Social CRM

I started work as part of the Oracle Social CRM applications PM team immediately after OOW 2008. Prior to joining, I discussed the opportunity with a few non-Oracle folks:

Here are a few snippets:
- "Sounds innovative…this doesn't sound like Oracle..." - a friend who founded a B-B start-up (that failed)
- "Social apps...like Facebook for Oracle?!...crazy..." - my niece who is an IT consultant for one of those Firms
- "Invite me when you get the application going...I’ll be your friend…MySpace-like, right?" - an ex-consultant co-worker

Anyway, I further described the applications’ intention of leveraging social information (e.g. blogs, wikis, ratings) to create more engaging and meaningful relationships between customers and a companies/products. I mentioned that the applications are envisioned to: require no training, be innovative and functional, and be sexy in appearance. I left out "sexy" when I was discussing this with my niece though. In the end, the folks above, as well as others, seemed genuinely excited about the idea/opportunity and for me!

From an application vision perspective, believe Oracle’s Social CRM vision epitomizes hockey legend, Wayne Gretzy’s quote: "Skate to where the puck is going, not to where it is."

A coworker also asked, "Do you really believe in this Social CRM thing?”. I said, "I do...". I didn't tell my wife I said that though...