Social at Oracle: The IdeaFactory Success Story

For this week's assignment, I have chosen Oracle's E2.0 success story. I assume all of us in the IT world know what Oracle is, but just as a refresher...

Oracle Corporation is a U.S.-based multinational computer technology corporation. The company specializes in developing and marketing computer hardware systems and enterprise software products.  (Wikipedia)

So I found the story of how, in early 2007, Oracle began to incorporate Enterprise 2.0 to its processes, to foster innovation, share information and bring people together, both internally and externally, by developing IdeaFactory. Read the full post on the History of Oracle Connect written by Kellsey Ruppel.

A brief introduction on Oracle's IdeaFactory and Connect

Appslab, an Oracle's development team focused on innovation, created IdeaFactory, a platform to capture product ideas and allow users to propose and have a say in ideas, specifically, Oracle Application products. This tool grew up so fast, that people from all over Oracle logged in, voted, commented and contributed their own ideas, and not just about Oracle products, but also about internal topics and practices, making the communication lines open and honest.

After seeing the tool was working so well amongst Oracle employees, the AppsLab team added a social networking layer, creating Oracle’s first social tool, Oracle Connect. Every Oracle employee had an account and a base profile. The networking was bi-directional and anyone could ask to connect with anyone else in the company, including the CEO, which several people did. With the acquisitions Oracle was doing by the time, new staff also found this tool very useful.

Connect also aimed to generate and facilitate internal innovation within Oracle, so the AppsLab launched OpenLab, an open source-style project that welcomed any internal developers to take Connect’s code and add features that met their needs.

"What began as a little experiment with new technology has grown into a mission-critical social tool, used by thousands of people each day to get work done", said Kellsey.

In addition to Connect, the team created Oracle Mix, a social tool for users interested in Oracle products and the community, where they could make inputs or ask Oracle employees for support like they do in forums in the present days.

Value levers associated with implementing Enterprise 2.0 in the development of IdeaFactory/Oracle Connect:

I have found that two of the functional areas were benefited by the implementation of Enterprise 2.0. For that, I have prepared a table on how the value levers were applied to Oracle.

We can say that there are so many and different benefits in the incorporation of Web 2.0 in business, and although it may have its risks, no company now can stay disconnected from their customers. Down below I leave you with other successful stories and a video to reinforce the idea.

Do you find any other advantages in this case? Let me know.

I know that we only have to discuss 2 functional areas, but do you agree with me that Product Development is involved too? Given that the open code led to the creation of new applications for Oracle Connect by using Oracle Connect.

More on Social Media used in Business:

21 Enterprises Success Stories
Enterprise 2.0 and Social Business