Lasting Success
Continued
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."
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.
Karen J. Bannan covers business and technology for publications such as
Forbes and
PC Magazine.
