When Oracle bigwigs gathered Tuesday in New York to discuss the company’s platform strategy, they focused on data’s central role – which makes sense given Oracle’s acquisitions of Datalogix and technology and services platform BlueKai.
Oracle’s data investments, as they pertain to the Oracle Marketing Cloud, manifest through the Oracle Data Cloud initiative spearheaded by BlueKai CEO Omar Tawakol.
While Oracle previously bundled its data assets with select products, the company hopes to infuse its data-as-a-service initiative across its software portfolio and underlying platform.
“If a customer engages with email and purchases, how do we reach them online?” said Shawn Price, senior vice president of Oracle Cloud, which encompasses Oracle’s platform, software, data and infrastructure businesses. Conversely, “How can we serve display ads or retarget [non-customers] online or through a paid social ad if someone’s browsing, but not buying?”
Thomas Kurian, president of Oracle product development, reiterated Price’s position when addressing Oracle Marketing Cloud product plans.
“If you’re a marketer, imagine I went directly from email on my phone to a Google search,” he said. “You want to figure out when Tom Kurian visiting Oracle.com is also Tom Kurian on Gmail and Facebook. We’re saying, ‘You can put your data into our cloud data-as-a-service platform and knit together this cross-channel identity graph to be more targeted in sales and marketing.”
Oracle’s content and campaign management platforms are derived from its Responsys, Eloqua and Compendium acquisitions. It will feasibly use assets from BlueKai and Datalogix to identify who to target or retarget campaigns to, or in a sales instance, upsell.
As with its marketing cloud peers, Oracle’s stated goal is to have both a suite and a portfolio of technologies that can be purchased a la carte.
“We will have an integrated suite of offerings that can also stand alone,” said Rich Geraffo, senior vice president of Oracle’s North America technology division, in a Q&A with reporters.
“We’re solving for customer experience and it’s starting with marketing and will broaden from campaigns to commerce and tie into sales force automation, etc.,” he said. “It would be remiss in commerce if you didn’t integrate with existing infrastructure and consumer portals as well. We’ll be executing on that strategy as it’s laid out.”
