Cloud Creek Helps CallSource Achieve 180x Performance Gain and Saves 68% with the ODA
BUSINESS CHALLENGES
In 1991, CallSource quite literally founded an industry when it developed a call management system to help companies track and analyze call details to recover lost sales opportunities. Fast-forward 25 years, and CallSource leads the industry with innovative, award-winning, technology-enabled solutions to analyze advertising sources, identify in-bound call prospects, and coach call-handlers, just to name a few of its offerings. CallSource tracks and analyzes approximately two million calls per quarter for its customers. The call detail report is the key document used for analysis that provides crucial attributes about each call, such as the time of call, duration, the originating number, and the disposition of the call, e.g. did the call connect or was it abandoned before pick-up.
The company needs a database and technology platform with lightning-fast transaction processing speeds to quickly evaluate call detail data and generate summary reports. According to Bryan Coville, Founder and President of Cloud Creek, “We’d been working with CallSource for about 10 years to help manage its Oracle database environment. It was 2011, and the company was using Oracle Database Enterprise Edition in a RAC configuration. However, the hardware and storage components were aging, and CallSource began experiencing performance issues.” As CallSource evaluated options, such as a build-your-own solution with well-known hardware and storage components, it faced sticker-shock with pricing estimated at nearly $160,000.THE CLOUD CREEK SOLUTION
Cloud Creek recommended the Oracle Database Appliance to host both the application and the database. The ODA is engineered to minimize management and allows abstraction from the OS and database with superior management tools. Cloud Creek assisted in sizing, installation and configuration of the ODA. The ODA allows sub-capacity licensing which saved SynteractHCR money on initial Oracle license purchase. They can ‘pay as they grow’ over time. Cloud Creek provided expertise in migrating and tuning data for the new Oracle environment. Later, Cloud Creek provided scheduled ‘health check’ system reviews to ensure performance and reliability.
THE CLOUD CREEK SOLUTION
Since Cloud Creek had a very close relationship with Oracle’s Engineered Systems product development team at that time in early 2011, Cloud Creek knew that the Oracle Database Appliance (ODA), powered by Intel® Xeon® processors, was in beta testing and would soon be commercially available. Using that close connection to Oracle, Cloud Creek secured a beta device to run proof-of-concept (POC) testing in its lab for CallSource. Coville said, “We loaded CallSource’s data and conducted nine different test scenarios to generate call detail analysis reports. On every comparative measure, the ODA outperformed the legacy system—with nearly 180x improvement. The performance tests were so impressive that the CallSource team wanted to buy that very beta demo unit. On top of that, the price was right at just $50,000, less than a third of the price of the alternative, build-your-own solution.
While CallSource couldn’t purchase the beta ODA device, just a few months later in the fall of 2011, Cloud Creek helped CallSource purchase the very first commercially available ODA unit in the world. “That was a pretty exciting time for us,” said Coville. “We helped CallSource find a cost-effective, high-performance solution to its technology challenges; we were able to work closely with Oracle on the final development and testing as the ODA was hitting the market; and we helped our customer acquire the very first ODA ever sold.” Because CallSource was already using an Oracle database and technology solution, the ODA implementation and data migration took just two weeks. According to Coville, “Once we got the ODA in place, we migrated the database. It was really that simple because we didn’t have to make any changes to their database configuration. And, during most of the two-week timeframe, the customer was prepping for the project.
TECHNICAL AND BUSINESS BENEFITS
CallSource saw huge performance improvements immediately. In the few years since its original ODA implementation, the company deployed an ODA X3 and an X5—to gain more storage capacity and keep its technology current. Even with the added devices, the first ODA is still a “workhorse” for the company. CallSource now uses its first-generation ODA for disaster recovery; it uses the X3 for testing and development; and the X5 is its primary production device. Coville said, “The additional ODAs have allowed CallSource to move its database from a primary to a secondary site as needed, which has been very important when the IT team deploys new software applications.” While the cost-effective pricing has been very attractive to CallSource, the company has taken advantage of the sub-capacity licensing. “With any other non-ODA solution, CallSource would have to license all of the CPUs so Oracle’s pricing is a huge plus for them.
WHY CLOUD CREEK
CallSource and Cloud Creek have enjoyed a long-standing, trusted relationship. In fact, nearly a decade ago Oracle referred CallSource to Cloud Creek when it was looking for a technology consultant with Oracle database expertise. According to Jason Scinocca, CTO of CallSource, “I count on Cloud Creek for guidance on strategic direction and also to be in the trenches with us as we forge ahead to support the business.”
