April 26, 2018
Oracle Modern CX 2018–4 Key Takeaways to guide your CX strategy
CPQ Team Won all the medals at the Sales Olympics

Oracle Modern CX 2018–4 Key Takeaways to guide your CX strategy

Oracle Modern CX 2018 - 4 Key Takeaways to guide your CX strategy

Oracle Modern CX 2018- The lessons learned, the amazing customer success stories and the CX heroes who inspired us.


Being at Oracle Modern CX 2018 this year felt like attending a 3 day boot-camp for CX heroes and it was great. CX experts from Oracle and from many different companies came together to share their experiences and customer success stories. A huge Mack Truck in the middle of the exhibition floor, Weezer concert, The Markies, its was quite an experience.

Here are few takeaways we picked up to guide your CX strategy


1. Des Cahill Keynote (Oracle Modern CX 2018 ) - The CX professional job has become more difficult than ever, but that shouldn't put a limit on your CX transformation.


"We are on a quest as CX professionals, and our mission is to break through the customer experience wall," said Des Cahill, Oracle's Chief Evangelist, at the beginning of his keynote. AI, IoT, VR, Facial Recognition, and other innovations are driving ever-changing buyer expectations and the expectations on CX professionals are growing more aggressive. The CX professional job, whether in marketing, sales or customer service, has become more difficult than ever.


Marketers must find a signal in the noise, make sense of mountains of data, match the right offer with the right customer at the right time, and do it across multiple channels simultaneously. They have to measurably impact revenue and increase lifetime customer value.


Sales teams have to achieve revenue in the most cost-effective, predictable and sustainable way possible. But sales organizations had enough of process automation and SFA tools; they need to move on from that. Now it's about engaging and empowering sales reps the same way we do with customers.


Customer service leaders understand their role in generating value. Their challenge is knowing when to automate or when to augment service agents and when to leave customers to self-service.



MCX-Des Cahill Keynote Oracle Modern CX 2018

Oracle Modern CX 2018–4 Key Takeaways to guide your CX strategy


The lesson here is that legendary customer experience is hard; it needs a plan and internal cooperation, and it takes time. CX stands for constant experimentation, keep trying and trying, and when it fails, we will learn and try again.



2. Shashi Seth Keynote (Oracle Modern CX 2018) - Marketers have to stay laser-focused and pick the right tools, partners, strategies, and tactics.


Shashi Seth announced the LinkedIn integration with Eloqua and presented two brand new products under the umbrella of Oracle Marketing Cloud; CX AUDIENCE, and INFINITY.



Oracle Modern CX 2018 - Eloqua integration with LinkedIn

Oracle Modern CX 2018 - Eloqua integration with LinkedIn


These new products combine artificial intelligence, advanced data analytics, innovative search, voice, and video capabilities.


Oracle Modern CX 2018 - ORACLE CX AUDIENCE

Oracle Modern CX 2018 - ORACLE CX AUDIENCE

CX AUDIENCE will help marketers understand users in every step of their journey and be able to make decisions that will result in greater engagement with customers.



Oracle Modern CX 2018 - ORACLE INFINITY

Oracle Modern CX 2018 - ORACLE INFINITY


INFINITY provides next-generation digital analytics that help marketers understand this multichannel real-time world and have the right conversations with their customers through all digital channels.


With Oracle Infinity and Oracle CX Audience, marketers will be able to build much deeper customer relationships, eliminate data silos to provide real-time insights and rich behavioral data.


"Data is our most important strategy, the more data we can employ, the more sense we can make out of it," said Shashi.


3. Oracle Automotive CX Council — the hidden gem of Oracle Modern CX 2018


Every year behind the curtains of Oracle Modern CX 2018, there are private CX Councils that gather all the greatest minds from different industries to share their expertise and customer success stories. The most exciting one this year was the Oracle Automotive CX Council. Executives from all the major global automotive manufacturers were gathered to share their knowledge and discuss how connected cars will affect the customer experience in the automotive industry.


Balaji Ramachandran (Bala),CEO of SoftClouds and a CX hero, spoke on the topic -"The Journey to the Cloud" that addressed two central themes — the advantages of a Hybrid Cloud Integration and the Futuristic Customer Experience Solutions from the Innovation Lab at SoftClouds.


"A really interesting and thought-provoking presentation from Bala. There is often a lot of fear surrounding system integrations, so it was refreshing to hear how Bala and the team at SoftClouds are leading the way in the area. The case studies demonstrated that by integrating solutions the right way has a positive impact on the end user and Customer Experience.", said Ian Perkins, Sales Director, TrackBack.


Bala shared his knowledge on how to choose the right Hybrid Cloud approach and the best practices to successfully transform on-premise systems by integrating with other Oracle CX Cloud Solutions or 3rd party Industry Innovations/Products.


"The auto industry is changing dramatically. With time, technological advancements have become more complex, and so Auto OEMs are leveraging technologies and innovative concepts to keep up with increasing competition, customer expectations, and technology changes. SoftClouds has extensive expertise in providing solutions to the Automotive Industry, and they have taken leadership in driving CX solutions for the future.", said Murali Varmaraja, Director of Product Management, Automotive Industry at Oracle.


4. Devoted Sports Fans, Cable and Internet, Food worshipers, Space Explorers and the World record taxi ride


Charlie Herrin (Executive Vice President, Chief Customer Experience Officer, Comcast Cable) explained how Comcast optimized the customer experience and shared the company's plan of tackling proactivity by putting CX into the products themselves, so customers won't have to call or go to the website for self-service. See full interview here.


Magen Hanrahan (VP of Media and Marketing Services, Kraft Heinz) talked about being maniacal about customer data and building a strong fan base of loyal customers. She explained how Oracle Data Cloud to helped them understand customer behavior and achieve 30% effectiveness increase, and reach increase of 37%. See full interview here.


Carolyne Matseshe-Crawford (VP of Fan Experience, Fanatics) blew everyone away when she talked about having a laser focus on the customer, the psychology of fandom, and achieving a unshakable sense of loyalty for their customers. See full interview here.


Other worth mentioning sessions were Paul Archer, CEO, Duel, who set the world record taxi ride (full interview here) and, Julian Guthrie, Author of "How to Make a Spaceship",(full interview here) shared the story of 3 people who were able to fulfill their biggest dream- travel in space.




SoftClouds Team at Oracle Modern CX 2018 -Brian Friedman & Balaji Ramchandran

SoftClouds Team at Oracle Modern CX 2018 -Brian Friedman & Balaji Ramchandran


It was an amazing experience attending Oracle Modern CX 2018. We are inspired, full with fresh ideas and renewed enthusiasm to drive legendary customer experiences. What was modern back in 2017 is now common in the eyes of the customer, so all of us have to get smarter, faster, and more relevant in every aspect of the customer experience. How will you become a CX hero this year?


Read next: Key Takeaways from the 2018 Siebel CRM Grand Tour


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This post was written by Brian J Friedman, VP Global Strategic Sales at SoftClouds. Brian has a background in technology, business development, corporate management and sales. Brian was responsible for the creation and growth of numerous companies developing successful long-term relationships that have resulted in double-digit sales growth and continuing business expansion.