Vision from the Top 2012: Greg Gianforte, RightNow
Mega-vendors are buying up pure-play SaaS companies. Will they succeed in using those acquisitions to help change their companies to the SaaS culture and business model?
The recent acquisition of RightNow by Oracle gives us a unique perspective on this question. RightNow solutions were and are recognized by the top industry analysts as market leading in call center and web service, important components for a customer experience strategy. However, e-commerce, sales, marketing, intelligence and search capabilities are also required to support the entire customer experience (CX) lifecycle. RightNow customers were looking for a more comprehensive approach to address the end-to-end requirements that can support great customer experiences.
Oracle is a leader in many of the functional areas for CX and has recently made additional investments in web commerce and search. Oracle is moving aggressively and offers customers a full range of Cloud Solutions including sales force automation, human resources, social networking, databases and Java as part of the Oracle Public Cloud. For these reasons, and because of Oracle's ability to continue to invest and grow the RightNow technology and business, the potential for the match was obvious.
Ultimate success will depend on continued execution. During our recent closing webcast we announced that Oracle will keep RightNow's staff to maintain and grow a client facing team with focused domain expertise in customer experience and the practices associated with a SaaS business. This dedicated investment underscores the focus and importance that the combined organization is placing on the CX segment of the Cloud industry. Together, the combined products and talented staff from Oracle and RightNow will enable a superior customer experience at every contact and across every channel.
We are excited about what the future holds for the combined organizations, our customers and the industry.
This interview was published in SIIA's Vision from the Top, a Software Division publication released at All About the Cloud 2012.