Oracle's Social CRM

What a whirlwind last 4-5 days these have been. So many happenings things moving rapidly into the Web2.0, Enterprise2.0, Social arena.

W2.0 and social aspects of enterprise applications were all over .. in Larry's keynote, in Ed Abbo's (Oracle Apps Unltd head honcho) keynote, Anthony Lye, George Jacob, Steve Miranda and the list goes on. Everyone had interactive, social apps to showcase, widgets/gadgets flashing on their desktops. Social Applications have arrived at Oracle and are here to stay. In fact one of the most interesting observations this week was how deep this social or W2.0 initiative is running at Oracle. Its not just the superficial addition of a blog or wiki to get the W2.0 tag. These are social capabilities being woven into the fabric of the application to enable superior customer relationships.

Here are some links that provide additional coverage;

Oracle offers a peek at social apps and Fusion ZDNet

Oracle Embraces Web 2.0 Technologies eWeek

Oracle says new “social CRM” apps a bonanza for salespersons ITBusiness.ca

Oracle openworld: Social CRM is coming...and so's Fusion! MyCustomer.com

Oracle previews Fusion, Web 2.0 apps SearchCRM.com

Amazing how a weekend project that I started earlier has now turned into a successful widget/gadget initiative there at Oracle. Who says large companies are not agile and open to ideas or changes !! By the way these widgets/gadgets were in everyones keynote as well ;-) .. saw them on AL, SM, EA and GJ desktops.

Here a

Web 2.0 on the ropes .. or is it

A post on Silicon Valley Watcher based on a conversation between Tom Foremski and Randy Komisar, a partner at Kleiner Perkins seems to indicate that KPCB has stopped all investments in Web 2.0.

Not sure what that means, however I'm pretty certain that its being quoted out of context a lot on the Web. When I first read it I thought to myself, how are they actually delivering on this message .. Web 2.0 technologies and products are so pervasive these days .. so do they look at a business plan and say "oops no cant fund it cause its using Web 2.0 technology". Or is it more of "oops sorry you're not doing anything new and just labelling it as Web2.0.

Well anyways I ran into the link again today and saw that Tim O-Reilly had posted a comment on that site;

"Either KP is getting sucked in by the hype end of Web 2.0, and failing to
understand what it's really about, or else, more likely, they are using
another term for the same thing.
At the end of the day, there is a deep, long term trend towards the network as platform, and to applications that leverage the true strength of that platform. That's what *I* call Web 2.0, and I know that KP is still investing in that trend.
(They are, however, also taken with many other important areas, such as energy and the environment, that are increasingly distant from the web.)
But I think the real way to interpret this comment is to say that if a company needs to identify itself as a "Web 2.0" company rather than describing the problem
they are solving, or the opportunity they are creating, then they are just
playing the buzzword game, and aren't worth investing in, regardless of the
buzzword!"

So sanity was finally restored to the Web 2.0 world ;-) ;-)

Follow up - Lunch 2.0 @ Oracle

Wanted to post on this for a while .. wow what an event that was. 200+ Web 2.0 enthusiasts in a room ... electric

I think Lunch 2.0 is a wonderful concept and a very ingenious way of getting feedback, insights and generally getting the word out on your Web2.0 initiatives.

We got some very good feedback and a lot of insight on whats happening in this space and where we can make things better. We also got some flak as the WebCenter team showed some slides when it was all about products and demos and we also got some feedback about the lack of user or participant interactivity.

Though in all fairness I did get about 20-30 people stop by the demo pod after my demo to discuss the details of how we developed the widgets/gadgets and what the security and persistence models are etc. Many remarked that Widgets/MiniApps are one promising inroad to the enterprise for many Web2.0 technologies and models to manifest themselves.

But I guess that's only 10% of the audience and we want more. So if you have any lingering thoughts or comments fromt that day please post them here.

Ah well, feedback well taken this was the very first Lunch 2.0 at Oracle so I'm sure we'll gear it for much better interaction/participation in the future.

I think kudos to Justin Kestelyn and Marius and team for putting this together. Click here for Lunch 2.0coverage on the OTN blog.




Also saw Jeremiah Owyang out there and I guess he gets the credit for seeding the idea at Oracle for participating in the event.


That's a pic of yours truly presenting at the event and behind me you can see the beautiful widgets we've created for Oracle's Siebel CRM Applications.