Zendesk vs. Oracle

The Zendesk Agent Workspace enables agents to communicate with customers across channels within a single, convenient interface. Agents can use the appropriate channels to address customer issues, without being restricted to the channel in which the customer originally made contact.

With key context at their fingertips—like a customer’s past support requests, account type, and order history—agents can provide personalized support no matter how a customer reaches out. Agents also don’t need to toggle between different tools; the added efficiency allows support teams to scale and deliver fast, consistent customer experiences.

On the other hand, Oracle requires cumbersome channel switching due to its lack of native channels like WhatsApp, Instagram, voice, and SMS. Multiple G2 user reviews also describe the platform as “not at all user-friendly,” which can impact agent efficiency and, consequently, the experience they can deliver to customers.

Tip: Ask your prospective software vendor for a demo of a fluid, multichannel flow for voice, SMS, Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and any other communication channel your service team relies on. To provide a true omnichannel experience, you must choose software with omnichannel capabilities.

You don’t need a developer army to start using Zendesk, or an influx of agents to keep using it. Efficiency and automation are baked in, which is how Zendesk keeps its TCO low and return on investment (ROI) high. Our customer service solution is also quick to implement, and we offer all the capabilities support teams need to be successful out of the box.

As previously mentioned, Oracle users report that the platform is complex to use and maintain due to the need for technical skills. Because large developer teams and skilled admins require a bigger budget, this can drive up the TCO. Businesses that need more features must also pay additional licensing fees—further increasing costs.

Tip: Ask prospective vendors for a price quote based on the features and functionalities you’ll need. That way, you can identify hidden costs before signing a contract.

We also want to reiterate the impact agile support software can have on a business. Zendesk is easily configurable and customizable and enables teams to make changes fast by:

• Offering robust reporting: Gather insights about evolving customer needs and swiftly pivot to accommodate them.
• Providing a native omnichannel solution: Easily add channels as you go, while controlling your total costs.
• Supplying no-code integrations: Integrate with essential third-party systems and apps to keep your team nimble without relying on an IT specialist.

While Oracle solutions provide customizability, making changes requires time and resources. According to Oracle users like Anita M. and Chris D., the initial system configuration and setup are overly complex, and ongoing maintenance is cumbersome due to a lack of agility.

Tip: Select an agile vendor that offers a no-code bot builder, easy-to-install integrations, and drag-and-drop tools to make it easy for team members without technical expertise to make changes.

Zendesk includes a help center and a smart knowledge base, making it easy for customers to find the information they need. We also make it a breeze for agents to churn out fresh, relevant content with AI-powered Content Cues and simple-to-use help center publishing capabilities.

Businesses can customize their help centers without hassles and organize content intuitively for users. Many businesses also use our platform to localize knowledge base content in more than 40 languages and repurpose valuable information for a global audience.

Oracle also offers self-service and knowledge management, but there are several nuances to consider. For instance, Oracle Service Cloud, formerly RightNow, doesn’t provide answer or article templates and doesn’t use a tagging system, which can hinder organization and slow productivity. While Knowledge Advanced offers more features, it costs twice as much as Oracle Service Cloud and doesn’t offer a way to automatically migrate content between systems.

Tip: Invest in a user-friendly knowledge management system that makes it easy to create and edit content, identify content gaps, and track article performance.

Zendesk provides access to pre-built dashboards and customer service datasets. Zendesk users can also view additional data insights, build custom reports, publish and share dashboards, and more.

Oracle reports are a component of Oracle Fusion Middleware. The software uses a WYSIWYG design tool to streamline reporting. Unfortunately, only system admins are able to build reports, and agents are unable to customize their views.

Tip: Increase efficiency and make it easy for agents to reach their goals by selecting customer service software that allows each team member to build and customize their own reports.

Zendesk supports workflows and automations through SLAs, operation level agreements (OLAs), predefined responses (macros), event-based triggers, time-based automations, and side conversations (which enable agents to collaborate on open tickets).

Oracle offers macro-like features that allow agents to utilize predefined responses. The primary difference is that the process is more complicated, and only admins have the permissions needed to set it up. Also, since the platform doesn’t provide a feature comparable to side conversations, agents can’t collaborate on support requests as easily.

Tip: Empower agents to resolve open support requests quickly by choosing software that enables real-time collaboration between agents and departments.

Zendesk offers a powerful AI solution that customer service teams can use within minutes—no developers, expensive IT costs, manual training, or months-long lead times needed. Our AI’s efficiency stems from being built with CX in mind and trained on trillions of data points gleaned from real-world service interactions.

AI powers our centralized Agent Workspace and gives agents access to tools that increase productivity. For example, Zendesk AI can suggest responses and detect customer intent, leaving agents prepared to handle interactions effectively. Our no-code chatbots can also address requests on their own or find the right agent for an issue.

Oracle’s chatbot (called Digital Assistant) is all proprietary, custom code—meaning it doesn’t have a drag-and-drop feature. For this reason, some businesses find the tool overly complicated for their current needs and resources.

Tip: Ask prospective vendors to show you how to set up a chatbot in real-time. Ideally, this process will be zero-code, instead using drag-and-drop technology to save time and money on configuration.

Developers who use Zendesk are uninhibited in using modern software languages, open APIs (application programming interfaces), and cloud administration on AWS, permitting easy and quick integration.

Of course, developers can use code to configure the Zendesk platform to a business’s specifications. However, non-developers can also customize it using any of the 1,500+ pre-built apps and integrations—this includes out-of-the-box (OOB) integrations for Jira and Salesforce on the Zendesk Marketplace.

Oracle also offers integrations, but its marketplace is more limited, with only 47 applications for B2C use cases and 10 for B2B. The marketplace has apps for management, networking, and security use cases, totaling 332 available applications. Users should also note that Oracle does not offer a sandbox testing environment out of the box, and changes made must be manually migrated, which is a time-consuming process.

Tip: Ask your chosen vendor to demo a working Jira and Salesforce integration so you can see how quickly you can set up out-of-the-box integrations on the platform.

Zendesk offers native voice, which is ready out of the box, and integrates with most phone systems. Many businesses consider Zendesk a top solution for service experiences, as our voice tools sync beautifully with our other CX tools to make support across channels a reality.

Oracle is a full-featured solution for calling. The caveat is that Oracle Service doesn’t come with a native voice solution. This may be manageable, but it does require businesses to use software from other vendors—a downside for businesses that want to limit the number of vendors they use.

Tip: Ask prospective vendors if their software allows agents to manage calls in the same space as digital communications for a more unified experience.