Oracle CEO, Mark Hurd has unveiled new customer support offerings designed to help customers get more value from Oracle Fusion SaaS applications including Fusion ERP, EPM, HCM, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Sales and Service. Hurd described Oracle’s new SaaS Support Services as a new standard in the SaaS industry, designed to ensure customer success.
“As the software industry moves to the cloud, our application support
offerings need to become more agile and responsive,” said Hurd. “We
need to provide our SaaS customers with everything they need for rapid
low-cost implementations and a successful rollout to their users. In
response to those needs, we are announcing that our highest level
service, Oracle Platinum-Level Support, will now be provided to all of
our Fusion Oracle SaaS customers at no extra cost. In addition, we are
also announcing a new set of Custom Support Services that can be
flexibly tailored to the particular requirements of any individual
customer.”
Oracle SaaS applications customers will be able to take advantage of
the new SaaS Support Services at no extra cost. The comprehensive
base-support package features 24/7 rapid response technical support,
proactive technical monitoring, success planning and adoption guidance,
and a new digital experience platform for on-demand education resources.
Oracle has also launched a set of Advanced Services, which enable
SaaS customers to gain a deeper level of support and customized services
based on their specific business requirements. These tailored offerings
can be added as and where needed, enabling the customer to choose which
services they buy instead of being charged for bundled services they
may not want or need.
“We have a good relationship with Oracle and get a lot of value out
of Oracle SaaS solutions,” said Robert Sukharev,” IT manager for the
Digital Product Team at AIG. “We have more than 100 users of Oracle
tools and having a single location for relevant information and free
education resources will allow us to use these tools in a more
effective, productive and successful way.”
Large SaaS vendors currently upsell customers on premium support,
charging for faster response times, dedicated support and rarely
utilized services within premium support packages. In contrast, Oracle
SaaS Support Services will be offered free of charge to Oracle SaaS
customers including cloud Enterprise Resource Planning, Supply Chain, Human Capital Management, Marketing, Sales, Service and Commerce customers.
“The rapid adoption of SaaS has accelerated the evolution of support
services away from technical support to support for the business,” said
Elaina Stergiades, research manager at IDC. “Most SaaS providers
include only basic remedial support as part of the subscription, and
additional support can add significant cost. Offerings like
Platinum-Level Support from Oracle for SaaS, provided at no additional
cost, can help ensure customer success in the cloud with expanded access
to support for severity 1 issues, personalized training and adoption
guidance for specific functional areas.”
“We have a shared interest in our customers’ success so we’re going
above and beyond to ensure our customers have everything they need to
succeed,” said Catherine Blackmore, group vice president of North
America Customer Success at Oracle. “Oracle SaaS Support Services raise
the bar for the SaaS industry and further reduce friction for companies
moving to the cloud.”
Oracle SaaS Support Services will include:
- 24/7 technical support: To help customers resolve issues faster, without adding to costs, the new SaaS Support Services will enable all customers to receive a technical support response typically in less than 15 minutes for severity one issues.
- Dedicated implementation support: Customers will receive a dedicated, named engineer to provide guidance and hands-on support through the implementation process.
- Proactive technical monitoring: Oracle’s technical team will take advantage of the latest machine learning technology to diagnose and resolve technical problems without the customer having to file a service request. In fact, the customer may not even realize there was a problem.
- Success planning support: Oracle will work with customers on a technical and business execution strategy to help ensure the successful deployment and end-user adoption of Oracle SaaS applications.
- Business process monitoring and guidance: Oracle will leverage data and process efficiency insights to save the customer time and money by analyzing customer use cases and providing recommendations for business process improvements.
- Education on-demand: Oracle is investing in free education courses and the creation of a new on-demand knowledge center, which is expected to feature more than 2,000 new training guides, as well as guided learning starter packs to walk users through how to execute processes in the application. Customers can also attend QuickStart events on the cloud service of their choice.
- Customer Success Portal: To help customers expertly adopt SaaS and achieve their business objectives, Oracle SaaS Support Services will include a new digital platform where customers can: find Oracle resources such as education, training, technical support and consulting; interact with relevant expert content to help achieve specific business goals; and design personalized training and education paths.
Oracle Advanced Services will include:
- Additional tailored services: Extended services designed to provide customized dedicated support through the entire SaaS lifecycle.
- Certified resources: Oracle certified-to-know experts have deep expertise, product and domain knowledge and extensive experience driving change so customers get the right knowledge and experience to drive business outcomes.
