Oracle Wednesday said it will back up its release of an enterprise research planning (ERP) suite for smaller businesses by bulking up its own business in India, eventually doubling its workforce in Hyberabad and Bangalore.
The Redwood Shores, Calif.-based software giant is actively courting the mid-market abroad. In December 2002, it shipped Oracle E-Business Suite Special Edition for two international market regions, Europe/Africa/Middle East and China.
Wednesday, it launched another version for other Asian and Pacific countries. The product is a pre-configured, pre-installed package of ERP applications and services targeted to small and medium-sized enterprises with around 100 to 500 employees. By the end of the year,
Oracle said it will announce its plans for bringing the package to the U.S.
The suite will use Linux on the Intel platform and include the modules most wanted in by the approximately 2,400 small and medium enterprises in India, according to Oracle spokesperson Sean Mills.
For example, while the core technology remains unchanged, the Asia/Pacific edition, announced yesterday, includes customer relationship modules, because there is strong demand in that region. The European version, on the other hand, includes modules to handle financials and order management. Mills said the goal in limiting the number of modules was to be able to offer all software, services and hosting to provide out-of-the-box functionality.
An Oracle spokesperson said the Indian operation will grow to 4,000 employees by year’s end, with the staff-up to 6,000 “in the near future.”
The majority of new positions will be in software development, with a large chunk handling customer support; outsourced customer support to India is a huge trend customer support to India.
The company said new hires will also handle operations, sales and marketing of Oracle’s full product line.
