Oracle Corp continued its aggressive push in the customer relationship management (CRM) market yesterday with the announcement that it has acquired Netherlands-based Tinoway Nederland BV, a vendor of mobile field service dispatching software. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed but all 30 Tinoway employees will move over to Oracle, the company said. Tinoway’s software links with call center software and enables companies to improve their customer service by forwarding user service requests directly to mobile workers in the field.
Specifically, Tinoway’s CommandPost application integrates with Oracle’s service and call center software. As users call in with service requests, the details, including the customer’s address, are logged within CommandPost. CommandPost then looks up the customer’s contact history and account details and automatically forwards the request to the most appropriate field service worker, who is equipped with either a laptop or a Palm Pilot organizer running Tinoway’s Cockpit client software. CommandPost is also integrated with a GPS tracking system which keeps a real- time record of the exact location of the remote worker and can also help him or her locate the shortest possible route to the customer.
Mark Barrenechea, senior vice president, CRM Products Division said that Tinoway’s products have actually been integrated with Oracle’s CRM software since last November, but the company decided to buy the company to gain better control over how it integrates, markets and sells the products to its customers. Under the deal, Barrenechea said Oracle will rename Tinoway’s CommandPost and Cockpit products as Oracle Mobile Field Service and integrate the solution into its newly launched CRM 3i; Oracle’s suite of 35 integrated applications for marketing, sales, service, call center and electronic commerce, announced at its user conference in San Diego last week and available for purchase next month.
Barrenechea added that the software would be ideal for business to business and residential to business service requests. In terms of businesses, he said the software could be used in multiple markets including by medical equipment, telecoms and utilities companies for improving service to their customers. On the consumer front, just about any hi-tech electronic equipment, from PCs to washing machines, TVs and fridges, could also be serviced in this way, Barrenechea said. He added that, over time, Oracle plans to work on deeper integration with Tinoway’s software to enable, for example, mobile workers to offer on-site billing as well being able to access more detailed customer information for cross selling opportunities.
