INDUSTRY

Oracle Corporation today announced that it has broadened its customer service capabilities with the release of Oracle Service 11i.10 applications in order to help companies capture new revenue opportunities, reduce operating costs and make better business decisions. Uniquely aligning all service delivery channels including Web, contact centers and field service, Oracle Service 11i.10 equips companies with access to a single, holistic view of the customer to build more effective relationships. Achieving a complete view of the customer requires a unified application that connects service information across sales, marketing, supply chain, human resources and financial business processes. As part of the Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle Service 11i.10 is built on a single data model that allows information to flow across the entire application spectrum, enabling service agents to better understand customer inquiries, speed time to resolution and increase customer satisfaction. "Winning new business is harder than ever. As a result, companies must find ways to retain existing customers and add value to these relationships," said Esteban Kolsky, research director at Gartner. "Organizations are realizing that the key to customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention is through accurate, complete, up-to-date information about the end user. With the right content at their fingertips, customer service agents can uncover new revenue opportunities, reduce costs, and improve the overall effectiveness of their service business." Identify New Revenue Opportunities Increasingly, companies are transforming service operations into successful profit centers without losing sight of customer satisfaction. To do this, service offerings must be aligned to appropriate customer segments, and service costs must be controlled to maximize margins within each segment. New service contract functionality in Oracle Service 11i.10 enables companies to capture more revenue from contracts, warranties and extended warranties by automating and simplifying the contract creation and renewal processes. Also, managers can identify new revenue opportunities through critical contract information. This helps result in timely contract renewals, reduced service revenue leakage and increased up-sell and cross-sell opportunities. Further, companies can lower costs by allowing field technicians to focus on servicing customers who are entitled to service, not on customers with delinquent accounts, expired contracts or those who subscribe to a lesser class of service. As part of a complete CRM solution, Oracle Service 11i.10 enables companies to more easily identify areas for potential revenue. New marketing functionality enables targeted promotions to be presented to customers during service interactions. The integration between Oracle's e-commerce product, Oracle iStore, and its e-service product, Oracle iSupport, enables companies to package and blend sales and service offerings for online customers, therefore improving the overall online experience. Reduce Operational Costs Oracle service applications can help reduce the most expensive costs within service centers -- the cost of parts and labor. Oracle Service 11i.10 uniquely balances resources and service requests across the entire enterprise. With Oracle's new "pull" model for assigning service requests, contact center agents and technicians can assign themselves to incoming inquires based on factors such as customer segment, service request type, priority, skill sets and location. This approach provides the best match of available agent resources to satisfy customer needs, while helping reduce inefficient handoffs among agents, which may jeopardize customer satisfaction. Another way companies lower service delivery cost is through voice-enabled applications. Designed for field technicians, this new self-service voice functionality reduces the load on the dispatch center by enabling field personnel to call into an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system. As a result, technicians are equipped to review their schedules, receive information about customers, update resolution status, close out tasks and provide labor and expense information to expedite field service debrief and billing. Oracle iSupport also can decrease the number of incoming calls with its broad, Web-based customer self-service capabilities. Utilizing the Web, customers can view frequently asked questions and search or browse Oracle's embedded knowledge base to rapidly identify solutions. Finally, field service has become a critical component within the overall service mix for companies that have repair operations. Although field technicians spend a majority of their time away from the office, they still require continuous access to customer product and service information. New functionality in Oracle Service 11i.10 enables field technicians to manage the order and return process for spare parts and loaned equipment, create service requests and view customer install base information. Field technicians can complete signature captures utilizing PDAs, cell phones or wireless laptops. The ability to enter information into a handheld device at the customer site better ensures accelerated cycle times and helps improve customer satisfaction. Oracle Service 11i.10 allows for the optimization of the scheduling of technicians and utilization of spare parts, thereby helping reduce the need for repeated onsite visits to resolve the same service request. Improve Service Effectiveness Providing timely, helpful and accurate customer service has become extremely complex. Utilizing the breadth of information in Oracle E-Business Suite, contact center agents have access to service requests, status and priority, orders, payments and invoices, product registration, customer profiles and collateral. By having all of this information at their fingertips, agents can be more productive and efficient at satisfying service requests. It is also essential for companies to focus on synergies between their service operations and supply chain, particularly for spare parts. As such, Oracle Service supports integrated spare parts logistics - from inventory to order management to depot repair. These capabilities enable the timely movement of parts between field technicians and warehouses, helping reduce service time and operational cost. One of the most critical components of a successful service organization is the availability of comprehensive analytics. With Oracle Daily Business Intelligence, a component of Oracle Service, companies have enhanced service analytic dashboards for improved management visibility into key performance indicators and metrics. Information such as service request backlog, reopened service requests, time to service request resolution, and contact center activity across phone and email channels effectively improves how a company manages its service efforts. In today's rapidly evolving business climate, it is critical for managers to have this level of accurate visibility into the performance of their service operations. Beyond Customer Satisfaction "Exceptional service is more than customer satisfaction. It's about consistently exceeding customers' expectations, uncovering new revenue opportunities and having the right information to make appropriate service decisions at the right time for each customer," said Matthew Self, Oracle vice president of service applications development. "With the latest release of Oracle Service 11i.10, we've achieved our goal of equipping customers with information-driven service capabilities across all of the unique service channels within an organization -- from Web, to contact center and field service."