Seven theories to explain how Oracle took Zoom out for dinner

This was as per Jameela Jamil in an interview on bad dates. You’re probably think ‘why is Jordan talking about this?’ well..

There are parallels with dating and enterprise partnerships with vendors:

There’s tonnes more:

• Communication

• Boundary setting

• Challenges & conflict handling

• Red flags

• Shared goals

• Breakup

• Marriage

In 2020, Oracle and Zoom said ‘I do’. Oracle successfully navigated from 1st date all the way to moving in, and long term commitment. How?

7 theories on why this partnership worked.

#1: Oracle saw green flags in Zoom:

• Rapid growth

• Understood value of a good customer experience

#2: Zoom saw green flags in Oracle:

• Oracle already had a reputation of providing secure / scalable cloud infrastructure

#3: The first date flew by:

• They quickly assessed each others strengths

• And gaps they could complement with skills

• This built confidence in that oracle could support millions of daily meetings

#4: It went so well, they spoke about the future and locked in date two:

• Both aligned quickly on expectations

• Zoom needed reliable, fast cloud tech to help them grow customers and revenue

• Oracle was committed to providing that because they could. They’d done it before

• Zoom needed Oracle to handle unpredictable surges in calls in unstable regions

• Oracle took the time to customise and configure to Zoom’s needs

#5: Oracle showed a huge sign of commitment, up front:

• Zoom had a surge of 100s of thousands of users. An immediate, critical challenge that could make or break the business

• Oracle solved it instantly. In just 9 hours, Oracle went live with Zoom on a live, critical problem

#6: Defined clear boundaries and terms:

• Zoom and Oracle defined distinct roles from the start.

• Oracle’s responsibilities: securing the network edge and enabling Zoom users to maintain existing communication services

• Real-time monitoring was used to respond to potential red flags promptly​. Empathy can come in the form of data & analytics.

#7: They tied the knot, and are exploring new things together:

• They’ve taken their collab to the next level

4 ways you can marry your own enterprise.

#1: Build your a green flag system.

• I make sure my website has testimonials from customers closest to my ICP, talking about problems / how I solved them. But I don’t stop there..

• If I talk to a prospect who is similar to a previous client, I provide a reference to show complete confidence in my abilities.

• Every Friday, I do a case study post with actionable insights and lessons learned, similar to the needs of my ICP

• I also write a LOT about my ICPs and solutions to their problems, and post it in places they will be

#2: Seek quality matchmaking.

Every week I try to have 2-3 calls with real life people. Based in the UK but with majority of clients and network in the US / Canada - this is super important. There are few types of calls:

Entrepreneurs in Slack Communities

1. Helping others with no strings attached. It feels good, and you never know when it pays itself back.

2. After helping, and only as long we got on and we could be across the pond friends, I could ask for an intro to someone close to my ICP.

Direct with ICP

Helping if they have publicly displayed a pain you can help with. I tend to reply first with something valuable, and offer a call.

1. Again - we brainstorm with no strings attached.

2. I ask for insight and understanding of their challenges.

3. I use this feedback to tailor my offer and services.

They will either:

• Show interest pricing / proposal

• Be a solid connection for the future

• Introduce you to someone else who may need your help

#3: Do enterprise homework.

Some insights into financial service needs in 2024:

• Safe usage of internal GenAI application due to sensitive data

• Industry experts who can recommend tech providers

• Convincing internal teams to adopt new tools & tech

• Local and regional compliance experts to handle restructures

• Sales experts who know Asia and Middle East trade corridors

• Elite vendor support:

  • Clear, accountable, actionable contingency plans for outages

  • Document outlining a vendors support model response times

  • Document outlining an escalation procedure

  • A vendor that verbally commits to entering a new initiative together

You can include these in outreach or interactions with a bank.

#4: Finally, run the walk.

9 hours!? Oracle solved a critical problem in just 9 hours?

How can your business copy this? As someone on the receiving end of vendor pitches for various services within financial services, the ones that came out on top:

• Took the time to understand first

• Offered immense up front value, sometimes on the call

Here’s an example:

• One of our top challenges: giving tier 1 customers ability to see the status of their payment in their online banking

• The vendor solution: literally showed us a demo of the payment visibility feature they had, which had already been used by other similar companies

This built immediate trust. It solved one of our biggest problems, and showed they were action oriented and credible.

They won.

Thanks for reading!

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