As Published In February 2007

Management Insight

Lasting Success
By Karen J. Bannan

Working together brings rewards to Oracle executives and customers.

When business executives talk about the relationship their company has with its customers, the word partner is overused, according to Keith Block, Oracle's executive vice president for North American sales and consulting. Many companies claim to be their customers' partners, but few actually are.

That's not the case at Oracle, however, where creating a long-term relationship with a customer is one of the most important things an executive can do. Oracle's executive sponsorship programs are designed to facilitate the connections that help customers get the maximum value from their relationship with Oracle—as well as providing Oracle with valuable feedback that helps guide its product development and services strategies.

"Customers need to know that they have somebody they can reach out to, somebody who can be there with them, proactively working on projects, all the way through; otherwise you can't guarantee customer success," emphasizes Block. "Partnership on paper means nothing. You really have to commit and engage, and both sides have to be able to expect that."

Doing What It Takes

Executives at Alcoa—the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based aluminum and packaging manufacturer—are firsthand witnesses to this way of thinking. In the early 1990s, the company implemented the newly launched Oracle Financials applications and built its common chart of accounts for the company around Oracle. Over the next few years, the relationship between the two companies grew and solidified. Oracle Financials helped the corporation turn an eight- or nine-day closing process into a simpler three-day process. Alcoa continued using the software, growing along the way from a US$10 billion company to one that's worth more than US$26 billion today.

Later in the 1990s, another software implementation—one that would be rolled out companywide across continents—ran into implementation issues. When the issues arose, Oracle went into high gear to ensure that it held up its end of the partnership. Oracle executives, including Block, met with Alcoa to review the problems and figure out how to make the deployment a success. Although most software companies perform customer service and troubleshooting, Oracle took its support several steps further by sharing what Kevin Horner, chief information officer of Alcoa North America, calls a common vision. "Oracle was willing to do whatever it took to make the installation work," says Horner.

Alcoa executives realized quickly that Oracle was committed to the relationship, says Horner, which made a big difference. In fact, to facilitate the software implementation, several Oracle executives stayed in constant contact with members of the Alcoa team. The implementation was a success, and the relationship continued to flourish. Even today, with no deployment issues, the level of Oracle support remains high—exceeding Horner's expectations.

"I can still hear [Oracle chief executive officer] Larry Ellison saying, 'Don't finish our software. We'll do that. We build software. You take it and run your business with it,'" recalls Horner. "We challenged that process with the entire organization—the consulting side and the development side—and then said, 'Fine. That's what we want to do too.' It's been a tough road for both companies, balancing the need to 'get done' with the need to 'stay vanilla,' but for the most part, we've made it work together."

Connection and Innovation

"This type of customer relationship is business as usual for Oracle employees—from the salespeople to the development team to the executive board," says Block. "It's a great thing. Companies want to know that if they deploy our software and solutions, they're betting on the right horse. They want more than just a technology provider. The level of interaction and support makes them realize that they have found what they're looking for," he says. "Customers know that there is somebody who is there when they go live and that it's not just about when the contract is signed. They need to know that they have a real partner. And they do."

John Wookey, Oracle's senior vice president of applications development, says that his connection with West Point, Pennsylvania-based Colorcon—a global manufacturing company that develops and supplies products for the pharmaceutical, food, and nontoxic printing industries—has helped both companies propel their businesses years ahead of the rest of the industry. Several years ago, when Oracle had just committed to supporting the open source operating system Linux, Perry Cozzone, Colorcon's chief information officer, came to Wookey with a proposal. His company would be one of the first to implement Oracle's technology on the Linux platform.

"Perry signed up for Linux very early and said he saw the same thing that we did from a cost- and price-performing standpoint," explains Wookey. "He knew that involved moving the database, the applications, and everything over."

Colorcon was taking a chance on Linux and Oracle's dedication to it, but it was a bet that Colorcon acknowledges has paid off, says Wookey. The partnership resulted in an implementation of Oracle Database, Oracle Application Server, and Oracle E-Business Suite. The deployment has cut Colorcon's production lead times in half, helped it achieve 99-plus percent inventory accuracy rate, and elevated its customer service and satisfaction.

