Oracle has been doubling down on the Indian market as enterprise customers start adopting cloud and data services in a significant way.
businessline spoke with Adrian Johnston, Senior Vice President, Cloud applications, Oracle Japan and Asia Pacific (JAPAC) to understand how the tech major is leveraging this opportunity.
What are some of the critical challenges for the Cloud SaaS market as it continues to grow across industries? How is Oracle tackling these challenges to accelerate business growth?
The key challenge with what has happened in the world in recent years, and currently, is how organisations become more efficient and provide better customer experiences, while also increasing operational efficiency.
Enterprises have begun to turn towards consolidation and integration of their processes. Hence, breaking down silos remains an important factor for businesses — both globally and in India.
Oracle’s innovative solutions assist in navigating these challenges and developing much more agile, scalable, and flexible processes. We provide our customers with modern solutions that enable them to stay agile and efficient as external factors change.
For example, on a quarterly basis every 90 days, we provide organisations with innovation through our continuous upgrades with almost no downtime.
Another significant challenge associated with Cloud Applications is the issue of data residency. To address this, Oracle has localised its Cloud Application solutions, which are now available in our data centres in India.
Overall, do you see a shift in technology requirements and more specifically Cloud uptake? What are some of the factors that contribute to the uptake in India and where is it coming from?
There is a shift in requirements, and one of the key factors for most Indian organisations is to have data centres in India.
We’ve made significant investments to have cloud services available onshore, and we currently have two data centres in India — Hyderabad and Mumbai. With our two data centres in place, we are witnessing an upward trend in cloud consumption in India.
This actually opens up a huge opportunity, as we’re seeing great momentum within financial services, the public sector, and regulatory organisations concerned about data sovereignty and where their information resides.
For example, in the BFSI sector, which is expected to grow rapidly, we are making significant investments due to its potential. In the first half of this year, we saw a 74 per cent y-o-y growth in business from the BFSI sector for our SaaS business.
This is our strongest and one of the top contributors to our success with some of the largest banks like Axis Bank, ICICI, HDFC, SBI Card, Federal Bank, Kotak Mahindra, and AU Fin Bank using Oracle SaaS.
Similarly, the healthcare sector is a key vertical for us, and we saw 160 per cent growth in SaaS in the healthcare sector in H1 FY23.
We are seeing a consolidation trend, with Cloud ERP and Cloud HCM solutions among hospitals — Apollo Hospitals, Sir Gangaram, Fortis, Aster DM, and Aurobindo Pharma, to name a few. We remain a preferred SaaS solution provider in this market.
Can you elaborate on how you foresee Oracle Cloud and applications making a difference to the government sector, and in which areas broadly? Please elaborate on some public sector examples of the work Oracle applications are doing in India.
Oracle has been assisting public sector organisations around the world in securely managing data, solving business challenges, and connecting citizens and employees for more than 40 years.
Today, Oracle serves as India’s financial backbone, with the country’s top private and public sector banking institutions, India’s top three telcos, and nearly all State governments and UTs relying on Oracle.
We have a dedicated public-sector team, which is an important investment for us given our public-sector affiliations with organisations such as the Department of Income Tax, an excellent example of how government organisations are modernising their citizen-to-service platform and citizen engagement.
IOCL and BPCL are a few more that we are working with. Additionally, we’re also involved in many critical projects that are shaping India’s digital agenda on the world stage — PM Gati Shakti, ONDC, SLDE, UPI, Income Tax modernisation, and energy conservation through smart metering across our extensive Oracle stack.
How has been the momentum and growth in FY23 so far? Which are your highest grossers within the Cloud apps space? What have been the levers of growth for Oracle’s SaaS business in India and which industries and sectors are adding to the momentum?
Oracle has maintained its upward growth trajectory, both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year and despite global headwinds, we have been able to sustain the momentum in FY23.
Globally, Oracle’s SaaS business is experiencing increased demand, an expanding customer ecosystem, and sector expansion. Our global Cloud Application SaaS revenue increased 42 per cent in USD and 44 per cent in constant currency in Q3 FY23.
Cloud ERP, our flagship SaaS offering, remains a trusted customer choice both globally and in India. Our revenue from Fusion Cloud ERP SaaS increased by 25 per cent in USD and 28 per cent in constant currency.
When it comes to the Indian market, it is one of the fastest-growing regions in JAPAC for SaaS pillars. As a result, India has become one of Oracle’s most significant contributors to Asia Pacific application revenues quarter-afte- quarter.
For Oracle SaaS India business, we saw 100 per cent growth in education and research and 160 per cent growth in healthcare. We are doubling down on the market, making constant improvements, and achieving continuous growth across our SaaS business in India.
Published on April 7, 2023
