includes a robust self-service knowledge repository, technical repositories and forums, and the ability for customers to electronically file and track service requests.

Currently, 80% of Oracle customers worldwide submit service requests via OracleMetalink.

"Another innovative service is Oracle DirectConnect [ODC], in terms of which we connect directly to customers` environments to provide remote services, diagnostics, and collaborative online problem resolution in a shared environment.

"We`re experiencing up to 25% faster resolution on service requests by using this remote facility," says Heunes.

Oracle`s Outsourcing offering is also resulting in higher customer service levels as the company hosts and manages customers` Oracle technology or applications to provide proactive support services, including managing, monitoring and maintaining the Oracle software directly on behalf of the customer.

AMR Research in its 'Can the Internet Change Everything for Oracle Support?` Report of October 2002, comments on Oracle Outsourcing saying: "Oracle is investing in tools and expertise with its own products to get economies of scale, claiming it can deliver operations services for up to half the cost of running your own system."

Oracle Outsourcing customers are experiencing up to 50% faster problem resolution and log an average of 50% fewer service requests per year.

"In addition, we`re discovering and resolving up to 60% of operational issues proactively without customer involvement," adds Heunes.

The Giga Information Group has also applauded Oracle on adopting a "philosophy of service and support that is much more customer-centric than it was before".

In its report 'New Oracle Support: Re-engineering the Process` October 2002, Giga comments: "Oracle obtains considerable hard benefits from these changes. Oracle Support Services is the company`s largest source of revenue, at about $4 billion per year. Obviously, service interactions are growing dramatically, yet Oracle Support Services has reduced its operating costs by 15% during the last three years."