Oracle co-founder and CEO Larry Ellison was one of the earliest advocates for cloud computing, predicting long ago that much of computing would be pushed to servers instead of taking place on the desktop level.
Despite the vision of its founder, Oracle has let firms such as SalesForce.com steal some of its business by not being better engaged with cloud services. Oracle is working to change that, however, improving its cloud-based services. A new data center in Japan shows its focus.
Earlier this week Oracle announced that it is opening a data center in Japan to better support its RightNow Cloud Service, reported CMSWire in a blog post. This follows the opening of a second data center in Australia by a few weeks.
Oracle has written in a statement that “having a data center within a specific region allows Oracle to better manage the service level objectives and data governance for customers” in that area.
Oracle Cloud provides software-as-a-service (SaaS) with social capabilities. Its SaaS offering includes sales force automation, human resources, talent management and databases (no surprise), as well as Oracle RightNow. RightNow is a cloud-based customer service for call centers, the Web and social networks that the company purchased in 2011.
According to Oracle president Mark Hurd, the new data center helps simplify IT so firms can focus on their core business. He added that the service can “free them from the burden of software management, allowing them to have more resources to engage with their customers.”
The social aspect of Oracle’s cloud offering features a social monitor service for joining conversations in social media that relate to the company’s products and services, according to CMSWire. It also has a CRM tool for Facebook and a support community cloud for customers.
The Contact Center of the Oracle cloud solution enables contact center agents to easily capture, track, assign and manage customer requests across channels, and the Engage component fosters customer feedback and response.
Its Web Experience component enables customer to self-serve themselves when it comes to researching, making purchases and resolving issues from mobile or desktop devices. It also provides email management and a co-browsing service between agent and customer.