Introduction
Oracle held its Analyst Summit last week in Redwood Shores, California, and covered a wide range of topics. From my perspective as an applications analyst, I heard a few specific things that warrant a deeper look, largely around the company’s focus on delivering better customer experiences (CX), as well as making it perfectly clear the company is focusing on the healthcare industry as a key vertical.
Improving Oracle Fusion Cloud CX
The notion of what constitutes a good customer experience has not changed significantly over time (having expedient service, getting answers to questions or problems quickly, being able to easily make purchase, product returns, and service inquiries), but the introduction of new modalities for interacting with companies has modified the way in which these experiences are delivered.
Oracle’s Executive VP and GM of Oracle Customer Experience Rob Tarkoff spoke to a group of industry analysts and discussed Oracle’s approach to CX. Tarkoff rightly noted that the explosion of different types of data, including first-party data, sensor data, and ambient data, has created a world in which customers, both consumers and B2B, are demanding more expediency, personalization, and ease of interaction with the companies with which they do business. Oracle’s approach, as with other large SaaS vendors, is focused on leveraging both traditional AI and automation, along with generative AI, to meet these demands and ultimately deliver better experiences.
Oracle announced several generative AI features that are designed to reduce the amount of manual work, more efficiently engage with customers, and leverage insights held within organizations’ ERP system or other single source of truth to improve personalization and targeting within marketing, sales, and support functions. The interesting aspect of these features is that they are not being positioned as replacement technologies but as assistive technologies that are designed to help workers be more efficient and productive and allow them to focus their energies on more complex tasks and problems.
However, the messaging is a bit different from Oracle compared with some other vendors. Oracle is incorporating these advanced features by embedding them within the platform and applications. Although Oracle does have an AI “assistant,” the messaging I’m getting seems to be reflective of the view that AI will eventually become table stakes and something that is just inherent in enterprise-grade applications or suites.
To me, this is a winning approach. AI, much like any nascent technology, is often hyped – some would say overhyped – to draw attention to its functionality. However, what many vendors do not focus on enough are outcomes. Oracle still needs to develop stronger messaging around how these features will drive real business benefits, and I suspect they will as these tools move from beta to general availability. But by avoiding the ‘productization’ of generative AI, Oracle is taking the right step to appeal to enterprise buyers, which will need to quantify the business benefits of their application suite and applications as a whole, rather than looking at the compartmentalized benefits of say, automation or AI.
Mr. Ellison Goes to Nashville
Another piece of news that broke a day prior to the Industry Analyst Summit was Larry Ellison’s proclamation that Oracle would be moving its world headquarters to Nashville, largely to tap into the number of healthcare-related organizations in the region. While I suspect that there are other factors at play (e.g., tax incentives), Oracle’s push into the healthcare segment makes a lot of sense from a strategic perspective.
Oracle made several announcements around Oracle Fusion Cloud and healthcare, which appear designed to help healthcare organizations operate more efficiently through automation, AI, and better organization of data. The goal of these enhancements appears to be removing the friction that is often inherent in cross-organizational purchasing processes, providing more visibility and control across operational and functional areas, and creating a more efficient way to identify and upskill workers within the healthcare industry.
Oracle can leverage a few key attributes to enable these efficiencies. Customers that leverage the Oracle Fusion Applications Suite are able to reduce or eliminate organizational data silos, enabling smoother processes and greater data visibility. Oracle has also taken an open approach to integration, working with a wide variety of partners to enable data that sits outside of the organization or platform to be easily ingested and acted upon, which addresses the common, real-world scenario in healthcare data, where patient, provider, and payer data usually resides in many places and within many different systems.
Oracle has been opportunistic in its approach to targeting industries, and its acquisition of Cerner certainly positioned the company properly to further penetrate the market, while providing additional domain expertise. The company has significant experience handling and managing sensitive data, as well as navigating the complex regulatory environment that requires a deft technology approach to personally identifiable information (PII) and other sensitive data. Furthermore, the company has a distinct advantage due to its legacy status as a reliable, enterprise-grade technology platform and infrastructure provider, which is often a key criterion for mission-critical healthcare applications.
Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.
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Author Information
Keith Kirkpatrick is VP & Research Director, Enterprise Software & Digital Workflows for The Futurum Group. Keith has over 25 years of experience in research, marketing, and consulting-based fields.
He has authored in-depth reports and market forecast studies covering artificial intelligence, biometrics, data analytics, robotics, high performance computing, and quantum computing, with a specific focus on the use of these technologies within large enterprise organizations and SMBs. He has also established strong working relationships with the international technology vendor community and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and events.
In his career as a financial and technology journalist he has written for national and trade publications, including BusinessWeek, CNBC.com, Investment Dealers’ Digest, The Red Herring, The Communications of the ACM, and Mobile Computing & Communications, among others.
He is a member of the Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP).
Keith holds dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in Magazine Journalism and Sociology from Syracuse University.
