Oracle India targets 100 ERP customers from SME segment

Oracle India is targeting an addition of 100 new ERP customers from the small and medium (SME) segment in the next two years to its existing SME customer base of 30 ERP customers.

The company is also aiming to double the number of its tier one implementation partners from five to ten in the same period. It will also build up its tier two implementation network in non-metros so that it can push its SME focussed ERP suite of products.

Oracle had launched its pre-configured ERP suite about a year back when it pulled out eight key modules out of the 250 modules that constitute its e-business suite. These eight modules are specifically aimed at three scenarios "" financial implementation, distribution implementation and manufacturing implementation.

SMEs have been forced to implement ERP and other software solutions for a variety of reasons. These include ; large companies have been forced to lower costs and are asking the same of their smaller vendors, lifting of quotas by WTO, increasing competition, and pressures on the bottomline.

The three ERP packages that Oracle has for the SME segment cost Rs 20 lakh, Rs 25 lakh and Rs 30 lakh. The ERP solutions include ten licenses for the eight modules, Intel server which runs on Linux, implementation service, first year software support for both the ERP package and Linux.

"The verticals (SMEs) where there is adoption of ERP is auto component, chemical and electronic trading, IT services (mid-tier). There is also significant interest from textile and garment industry," said V Ram Sharma, general manager-sales, Oracle India. The company, at present, has 300 ERP customers including large and SME clients.

There are approximately 50,000 companies in India that fall under the SME category (Rs 250 crore or lower). Out of these only 2,000 have made some form of ERP investment; in 2004-05 SMEs spent about $2 billion on IT software and hardware implementations. About 40 per cent of Oracle's Asia-Pacific revenues accrue from SMEs.