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Oracle offers a comprehensive product stack and tailors a solution based on
the organization's needs and requirements. In the last eight months, the
company has strengthened its presence in 17 new cities in India
How is Oracle strengthening its SMB focus? What are some of the
initiatives the company has/will adopt?
The small and medium business (SMB) segment is where India is experiencing some
of the highest growth rates. Indian SMB companies are now part of the global
supply chain and are competing successfully in the global market. Oracle's
database, middleware and applications are increasingly helping these companies
compete better in the global market.
As part of our strategy to make Oracle technology and applications available
to this growing segment, we have our product offerings that are targeted at the
SMB market. This year we have expanded our geographical reach within India to
directly meet customer requirement in the SMB segment especially in the
non-metro growth cities of India.
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| Krishan Dhawan, MD– Oracle India (P)
Ltd |
In the last eight months, we have strengthened our presence in 17 new cities
in India. These include Pune, Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Cochin, Vishakhapatnam,
Chandigarh, Jaipur, Indore, Lucknow, Nagpur, Bhubaneswar, Surat, Nashik, Goa,
Guwahati, Raipur, Jalandhar. These cities are emerging as hubs for diverse
industries such as manufacturing, engineering, ITeS, education etc. We are
well positioned to meet the burgeoning IT requirements of these customers.
Oracle offers a comprehensive product stack and tailors solutions based
on the organization's needs and requirements. In some cases, depending on
the business, organizations need, our enterprise-class edition of database or
application depending on the size of their organization.
We also offer industry-specific business applications such as JD Edwards
EnterpriseOne to streamline business processes.
In October we unveiled 'Oracle Accelerate' an expanded SMB program.
Oracle Accelerate comprises of industry-specific, pre-packed application
bundles, rapid implementation tools and a growing network of certified Oracle
applications resellers.
We also have several Oracle CRM offerings for SMBs in India and the Asia
Pacific region. These constitute a full menu of flexible customer relationship
management (CRM) deployment options to help SMB realize the same powerful
benefits and functionalities as enterprise-CRM users.
What role do B and C class cities play in Oracle's expansion plans? Is
your go-to-market strategy different for these cities?
As I mentioned earlier, the non-metro growth cities are where India is
experiencing some of the highest economic growth rates, and many of these are
home to some of the fastest growing industries in India including manufacturing,
and ITeS. Our strengthened presence in 17 growth cities in India allows us to
contribute to the growth of the SMB organizations.
How is Project Fusion, one of Oracle's initiatives shaping up and what
has been the development in this space?
Project Fusion is the code-name for Oracle's next generation applications,
integration and architecture solutions. Designed around the common Fusion
Architecture, many of the core Fusion building blocks are built into the new
releases of Oracle e-Business Suite as well as PeopleSoft Enterprise and JD
Edwards. Project Fusion is Oracle's long-term commitment to provide customers
with access to technologies, services, and resources that can revolutionize
their business and provide organizations with enterprise-wide business
intelligence needed for improved decision making.
What is your take on the ERP market in India? What share does Oracle have
in the ERP pie in India?
Most Indian organizations have completed the first phase of their business
applications deployment such as financials and manufacturing. What they are now
looking for are sophisticated systems that will better assist their critical
business decisions and enhance their employee productivity and increase their
customer service levels. Companies are therefore now looking at solutions such
as business intelligence, human capital management and customer relationship
management. Oracle is the number one applications player in India in Human
Capital Management and Customer Relationship Management. We are also leaders in
traditional ERP solutions in several industry segments in verticals such as
telecommunications, banking and select manufacturing sectors.
You have shown a keenness for e-governance, what is the progress of the
company on this front?
We have made significant efforts in promoting e-governance in India. Oracle
works closely with the central and state governments to accelerate citizen
initiatives by enabling easy deployment of IT. In fact, we are working with all
states in India.
In 2003, Oracle and HP launched the 'e-governance center of excellence'
located at the Oracle office in Gurgaon.
This e-governance center of excellence (e-governance center) supports
e-governance initiatives by central, state and local government bodies in
India. The e-governance center showcases Oracle's successful e-governance
architecture, which has been implemented worldwide by many organizations,
with particular emphasis on capabilities to enhance security, operations
continuity, availability, scalability and optimization for lower total cost of
ownership. The center offers services such as technical consultation, proof of
concept and thematic presentations, in addition to creating awareness amongst
decision makers at the central and state levels to help them effectively define
and implement their respective e-governance process.
Oracle has been involved in the successful implementation of a number of
e-governance projects in India, including a citizen services delivery
applications (Andhra Pradesh), commercial and sales tax applications (Madhya
Pradesh), treasury automation (Madhya Pradesh), automation in
municipalities/local bodies (Gujarat), urban development agencies and law
enforcement departments (AP Police), e–delivery of taxpayer services (Income
Tax Department, Ministry of Finance), treasury management application
(Government of Rajasthan).
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