The Hindu Business Line : Oracle bullish on telecom vertical

Enterprise software maker Oracle Corporation is bullish on the communication vertical and is in parleys with majority of the Indian telecom service providers as they move on to offer new breed of services such as mobile TV, broadband and IPTV.

The company is poised to complete the acquisition process of MetaSolv, which has significant presence in India through its Chennai-based operations. With this, its largest team of experts in the communications business now reside in India.

The Senior Vice-President, Communications Global Business Unit, Oracle Corporation, Mr Bhaskar Gorti, said Oracle works with over 700 telecom companies globally and the mandate is to grow this business unit to the next level where convergence has emerged as a true differentiator for companies.

Based out of Redwood, the communications team has expanded over the years complemented by a string of strategic acquisitions, including Portal Software and MetaSolv, both of which have emerged during the Internet era. The process of merger of MetaSolv would be completed later this week.

Mr Gorti said that most of the Indian service providers in the telecom market place, such as BSNL, Bharti, Tata Teleservices, VSNL and MTNL, are working towards being integrated telecom carriers where they are seeking convergence of a clutch of services — be it GSM, broadband and IP networks.

This convergence is also being necessitated by the market demand where voice, data and content are coming together, as also pre-paid and post paid services, alongside efforts to offer wireline, wireless and broadband seamlessly.

This would mean common billing which potential customers could demand at their home, he explained.

GROWTH OF MVNOs

One of the interesting aspects in India, too, like other markets, is the potential for Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs), who can rapidly deploy applications to service their clients. For instance, retail major Tesco has one such in operation, so do Amex and ESPN for content. Therefore, say if a bank like SBI would like to create one MVNO network like its counterparts in other markets, it can do so targeting its large client base. "We expect a similar scenario to emerge in markets like India", Mr Gorti said.

The Vice-President, Sales of MetaSolv, Mr Sandeep Sharma, explained as to how they partner with the likes of BSNL in areas such as broadband and help them from order to implementation and billing.

More Stories on : Software | Telecommunications

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page