Oracle eyes huge scope in tier-2 and tier-3 markets

Having witnessed a significant growth opportunities from the Indian SMB market, Oracle is now focusing to ensure building the company's business through its partner ecosystem in order to specially improve its presence in the tier-2 and tier-3 cities across the country by the end of this year.

Oracle partners contribute to a majority of  its business in India and Asia Pacific. "From an economic perspective, the SMB segments in the Tier 2 and Tier 3 Indian cities are rapidly scaling and offer great business potential. We have been serving the SMB segment in these cities for many years with our extensive partner network of resellers, system integrators and in some cities with our own set-up i.e. our own employees," said Niraj Kaushik, Senior Director, Alliances & Channels, Oracle India. Currently, there are about 1000 plus partners with Oracle in India and around 20,000 partners globally.

Apart from strengthening its partner network in the tier-2, Oracle is also planning to support its partners through market development funds, training, joint marketing events and other support programs. Elaborating more on the company's channel strategies, Kaushik explained, "We conduct several training programs to educate our partners. Through this approach, we enable our channel partners to deliver industry-specific solutions at the right price point to our customers in SMB segment. Our strategy is to empower our channel partners since they work as an extension of our sales force, to serve the requirements and needs of this segment. We invest in their training and getting them up-to-speed in meeting increasing midsize customer demands," said Kaushik.

Commenting on channel engagement, Khaushik said, "For Oracle, channel expansion is a continuous process. We are open to work with any partner, who wants to be a part of Oracle ecosystem and can provide value to our customers. It is up to our partners where they see growth areas and what kind of specialization they want to do. Based on this, we guide them to become specialized in certain segments and also help them in successfully achieving the various partner categories."