"This success is a direct result of a strong partnership," says Wookey. "The relationship between Oracle and Colorcon was advantageous for both companies: Colorcon helped us validate our Linux model, and we provided them direct and immediate access to the people who developed the products to ensure that they had a successful implementation," he says. "We've done the same validation process with Colorcon around process manufacturing."

Long-Term Relations

"The reason this customer interaction is so effective—on both the executive side as well as the traditional customer service channels—is because Oracle executives and employees aren't just worried about problems that come up. They are looking to help customers with future growth as well. And if that includes looking out at the world and connecting Oracle customers with outside partners, that's what happens," says Block.

"I am regularly asked by customer executives who they should work with," he explains. "For example, if a customer wants to reach out to a system integrator, I am typically asked about the relationship I have with executives in that firm. Would I recommend them? Would I endorse them? We're in an interesting position where we really are taking on the role of the trusted advisor." That advice extends past partner recommendations into project planning, rollout scheduling, and business processes, he says. Oracle executives will often spend time consulting with a customer's board of directors to go over development and deployment strategies. It's a service that helps foster customer confidence in Oracle as well as in their own future growth, Block says.

Block recently did just that, for a leading financial services institution. "I think it was important for this customer to know that Oracle would continue to stand behind them," he says. "It was important that Oracle had recommended an approach, a structure for the project, and had created a governance model around how the project would be controlled. At the end of the day, they had a higher degree of comfort that they had made the right decision, and that they were going down the right path."

Just a Phone Call Away

Customers can get the most out of their relationship with Oracle, says Don Imholz, vice president of Information Technology for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, by checking in with the company even if they don't have any pressing problems or issues. "In the case of Boeing and Oracle, we're meeting typically a couple of times a year," explains Imholz. "It's a mix of Boeing executives visiting Oracle and receiving briefings from the sales team, making sure that the agenda fits the needs of both parties, and Oracle executives coming here to get more immersed in the business and understand our needs."

Jeff Henley, Oracle's chairman, works closely with Boeing's executives. He agrees with Imholz and goes even further, saying that these meetings, along with periodic e-mails and phone calls, help create the type of synergy that Imholz—and every Oracle executive—values most.

Executive Insight This is the first in a series of articles that offers a behind-the-scenes look at how Oracle executives all over the world work with customers to create mutually beneficial relationships based on customer technology and business objectives. Working with customers to enable and showcase their successes is an essential part of the Oracle vision. Oracle executives play an especially crucial role in realizing that vision. For more information about executive sponsorship at Oracle, e-mail customerforums_ww@oracle.com.

"That's one of the roles that I, as well as my executives, play: to help develop a deeper relationship with customers and unlock more value from Oracle," Henley explains. "To be a trusted advisor and follow up on problems, if there are any. Sometimes Oracle executives may point out some things or open up doors inside Oracle that the customers may never have found on their own."

A Constant Give-and-Take

This is why Wookey suggests to his customers that they should always feel comfortable reaching out to Oracle executives. Although Oracle account managers and customer service representatives can handle most questions and problems, Oracle executives also want to hear about anything that might concern or interest their customers, he says.

"It is important that there's someone at Oracle at the executive level that customers can contact if they ever have an issue or challenge or want to talk about an opportunity," says Wookey, who spends time with many customers every week, reviewing their current implementations and future plans and sharing Oracle's experience, knowledge, and lessons learned from other customer experiences.

"Executive sponsorship is a huge priority," says Jeb Dasteel, Oracle's vice president of global customer programs. "We've worked diligently to build a world-class program to foster greater customer intimacy, and to ensure that our customers can build long-term relationships with senior Oracle executives." This strategy works for everyone involved. For example, Alcoa's Horner is so happy with his Oracle relationship that he's become one of Oracle's best customer references.

"You know, I wouldn't ever tell anybody that this is exactly the right thing for you based on what I understand from your business," Horner explains. "I would say to people, here's what our experience has been, and it took a lot of hard work to get this experience to be what it is. There's no reason why other businesses couldn't have this experience too."