Mark Hurd, President of Oracle, energized a packed audience this Monday morning at OpenWorld with his keynote outlining Oracle’s four-pillar strategy:

• Be the leader at every level of the technology stack—applications, middleware, database, operating system, virtual machine, servers, and storage
• Vertically integrate these levels into differentiated solutions
• Offer Fusion, the next generation of applications, which are modular and can run in the cloud, on-premise, or both (hybrid)
• Deliver this technology portfolio through industry lenses to help Oracle customers solve their problems while innovating and becoming more efficient.

Hurd’s message resonated throughout Monday’s Customer Experience (CX) sessions as we learned about Oracle’s investment in integrating its best-of-breed CX solutions to deliver an end-to-end suite that addresses every part of the customer lifecycle. For example, in the area of customer service, Oracle is developing enhancements to help contact center agents:

• Better understand customer needs through social listening tools that are integrated with knowledge management
• Empower themselves with internal collaboration and mobility tools
• Adapt to customer needs by engaging them through chat during a service or commerce interaction so they can deliver a great customer experience while transforming from a cost- into a profit center.