Oracle banks on its cloud business as it consolidates its position in India market

Oracle is witnessing a growing demand for its cloud business in the country, a market where it has witnessed a double digit growth consecutively for the last four years, while also introducing its first Oracle Gen 2 Cloud region. To further accelerate this growth, Oracle has already announced plans to open its second Gen 2 Cloud region this calendar year. Sanjoy Mukherjee, Head – Alliances, ISV & Channels, Technology Business, Oracle India in a chat with VARINDIA throws more light on this - 

Sanjoy Mukherjee is Head & Director - Alliances & Channels for Oracle India Pvt Ltd. In this role, Sanjoy’s key focus is to develop a strong partner & ISV network for Oracle for Cloud & Licences Business. Sanjoy is responsible to drive increased adoption of Oracle’s Cloud platform solution, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Gen 2.0, platform, and database and middleware solutions.
Sanjoy re-joined Oracle from SAP India Pvt Ltd in 2014, where he was Director – Public Services responsible for Partner Alliances, Sales & adoption of the industry specific solutions for Public Utilities, Education and Healthcare markets nationally.
Prior to SAP, Sanjoy was with Oracle as Senior Manager, heading the Key SI partners team and had successfully delivered the growth numbers.

2019 was a landmark year for cloud adoption in India. For Indian organizations looking to change growth orbits, it’s an opportune time to transform into digital-first businesses. Oracle is very bullish on its growth prospects in 2020. It is witnessing a growing demand for its cloud business in the country. 
“From our vantage point, the recently introduced Oracle Gen 2 Cloud region is encouraging a lot many customers to commence/expand their cloud journey, while channel partners have a very important role to enable this shift. We have a great set of partners helping our customers upgrade to the next generation technology,” says Sanjoy Mukherjee, Head – Alliances, ISV & Channels, Technology Business, Oracle India.
To drive sustained business growth, Oracle is focused on a three-pronged agenda for 2020 - 
(a)    Collaborate closely with partners to enable customers to upgrade to Oracle’s Gen 2 Cloud and future-proof their business
(b)    Help customers upgrade to Oracle Autonomous Database to unlock new value from their data and make better business decisions 
(c)    Empower customers to extract more value from Oracle cloud with a wide array of platform services.

“We understand different organizations are at different stages of maturity when it comes to moving to the cloud. Therefore, we will continue to offer a hybrid model, supporting them with our traditional license business as well,” he says. 

Oracle’s India growth story
Oracle India has witnessed a double digit growth consecutively for the last four years, and it has successfully doubled its customer base from 7500 about 4 years back to 15000 currently. To further accelerate this growth, Oracle has already announced plans to open its second Gen 2 Cloud region in India this calendar year. 
“This further reiterates our commitment to India at large, including our partner ecosystem. What this means is customers and partners in the region can further harness the power of Oracle Gen 2 Cloud and our generational innovations such as Oracle Autonomous Database, to drive sustained business growth. The initial response from our channel partners has been fantastic,” Sanjoy remarks.                                 
Oracle has also introduced the modern Oracle PartnerNetwork 2020 program last month, which is much more customer-centric, success-driven and simplified. It is a customer-focused, cloud-first modern partner program that accelerates the transition to cloud, driving superior customer experience and business outcomes. By selecting the appropriate track(s), Oracle partners can choose how they want to engage with Oracle - fully invest in the cloud space, focus efforts in the on-premise license and hardware space, or extend into a hybrid model.
“Ultimately, customers stand to gain from the expertise of Oracle’s best partners to drive cloud innovation,” Sanjoy reiterates. He further continues, “In the digital economy, every company needs to develop a service mindset. For partners, this journey with the Modernized Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) means gaining trust and relevancy with customers, accelerating time to market with enablers and benefits focused on customer success, easily identifying new market opportunities through clear program tracks, and engaging customers through clear differentiation of expertise - eventually helping everyone win big.” 
Customers look for partners with deep domain expertise. As customers look to accelerate innovation, new technologies like AI/ML, blockchain, IoT, edge computing in the enterprise are unleashing new market opportunities for the channel ecosystem. Therefore, another important and fast-growing area of focus for its channel partners is its portfolio of autonomous cloud services - starting with Oracle Autonomous Database. 
“Last but not the least, we continue to be extremely focused in the area of skilling/re-skilling our partners for the digital economy. We are encouraging them to achieve more specializations, and thereby win more business with Oracle. The aim is to help partners acquire the ability to develop, sell and implement the most compelling cloud portfolio or on-premise licenses, in line with our modernized OPN program,” Sanjoy concludes.