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Oracle to double manpower count in India

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CIOL Bureau
New Update

BEIJING: Oracle Software is planning to double its manpower strength in India

within the next two



years, according to Oracle Corporation, executive VP-Asia Pacific, Derek
Williams. He was addressing the Indian press at the Oracle World event currently

going on at Beijing. From the current strength of around 2,000 engineers, the

idea is to scale it upto 4,000.






According to Williams, "India is incredibly important for Oracle. In fact,
India and China are the two jewels of the crown in the Oracle firmament."

In India, Oracle has two development centers located at Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Outside of the US, India is the biggest development center for Oracle. Revealed

Jeff Henley, CFO, Oracle Corporation that the Indian operations are already

profitable.






He said, "We have invested large amounts in the Indian capability and we
value it greatly. We are looking at moving people from all our disciplines to

India." Around five per cent of Oracle's total global workforce of 42,000

is already based in India.






Added Williams, "The biggest concentration of R&D engineers outside the
US is in the Indian facilities at Bangalore and Hyderabad. We are very clear

that vital generic software development for global markets will be done out of

India." Moreover, he believes that India is a vibrant market in its own

right. Not only is Oracle participating in the evolutionary process with ERP and

e-governance but it wants to be at the vanguard of the change in financial

services and the banking sector. Interestingly, Oracle has sold more call center

software in India than it has all over the rest of Asia-Pacific put together. At

the same time, Williams reckons that business process outsourcing will be the

next big thing out of India.






"India will be the world leader in both BPO and call centers", he
said. When questioned about the probability of the next Oracle World taking

place in India, Williams declined to commit anything. "Yes, you will see

Oracle World in India. I cannot give you a timeline, but it will be coming,

certainly India is a leading candidate", he added.






At the same time, Henley felt that India is well ahead of China in terms of the
development standpoint



primarily because the English language is the differentiator. However, he
cautioned that the politics and bureaucracy is holding India back. He likened

India to Argentina, which too is grappling with structural problems.






On the other hand, Oracle India, head, Marketing, Somesh Bhagat continued to be
bullish on India saying that business in India is growing extremely well.

"We are restoring a compounded annual growth rate of close to 40 per cent

over the last four to five years", he said.















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