The Gartner Midsize Enterprise Summit is a great opportunity for me to compare what Oracle customers are telling me to the observations of the market at large.Held in Orlando last week, the summit provided me many conversations with CIOs'many of whom are Oracle customers and some who are not.
Gartner's conference theme was "Closing the Gap Between Yesterday's IT Implementations and Tomorrow's IT Demands".I especially enjoyed the first general session on Monday by Barbara Gomolski, Gartner's Research VP who focuses on IT Staffing and Spending.Barbara talked about how, for years, IT has been fighting to get a seat at the table in the boardroom.As more and more CIOs win that battle, they face scrutiny from their peers.
Remember how your mother insisted that the whole family sit down for dinner?You could either volunteer lively observations or expect tough questions like, "How did you do on that Algebra test?", or "That Olson girl is cute, isn't she?"
You soon learned that monosyllabic answers didn't cut it, nor did changing the subject, "Please pass the peas". Only articulate, substantive responses were acceptable. Well, when CIO's win a place at the boardroom table they must always face the logical question, "What are we getting from all that money we're spending on IT?"
I continually reach out to Oracle customers for participation in marketing activities. Sometimes the response is, "No, thanks. I'm too busy." I don't take it personally but I think many times that translates to, "I don't see how this adds value to my company".
Ultimately, the many customers who do work with me, I believe, subscribe to a philosophy of how it is imperative to relentlessly inform the world - and their fellow employees - about how information technology is supporting or even creating competitive differentiation for their company. They've been given a seat at the table and know how to answer the question.
More often than not, the answer aligns with how technology enables their companies to perpetually drive the highest levels of customer service.
One of the most common stories I hear is about how Oracle applications enable midsize companies to go toe-to-toe with much larger competitors.One customer'CIO of a medical forms company'says he likes to ask his customers how big they think his company is.It's a good question to bring up midway through a round of golf or a nice dinner with customer executives.His company, of about 350 employees, competes with ginormous firms fortified by seemingly inexhaustible resources in an industry niche that is increasingly commoditized.
My friend explained that, yes, it's hard to argue that one form is superior to another.But his company's differentiation stems from the ability of customer service reps to advise their customers as to what products are available for shipment, what complementary products might be desirable, and what other options are available when something is out of stock. Most importantly, they need to make such recommendations on the fly, during the course of a single phone call.And, yes, Oracle applications contribute to that capability.
That constant added value might be why his customers typically guess his company is five to ten times larger than actual size.Universally, customers should never have cause to wonder how big their supplier is'whether it can provide the same level of service as the largest, most well known companies in its market segment.Just about every midsize company wants to be bigger but many recognize that there is a sweet spot where you have the resources to deploy top technology solutions yet retain the agility of a smaller firm.
If you'd like to learn more about how midsize organizations are leveraging Oracle applications customers to drive competitive differentiation, read the latest issue of Oracle Profit magazine online. See the story, "Putting Customers at the Center".
