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Krishan Dhawan
Managing Director
Oracle India
Year 2008 has been an interesting year for the IT industry, both in terms of the nature of IT adoption as well the global economic situation.
Though the business environment has become more competitive, there has been a high uptake of technology across different industry sectors. Apart from industries such as banking, telecom and manufacturing, newer industries like retail and BPO/KPO have been substantially adopting IT for their businesses. Leading the pack in IT adoption are the mid-sized companies which are propelling their investments in IT and showing profits at par with their counterparts in the large enterprises. These companies are moving ahead from basic ERP to new solution areas such as CRM, SCM and SOA.
Given the present market conditions, 2009 is going to be a challenging year for IT companies and partners in India. It would therefore be an increasingly competitive environment wherein customers will look at what vendors (and their partners) will be able to offer in terms of business transformation, cost savings, talent retention, enablement of faster decision-making tools, transparency and compliance. Some of the important trends that will drive IT adoption among enterprises include green practices, corporate governance and compliance, cloud computing, Web 2.0, talent management, social CRM, Internet fraud management, SOA and business intelligence.
In this context, a pertinent question to ask is what should channels do to deliver effective solutions to customers and also maintain their own growth?
Focus 2009
The first mantra of a partner should be to increase the level of engagement with its vendor. Partners should strive to become an integral part of the vendors’ sales ecosystem, and not just see such engagements as isolated business activities. The channels must work closely with vendors to develop industry solutions for the local market. They should strive for an environment where their growth will be tied to the growth of their respective vendors. Take the example of Accel Frontline, a partner operating in the mid-market segment and implementing ERP solutions. Accel witnessed 200 percent growth year-on-year for the last two years for its Oracle business as a result of focused, localized marketing and implementation activities.
Many IT companies have partner groups or networks to address partners’ requirements to battle in a highly competitive market. Partners should actively participate in such a network which will offer them access to all the tools, resources and benefits needed to support their business lifecycle.
Working together
Going forward, in 2009 partners should collaborate with their vendors to research and develop solutions targeted at their respective markets. They should actively involve in any R&D networks or centers that their vendor has initiated.
Before initiating their go-to-market activities for their solutions, they should be able to build and test such solutions on technologies and hardware provided by their vendors. At Oracle we are working with our partners to provide market research on new markets, deep selling and cross-selling opportunities. Also, we have set up the Partner Solution Center in Gurgaon that enables partners to build, port, enable and test their solutions on our technologies and hardware infrastructure in a secure environment. I believe these two initiatives will help partners sell smart, especially in a slow economy.
While it is important for partners to proactively seek to expand their engagement with their respective vendors, it is also important for the vendor to initiate steps to enable its channel to deliver value-based solutions to customers.
Our initiatives
More than 80 percent of our business in India is generated through our partners. Over the last three years we have acquired more than 40 companies, each of them specializing in industry-specific software solutions that are used extensively across major industries. With Oracle’s expanded product portfolio, partners get an opportunity to develop additional skill-sets that will enable them to offer new solutions to different industries and also to our existing customer base.
To enable smaller channels to reach out to the emerging mid-market in India, Oracle has initiated its VAD Remarketer Program, with Tech Pacific. This program enables resellers to resell Oracle products, and access training and support, without the need to join the Oracle Partner Network or make any upfront financial investment.
Our Accelerate program is another initiative to help partners in providing midsized customers with complete, easy-to-own, industry-focused solutions. The key to this program is the availability of pre-packed application bundles that can be quickly implemented by partners.
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