New England.  Three customer visits in one day.  Eye-opening.

My first meeting is with a brand name organization that is stuck on an unsupported version of Siebel, serving just under 1,000 users.  They cancelled support three years ago, and the CIO informs me that this is the best decision she has made. While the technology has remained stalled, it still “works”, and this company freed itself from sending useless maintenance dollars to Oracle.  She also confirmed that Oracle Fusion remains a pipe dream and that the Siebel product, within Oracle, is practically dead.

Here comes the cloud.  Why?  Because, while the costs of remaining in a stalled state are minimal, the costs of postponing innovation are huge.  They are on the brink of chucking Siebel out, and bringing in a very popular Cloud database solution in its place.  Sales, Marketing, and Product Development are excited and adamant about their need to collaborate and put the Customer at the center of their daily discussion.

Today, their legacy systems are holding them back, not allowing a centralized customer discussion to take place.  The thought of capturing digital inputs about customer interactions—whether from their website, or the social sphere, their events, or regular conversations—is only a real vision if they move to a flexible cloud platform.

I’ll close on this one by saying the company is one you know.  It is an innovative company and a leader in its sector.  While it won’t be easy, this company is well aware that the Cloud is a clear path towards staying on the cutting edge of its market and serving its clients in a 21st century style.

Back in the car and heading north.