With a focus on cloud, analytics and SMBs, Oracle India is planning to increase its footprint by opening five more branches in the country, taking the total to 10. The new offices will come up in Chandigarh, Lucknow, Jaipur, Bhopal and Thiruvananthapuram in the next few weeks.

The company began expanding its presence about a year ago by opening five offices in Ahmedabad, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata. With the addition of new offices, the company covers most of the country as it increases the India focus.

“After the expansion, we would have covered almost all of the country. Each office will have about 20-25 people,” Shailender Kumar, Managing Director of Oracle India, has said.

Workforce expansion Talking to BusinessLine on the sidelines of Oracle India Partner Forum here on Thursday, he said the company would add about 200 people more to the workforce of 1,800 (excluding employees in the development centres) for its India operations in the next few weeks.

Replying to a question on whether the domestic industry was sluggish as pointed out by some Indian IT firms, he said the situation was improving in the last six months.

As it works through partners in deploying its solutions, Oracle wrests with it 18 ‘key accounts’ that it works on closely. Though it refuses quantify the value of such accounts, top conglomerates such as Reliance, LIC and SBI come into the category. “Last year the number was 10. We have added 8 accounts to the key accounts list this year. We might add some more soon,” he said.

Oracle shared its business strategy with partners from across the country. The US based firm said cloud adoption in the country has witnessed significant traction.

“While traditional companies have realised the importance of cloud and begun to roll out strategies for their cloud migration, start-ups and e-commerce companies that carry no legacy baggage are starting their journey straightaway with cloud,” Niraj Kaushik, Vice-President (Applications Business) of Oracle India, said.

With cloud adoption growing and opportunities showing promise, the company has decided to increase the cloud sales force by 150 to take the total to 300 in the next 18 months.

The writer is Bangkok on Oracle’s invitation for the India Partner Forum

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