[1][2] Oracle hired Mark Barrenechea in 1997 to build a CRM development team.

[4] Later, Barrenechea was responsible for the CRM half of Oracle's E-Business Suite (EBS) when he helped to bridge the separation between CRM and ERP by creating a single database that covered marketing, sales, order management, and accounting.

This allowed Oracle to automate the entire CRM business flow, from lead to billing.

[3] In 2012, Oracle announced a new cloud-based focus on customer experience (CX) within its CRM business.

[5] At the time, CX was a relatively new term and referred to “the notion of providing a much more personalized approach to marketing and support.