Oracle Pakistan has 1,100 clients in the country, of which 50 come from the textile sector, which are mostly family-run firms
“When we started marketing our products few years ago, we had the same popular perception that family-owned businesses are slow acquirers of technology.
“But we found out that we were wrong as many family-run businesses took IT services faster than we expected,” he said while talking to some media people here.
Oracle Pakistan has 1,100 clients in the country, of which 50 come from the textile sector, which are mostly family-run firms, but they acquire enterprise software to reduce their cost of operation.
The figure of 1,100 may sound small for a company like Oracle, but if you go through the revenue earned by the company, you may change your mind. Revenue of Oracle Pakistan for the year ended June 30, 2012 was Rs1.9 billion.
The company deals in enterprise software, which is used in big organisations and not by individuals, who mainly rely on simple software.
Oracle has over 390,000 customers worldwide and its annual global revenue stood at $37.1 billion in 2012. Total employees of the company are 115,000 and it has 15 million developers — the largest developer community in the world.
Javed revealed that universities in Pakistan are also fast opting for enterprise software. Right now, 15 universities in the country are using PeopleSoft Campus Solution – an Oracle product which is also being used by Standford University.
After Australia, Pakistani universities are the first in the Asia-Pacific, which have acquired enterprise software, he added.
Oracle has been operating in Pakistan since 1997 and its major clients are banks, businesses, educational institutions, textile and other industries, government and non-government organisations. It also operates through local partners to achieve higher work efficiencies through integrated information technology infrastructure.
Competitors of Oracle in Pakistan are big names like Microsoft and SAP among others.
On the introduction of 3G technology in Pakistan, Javed said 3G will revolutionise the way enterprises operate in the country. “The launch of 3G services will change the landscape of the IT industry in Pakistan,” he said.
Competition in the IT industry is so intense that no company can afford to lag behind in investment in research and development, he said, stressing every company, whether big or small, has to keep pace with the ever changing IT industry.
Looking at challenges on the innovation side, the company invested $4.5 billion in research and development in fiscal year 2012 and has spent around $24 billion on research since 2004.
The company has been operating for over 35 years and is one of the leaders in database software in the world. It has developed technologies and acquired top companies over the years and produces the entire technology stack from servers and storage and from database to middleware.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 19th, 2013.
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