Oracle Fusion Cloud CX: Helping Manufacturers, Whether You’re Building Things or On the Go

Why move processes to the cloud? 

I was curious if there any common answers to why a company would move processes to the cloud, so I looked at seven different manufacturing companies highlighted on the Oracle customer page as using Oracle Cloud CX. The following is what I found, including a quote from each of the seven customers.

Streamline sales processes

Hyster-Yale using Oracle Fusion Cloud Configure, Price, Quote

The first customer I looked at was Hyster-Yale, a forklift manufacturer that, after acquisitions, had fragmented systems it used to conduct business in twelve different countries. Hyster-Yale started using Oracle CPQ in 2017 to bring together sales processes, quote product configurations, and process orders. Additionally, the company’s 700-salesperson deal network now had access to customer contracts, availability of products, and client purchase histories. The Oracle CPQ system and its rules-based workflow enabled instant approvals on pricing, something that reduced time and complexity.

“Oracle CPQ gives us one global platform that tells every user instantly what part goes with what truck. It lets any one of our hundreds of dealers go into the system and configure the right options.” – Sunny Sanyal, Vice President of Global Marketing, Hyster-Yale

Align and transform operations

Overhead Door using Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM and CX

The second Oracle Cloud CX manufacturing customer I checked out was Overhead Door Corporation. They employ some 4,000 people and, after acquiring a major competitor, were faced with the challenge of bringing together two large organizations, each with distinct systems and processes. The first step of the digital transformation that Overhead Door went through was around its human capital management systems moving to the Oracle Cloud HCM application suite. From there, Overhead Door began using Oracle Fusion Cloud Service at its Lewisville, Texas call center, and Oracle Fusion Cloud Eloqua Marketing Automation to manage marketing campaigns. 

“Our acquisitions left us with very cumbersome back office processes. We knew we needed to consolidate to a single platform, and we chose Oracle Cloud.” – Kelly Terry, CEO, Overhead Door

Unify the customer experience

Panasonic Business using Oracle Fusion Cloud Sales, Service, and Marketing  

The third Oracle CX customer I looked at was Panasonic Business, manufacturer of the Toughbook brand of notebooks and tablets. Panasonic created an end to end customer experience solution with the Oracle Fusion Cloud applications Eloqua Marketing Automation, Sales, and Service. Eloqua Marketing Automation is used to nurture relationships with key prospects and sales to manage the sales forecasts and purchase orders, with all of those things together enabling executives to see where marketing dollars being spent and contributing to the pipeline and ultimately sales. Panasonic Business then uses Oracle Service to track what occurs with customers post-sale.

“Since integrating Oracle Sales, Marketing, and Service applications, we’re not only able to close more net new business, but our pipeline of high-probability deals is the best we’ve ever had.” – Kevin Jones, Managing Director, Panasonic Europe Mobile Solutions Division

Connect the front- and back-office

Construction Specialties using Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP and Commerce 

At this point, I had perused a manufacturer of forklifts, garage doors, and the tech used in rugged workplaces, so it made sense that the fourth Oracle Cloud CX customer I checked out was a manufacturer of building products. Construction Specialties wanted an efficient way to track both marketing spend and orders through the entire cycle of quotes, sales, shipping, and payment. They turned to the Oracle Fusion Cloud applications Commerce, CPQ, and Product Hub, part of Oracle Cloud SCM. Expanding its cloud portfolio to include Oracle Cloud ERP meant that approved quotes triggered supply chain events and processed orders triggered invoices in Oracle Cloud Financials. 

“The cloud has completely taken away all of the maintenance and custom-coding requirements that were bogging us down.” – Arthur Cosma, Enterprise Automation Manager, Construction Specialties

Drive efficiency through AI

Bosch Thermotechnology using Oracle Fusion Cloud Field Service 

With a metaphorical building constructed through the efforts of the prior Oracle Cloud CX manufacturing customers, the fifth I looked at was one that would climate control the building. Bosch Thermotechnology manufactures heating and cooling systems, and its Service Managers were challenged by the need to reduce travel time between jobs and increase the number that could get done in a day. Oracle Field Service was the solution to this, with the cloud application enabling easy configuration of rules around job scheduling and usage of AI to predict the time for both travel and job completion. 

Once we took the training offered by Oracle University, we really understood what the solution could do for us. We became a better service operation all around.” – Marcel Sven Torrent, Service Optimization Manager, Bosch Thermotechnology

Enable agile marketing

Mack Trucks using Oracle Fusion Cloud Eloqua Marketing Automation 

If the customers I looked at all were part of putting up a building, it perhaps made sense for me to then think about hitting the open road. Mack Trucks was the sixth Oracle Cloud CX customer I looked at, with the big rig company in 2017 launching the Mack Anthem highway truck--its first major new product in over a decade. At the time, they had been using Oracle Eloqua Marketing Automation for three years. They used their database of more than 175,000 customers and prospects, connecting marketing activities to track interest effectively and move potential Anthem customers through the sales funnel. The Mack Anthem campaign generated about 1,700 qualified leads and millions of dollars in sales.

“Oracle’s digital marketing tools allow us to be more targeted, more efficient, and able to measure our activities in a far more effective way.” – John Walsh, Vice President of Marketing, Mack Trucks

Execute on complex quoting requirements

AirBorn using Oracle Fusion Cloud Service, CPQ, and Commerce 

Since I was already on the road, it seemed logical to go a little further, well, a lot further. The seventh and final Oracle Cloud CX manufacturing customer I looked at was AirBorn, a supplier of spacecraft parts used by customers like NASA, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin with thousands and thousands of different parts, able to be combined in even more ways. Using Oracle Commerce, AirBorn digitized its product catalog and let customers configure on-the-fly(no space pun intended). Once everything is set up to order, the application sends notice to the AirBorn ERP system to create a bill of materials, calculate a cost, price, and delivery lead time.

“With Oracle CX Service, Oracle CPQ, and Oracle CX Commerce, we’re able to take billions of different parts combinations and help guide a customer, in a very easy way, to the right set of products they need.” – Mike Kramer, Director of Software Integration and Web Applications, AirBorn

The Oracle CX manufacturing customer stories I perused included makers of forklifts, garage doors, rugged tech, building products, climate control systems, big rigs, and spacecraft parts. So, back to my question of why a company moves processes to the cloud, I learned that they want to…

Streamline sales processes, align and transform operations, unify the customer experience, connect the front- and back-office, drive efficiency through AI, enable agile marketing, and execute on complex quoting requirements 

There’s obviously no single answer I found, but a common theme across these seven stories seemed to be that effective cloud applications let a company, whether it builds things or enables traveling the country or cosmos, focus on what they do rather than how they do it. This is especially true if the applications are built on a single global platform, so you don’t need to spend your time and resources integrating technologies from multiple vendors.

To learn about the industry-specific solutions from Oracle Cloud CX to help transform business operations, enhance the customer experience, and generate greater revenue, please visit our Oracle CX for High Tech, Manufacturing, and Automotive webpage.