Oracle On Demand CRM Marketing Software Review

Oracle Marketing Software Review

Best of class CRM systems recognize that marketing management can be one of the clear areas where a CRM initiative can deliver payback. By analyzing the detailed and rich data tracked on customers in the CRM system, marketing professionals ought to be able to refine product offerings, develop focused campaigns, and conduct marketing programs across a wide range of media and channels. The payoff for the rich data captured in the CRM is better positioning the right products for the right customers leading to greater sales.

While Oracle CRM On Demand offers a strong SFA data capture system, its marketing management is built almost exclusively around email-based marketing campaigns and offers very limited campaign management tools. Beginning with the creation of the campaign, Oracle CRM On Demand tracks only the most basic data by default. Simple variables such as the start and end date for the campaign are conspicuously missing from the campaign’s profile and must be handled as custom fields. The lack of detail continues when setting budgets and objectives for the campaign. Only a few simple fields can be tracked by default such as manually input cost fields and revenue fields. The development of campaign content is solid with Oracle CRM On Demand offering industry standard HTML based content editor tools to create rich email content. Like most mail editors, Oracle CRM On Demand allows for mail merge to personalize the content in the message. In building a target list, Oracle CRM On Demand allows you to use advanced query tools to select accounts from your CRM to include in a campaign. The standard approach assumes that lists are built off the accounts or businesses only so if targets are based on previous purchases or customer support calls, it is necessary to reflect this data on the account to use it for marketing or make arrangements for customization of the data model so these elements are accessible. Sending the email can be scheduled. We are aware of several Oracle CRM On Demand customers who are assessed a surcharge for their email sent via the system, so be careful that you review this in your agreement with Oracle before signing.

Since it is based on email marketing concepts, Oracle CRM On Demand tracks total email sent, bounces, opens, and clicks through. These data are aggregated as well and Oracle offers several dashboards and graphics to track campaign performance. The summary reports are in general solid tools that allow for a quick view of high level campaign results. Unfortunately, you will have to revert to reports and exports to drill into the data for the campaign results as there is no direct navigation from the chart to the underlying sales data.

With the explosion in online advertising, a conspicuous absence from Oracle CRM On Demand is pay-per-click results tracking. This function allows a company to pay for placement of ads online via services like Google’s Ad Words and then attribute a lead that is registered to the specific key word that the person clicked on a search results page. Thus, you can better determine what words are most effective in generating qualified leads and pay an appropriate fee to the advertising provider. Salesforce.com offers this service in the CRM at an added cost from one of its many service partners. Others such as Aplicor and RightNow include this tracking in its core product offering. To enable this in Oracle CRM On Demand requires the customer to get creative with the standard trackable links and integration services. All this translates to complexity and cost.