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February 28, 2000

Oracle And Clarify Address Online Sales And Support
New modules help companies improve customer service on the Web

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racle and front-office vendor Clarify Inc. this week will further extend customer-relationship management to the Web when they unveil application modules that address online support and sales, as well as more conventional interactions with customers.

Clarify will introduce its second version of Clarify eFrontOffice, a software suite that handles electronic interactions such as Web customer service, online marketing, and guided E-commerce selling. The software vendor already has an online customer-service application called eService that handles Web self-service and E-mail response management; the new version will focus on marketing and sales capabilities.

The new applications include Clarify Customer Portal, which stores customer information and lets customers communicate with a company via methods such as E-mail and online chat. Clarify eOrder lets customers shop online, then takes orders and manages them through fulfillment; it works in conjunction with Clarify eConfigurator, which determines customer needs and then helps configure complex products. Clarify eMerchandising lets businesses draw from customer analysis data and develop personalized marketing campaigns and product offerings.

Computer manufacturer Amdahl Corp., already a Clarify customer, is adopting eService, eOrder, and eMerchandising. The Sunnyvale, Calif., company anticipates that offering self-service on the Web will lower the cost of sales and service and make Amdahl easier to do business with. But it goes beyond that-self-service will also make it easier for customers to navigate Amdahl's product offerings.

"Amdahl's products are so complex that any one salesperson can't know the whole portfolio. You can have the system targeted to specific customer needs" by using the Web products, says John Keenan, project director at DMR Consulting, the Amdahl consulting subsidiary handling the implementation.

AMR Research analyst Peggy Menconi says Clarify's new products help bring E-commerce and CRM closer. But she doubts that businesses, most of which have E-commerce initiatives under way, will rip out their existing software to replace it with software from Clarify or any other CRM vendor.

Oracle will unveil new applications, to be included in Oracle Applications Release 11i, that are designed to flesh out its E-commerce offerings. Oracle iSupport is a portal that lets customers access data such as order status, billing, and service contracts over the Net. It will also let them initiate service calls, schedule field service, and get authorization for returns.

Oracle eMail Center, Oracle's other new E-business product, handles both inbound and outbound E-mail messages. When an E-mail comes in, eMail Center classifies it and routes it to the appropriate customer-service rep. The software can analyze the E-mail's content, generate an automatic response, and let representatives approve or change those responses.

Oracle is also increasing its call-center functionality to make conventional interactions more productive. Oracle Collections is designed to help businesses collect what customers owe. When a customer calls with a service question, for instance, a message would pop up that says the customer owes money-but the system would also give representatives a sense of how important a customer is, so they know how hard to press for payment. Oracle Collections is integrated with Oracle's Accounts Receivable and can be integrated with other financial systems.

Another application, Oracle Scripting, will help call-center representatives sell new products by giving them scripts to use when speaking to a customer on a service or sales call. Staff Leasing Corp., a human-resources, payroll, and benefits administrator for small businesses, will roll out the product in May to its 400 call-center reps.

Staff Leasing will use the application for cross-selling new products, such as employee training services, to companies that use Staff Leasing only for human-resources management. But more important, the application will help provide the right answers to difficult questions about human resources and insurance. "How we answer can determine what our legal repercussions are," says Lisa Harris, senior VP and CIO of the Bradenton, Fla., company. "Scripting helps us say the right things all the time."

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