Integrating VoIP with Oracle Sales Cloud

Over the last decade, we have seen the vast majority of business functions move online. At the retail level, we – as consumers – have become used to doing many activities online whether it is banking, shopping, gaming or even working. The shift to the cloud has been happening inside businesses as well. If a company is delivering services online to customers, it is also a good bet to suppose that they are utilizing cloud services behind the scenes.

This ongoing transition to cloud computing did not happen overnight or even in a year. Companies have been laying the foundation and various bits and pieces that go into cloud platforms for well over a decade. While some companies were slow to adopt cloud technology – for a number of valid reasons – others went ahead full steam. The result is that on the one hand, we have organizations that are only now beginning to utilize SaaS in a few functions and on the other we have organizations that exist completely in the cloud.

VoIP – Bringing Phones to the Cloud

Just like other enterprise software, business phone systems didn’t have much of a connection with the cloud or the Internet before VoIP. The PSTN has always functioned as a separate network with its own set of rules, standards and technology. Even though VoIP started out as a hobby for people interested in technology, it is now well on its way to becoming the dominant voice communication platform on the planet. In other words, VoIP will supplant the PSTN within a few decades.

VoIP essentially brings phone calls online. Instead of having a separate, dedicated copper wire network to transmit voice, VoIP utilizes the existing Internet and other computing networks to route phone calls. The technology used to be synonymous with low quality audio, broken conversations etc. and was generally considered unreliable for business purposes. Today’s modern VoIP systems however, have grown to the point where they are a comparable alternative to the PSTN – at the very least. In the vast majority of cases users cannot even differentiate between the voice quality of PSTN and VoIP systems.

Oracle Sales Cloud for Enterprises

Oracle is one of the many companies such as Microsoft and IBM that are slowly moving their services and corresponding business models to the cloud. The Oracle Sales Cloud is a set of tools that encompasses the entire sales function within a business. It is powered by the Oracle cloud platform. As a result, businesses can benefit from many of the advantages inherent to cloud solutions touch as flexibility and scalability.

Sales Cloud offers everything from pre-configured solutions that cater to a specific industry to customizable platforms that organizations can build upon and extend for their own needs. Even businesses that use Sales Cloud within the context of SaaS have several options to customize the UI. The service offering also includes mobile applications and tools, allowing businesses to integrate mobility into the mix.

Integrating VoIP with Oracle Sales Cloud

One of the reasons for the inevitable migration to the cloud is interoperability and compatibility. Services that are utilizing cloud platforms can be more easily integrated than on premise systems. The latter generally need custom software and modifications in order to do something as simple as exporting and importing data into one another. More complex integrations are often impossible. Since phone systems have moved online through VoIP and sales applications through Oracle Sales Cloud, integration between the two is not far off.

Oracle Sales Cloud is a platform that can be configured and extended by organizations. It can connect to a variety of first and third party applications, opening up the way to integrating VoIP as well. Enterprises often need a variety of systems to manage customer databases, track sales performance and view progress towards goals. The other vital tool in managing customer relationships is naturally the phone. If we integrate VoIP with the tools offered by Oracle, managing the customer experience becomes a one step process.

Improving Productivity, Eliminating Waste

Sales Cloud offers a variety of tools to manage all aspects of the sales function including data analysis, tracking, service analytics and even sales performance management. But having all this data at our fingertips is not enough. If a business is still using the PSTN, all this data cannot be easily shared with customer care teams or sales representatives at the point where they need it. We can generate all the reports we want for management or senior executives but translating it into real world performance improvements becomes difficult.

Once we integrate VoIP with the Oracle Sales Cloud, the results of data analytics can be used more effectively by front line employees. Personnel can pull up all the information they need even in the middle of a call. They can seamlessly switch between the phone call and sales applications without interruption. We won’t need manual intervention in order to attach notes from a call to the relevant customer records. We can certainly eliminate the time spent in writing down information, retrieving it when required and protect against losing valuable customer data.

The process of integrating various enterprise level software and systems is not going to end with just VoIP. Quite a few organizations are already implementing unified communication suites that integrate all channels into a convenient and comprehensive dashboard. We have just started along the process of integration and it won’t be long before we bring even more into the fold.