In a presentation released Monday, the IDG News Service reported, Oracle described how RightNow's products will work as part of a continuum involving its Siebel marketing software, ATG Commerce e-commerce platform, supply-chain applications and Endeca unstructured data search technology. That last operation is part of a announced only last week.

All told, the combination will help companies gain new customers and keep them longer while lowering operational costs, Oracle said in its statement.

The presentation provided some examples of the benefits RightNow customers have gained. Some 40% of RealNetworks' customers resolve issues online, without dealing with a service representative, while call-handling times for Overstock.com have fallen 25%, the statement said.