Kaushik Mitra, Director, Applications Channels, Oracle On Empowering Partners to Deliver Cost-Effec

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Oracle offers wide range of database solution to the companies as per their requirement and budget. Oracle Database has extended the productivity and business revenue by offering best needed solution to them. Kaushik Mitra, Director, Applications Channels, Oracle India talks to IT VAR News, on companys channel plan, market strategy and its wide range products.

ITVN: How do you see the potential of Indian market? Where do you see the new opportunities?
KM: Looking at the current market dynamics, todays IT solutions have to provide organisations with valuable insights that can enable smart decision making and ensure transparency for good governance. With this market landscape coupled with unplanned incidences and complex challenges confronting organisations, it has become important for them to reorient their businesses and look at technologies that will offer

practical benefits and a competitive edge.
Today, industries like banking, telecom, manufacturing, power and utilities and newer mature industries like retail, professional services like BPO/KPO, that were traditionally at the forefront of adopting technology are now in the second wave of IT adoption. They are moving beyond simple ERP modules towards niche IT implementations encompassing CRM, HCM, SCM, BI, SOA, ECM etc to support specific business functions.
ITVN: Has this downturn given new strength to your company? How you are managing your business in such downturn when selling solutions is a very tough task?
KM: With the economic slowdown, companies have become cautious about IT investments and there is greater emphasis on must-haves rather than good-to-have. Oracle, because of its solution portfolio, is very well positioned to deliver real b

enefits to customers even in the current market landscape. Most of these address the core business needs of an enterprise.
ITVN: Which are the verticals you are looking to tap? Also where do you find the maximum consumption going on?
KM: Oracle focuses on the following verticals: CMU (communication-media-utilities), GEH (government-education-healthcare), FSI (financial service organisations), MRD (manufacturing-retail-distribution).
The government, telecom, financial services, power and utilities sectors have been at the forefront of IT adoption in India and will continue to invest in IT. In addition, other industries that are investing in IT include midsize financial service organisations such as cooperative banks or cooperative credit societies, ITeS and professional service organisations like KPOs, educational institutions, retail, healthcare and manufacturing.

ITVN: Brief about your go to marketing strategy.


KM: Oracle has put in substantial investments and resources towards partner development through the funding of hardware, sales incentives, technical resources, joint ISV (independent software vendor) program memberships, joint customer-ISV references, ISV porting centers among others. Oracle is also empowering its partners to deliver industry-specific and cost-effective IT solutions for mid-sized businesses through innovative go-to-market initiatives and ongoing training and support programs across the country to enable partners to resell, install and implement Oracle software. We have strengthened our partner network and continue to support its members through market development funds, training, joint marketing events and other support programmes. In addition, we also provide them with access to the Partner Solut

ion Center in our Gurgaon facility (one of 4 centers in the Asia Pacific region) so that we can work on joint innovations for the India marketplace and also enable ISV partners to migrate confidently from other third-party vendor solutions to the entire Oracle product family by partners testing their solutions on Oracle technology, in a secure environment.
ITVN: How do you see SMBs market? Are they deploying your solutions? Your strategy to tap them. KM: Mid-sized companies in India are growing very fast. They need to have software that handles their present business requirements as well as keeps up with their growth. Also they do not have the luxury of time - so the implementation period needs to be shortened so that the benefits of using the software can start showing quickly. At Oracle we have been able to address these issues successfully. Our mid-sized companies offerings, which are pa

ckaged differently and priced appropriately are essentially the same software products that are used by our enterprise customers. As our customers operations grow they can easily scale up to our enterprise versions of the software without having to re-implement it. This is clearly the most significant value add that mid-sized customers can get from Oracle.
To make the solutions simpler and affordable, Oracle brings to the table, business accelerators for faster and standard implementation. Oracle Business Accelerators (OBAs) is an implementation methodology which makes the implementation faster, structured and therefore helps in less costlier implementations. It has a configuration tool, which helps in quickly configuring the applications. We have launched promotional bundles to support this with partners, HP and IBM. Apart from this we distribute these bundles through our VAD Redington and partners for the mid market space. Recently Oracle and HP introduced O

racle Accelerate Solution for HP ProLiant servers.
ITVN: What role Service Providers play in growing your business? Any plan for them. KM: We work with channel partners that include SIs (system integrators), VAD (value added distributors), resellers, platform (hardware) providers and ISVs (independent software vendors). The implementation partners/service providers role is critical in ensuring that the implementation is completed and operating well for the customer. We have a structured program to train and enable partners from time to time to ensure that they deliver quality implementations.
Our Customer Care and Quality team also plays an important role in monitoring and reviewing partner implementations.
ITVN: Your channel structure to tap Indian market. Your current channel strength.
KM: Together w

ith our 500+ partners in India ranging from platform providers to independent software vendors, resellers and system integrators, we continue to offer customers with the worlds most integrated, open and standards based software and information architecture. Oracle also has an OraclePartner SolutionCenter for technical assistance, training, lead generation opportunities and access to state-of-the-art infrastructure. This centre, is tightly integrated with the Oracles research and development centers in China and Singapore and gives partners in India access to Oracles product expertise, which will allow them to stay ahead of competition by developing compelling IT solutions for industries and governments.
ITVN: How are you training your partners and making them much aware about your products?
KM: To support partners successful growth with Oracle, Oracle PartnerNetwork provides:

Skills Enablement through focused training roadmaps, discounted courses, free online training and other specialized training offerings designed to enable partners in their area(s) of focus. Marketing Opportunities through demand generation activities, market development funds (for Certified and Certified Advantage Partners), e-marketing tools for closed loop campaign planning, execution and measurement as well as a wide range of Oracle-sponsored activities designed to highlight partners solutions and successes. Selling Incentives and Support through referral and influence incentives, opportunity registration, online business planning, and exclusive resale discounts and product packaging for partners. Technical Support, both online and by phone, to help partners with migration, development and implementation of solutions built on or integrated with Oracle technology.
ITVN: What about

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