Customer Success for Big Tech Companies

Customer Success for Big Tech Companies

Tom Cloos, OracleBryan Plaster, Informatica

Tom CloosOracle Corporation

Sr. Director, Customer Success

Responsible for North American

Service Automation Client Base

Currently 33 CSMs and 4 RDs

With Significant Growth in FY15

Tiered client coverage

Focus on:

• Knowing the business

• Knowing the solution

• Providing expert guidance

• Demonstrating measurable value

Customers around the world rely on Oracle’s complete portfolio of enterprise and industry applications. Oracle offers choice and flexibility with the most comprehensive, modern, and secure portfolio, including SaaS applications for human capital management, customer experience, and more. Oracle provides enterprise-level solutions that support all types of cloud-based scenarios, including public cloud, private cloud, and a hybrid option.

$37.2 Billion FY2013 Revenue400,000 Customer Including 100 of Fortune 10085,000 Oracle Application CustomersOver 120,000 Employees

Understanding Large Scale Customer Success Challenges

• Role Definition – Many more touch points for

clients. Much more overlap and potential

confusion internally and externally. For

example, centralized crisis communication is

extremely challenging and global client

engagement creates even more issues.

• Role Education – Once defined, constant

education necessary. Turnover, bias, lack of

exposure to SaaS, etc.

• Acquisitions – Need to integrate multiple

philosophies, methodologies, standards of

customersuccess. Determining what needs to

remain and what needs to be standardized

across those companies, and clients is

extremely difficult and has many ramifications.

• Account Planning and Strategy Execution

– CSM, Sales, HW, SW, KAD. Each has own

objectives, initiatives, charters, quotas,

management demands. Bigger contracts,

master agreements, and ”ways of doing

business”.

• Flexibility/Agility – Growth and sheer scale

inherently create the need for more rigid

processes. Often, customer success is an

afterthought in these decisions. Approvals,

product roadmaps, finance, SOWs, etc can

cause significant frustation. Can’t just walk

down to the CEO’s office and say ”this doesn’t

make sense, let’s fix it”. Need to recognize

there are other effective ways.

How We AddressRecongize the challenges the large high-tech

company creates and then embrace and addresss

• Identify and cultivate internal

relationships –These will become as valuable

as your external ones, especially at executive

level. Instill this habit/practice among the

entire success organization. Evangelize and

Socialize!

• Build and execute a great success plan –

Should complement (or incorporate) traditional

account plan. Important to get the right

internal and external commitments to allow

execution of the plan and everyone possible

moving in the same direction.

• Control what we can control – Build a great

strategy, provide exceptional service and

guidance, and ensure demonstrated and

measurable results.

Bryan Plaster Informatica

Bryan runs Informatica's Subscription Customer Success program

and Informatica Cloud Labs. Prior to Informatica he has been

pioneering in “cloud” since 1998 with ASP pharmacies,

franchises, appliances, SaaS applications and SaaS platforms - all

in the area of customer success and adoption. His propensity for

creating evangelistic customers carries him to scale his

excitement across the next wave of customer success.

Vice President,

Subscription Customer Success

and Cloud Labs

• Self-service trials are the pinnacle of success in launch of a new Cloud product

• Functionality is only one part, nurturing prospects so they know what to expect as your subscription customer

• Automating that nurture is the first step in scaling– Community, support, self-help

In the Beginning, it all begain with trial success . . . .

Enter the next stage - Customer Success

• We finally have customers! Product is a success!

• Are they still around after a year? Let’s check!

Customer Success Strategy

• Everything that we do is focused on enabling instant customer value so they want to “Renew and buy more”

• This will only happen if they are successful right away - getting value from the start of their subscription

• How do your Customers look at their subscription?

Luxury sports car lease

Time bomb

OR

9

Renewal New Customer

On Boarding & Launch

Proactive Management

Upsell

Maximize Adoption

Customer

Enablement

Customer

EnablementCustomer

Enablement

Customer

Enablement

Customer Life Cycle

CSM Team structure

Technical Solutions

Worldwide SalesCustomer Success

Cloud Renewals Team

Customer Success

Managers

Onboarding

Strategic Accounts

Training,GTM programs

Customer Success Technologist/Architects

Cloud LabsAPI Response

Team

Technical Support

Professional Services

matrixed

Indicators to success• Renewal rate

– #Accounts and by ACV• Churn

– by ARR/qtr/year• Adoption

– % new customers from previous Qtr Successful with 1st project– New product adoption

Goals for the Customer Success Group in 2014• Scale with growing business

• Every new customer needs to get started fast – thinning ratios of CSM

• Training - More on demand and automated “self-service” - MOOC• Community – More knowledge to enable self-service• Automation - for the CSM team

• Proactive alerting of possible issues before they escalate – “let’s solve this before it is a problem”

• Customer score at a glance – “What am I walking into?”

Q & A