"India is an important market for us"
Sep 15, 2008 1226 hrs IST

Through its software applications and platforms, Oracle has established a firm presence in the telecom industry. Today, the company offers critical solutions for the empowerment of process systems. J.P Krishnamoorthy, VP (CGBU) of Oracle India talks to Muntazir Abbas on the same

You have said that India has an important strategic market for Oracle. What are your plans to extend manifold in the country? How can Oracle s communications products create an impact in Indian telecom sector?

Through Oracle Communications, communications service providers in India can leverage integrated, open applications to gain control of the entire concept-to-cash life cycle from service creation to sale, fulfillment, delivery and billing. In addition, communications service providers can take advantage of the complete network management-to-optimization life cycle from forecast and planning to supply chain/procurement, build and resource management, as well as network optimization.

Oracle Communications is increasing its presence in the high growth areas include DTH, WiMAX, and single billing. India is a strategic market for Oracle Communications with a recently expanded OSS development team in Hyderabad and plans for expansion of Oracle BSS Development Centre in Bangalore With global communication companies establishing operations in India, Oracle is focusing on managing the systems and infrastructure (BSS/OSS) and partnering with the emerging India-based SIs as Communications experts, to meet the increased demand for high-end technology solutions.

Talking about your partnership with Bharti-Airtel, how would you say that your applications and platforms contributed to its growth?

Airtel has implemented Oracle Communications Order Management and Inventory Management for streamlined business operations and superior service delivery. The integration with Oracle Financials and CRM will help reduce the project s total cost of ownership and deliver state-of-the-art customer service. This implementation will further extend Airtel s existing usage of OSM and optical/synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) services. Airtel selected Oracle for its flexibility, scalability and rich functionality. The applications will help support the provider s 100 % annual growth rate. Airtel has also selected Oracle Communications Network Integrity to optimize the use of its 78,540-kilometre extensive national fiber-optic network. This is one of the first implementations of Oracle Communications Network Integrity software with such a wide scale and complexity.

Airtel has also been using our Business Support Systems (BSS) and Operational Support Systems (OSS) since 1997. Oracle is a key component of Airtel s Service Delivery Platform infrastructure that already touches its 72 million customers.

What do you have to say on the adoption of your solutions by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL)? How will you support Idea-Cellular in India?

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), India s largest public sector telecommunications company, has implemented Oracle Applications, Oracle Database, and Oracle Fusion Middleware to drive BSNL s aggressive growth plans and enhance customer service delivery to its 70 million customer base in the country. BSNL will use several Oracle Siebel CRM Applications including order management, sales management, marketing management, services, call centre and web- self care. Oracle s offering also includes purchasing, financials and enterprise asset management modules of the Oracle E-Business Suite.

IDEA Cellular Limited has also selected and will implement Oracle s Siebel CRM applications to deliver a unique customer service experience to pre- and post-paid mobile subscribers across its entire operations in India. We will provide a single, real-time, accurate view of customer information and sharing customer data across all channels and customer facing departments. The solution will enable IDEA to streamline operations, deliver more personalized, efficient customer care and aggressively acquire and retain customers.

What are enterprise and carrier-grade software applications and decision-support tools?

Business practices based on enterprise and carrier-grade software applications and decision-support tools will allow service providers to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, reduce operating costs in the business and the network, and improve management reporting and control.

Oracle Solutions are built on open standards for maximum flexibility and interoperability. Only Oracle offers the widest choice of enterprise and carrier-grade software applications, middleware, database technology, and decision-support tools.

Please tell us something about your comprehensive service delivery product (SDP) portfolio for communications service providers?

The concept of SDP has evolved from basic content delivery to architecture for integrating legacy and IP-based network services in order to drive new revenue by exposing the communications network to third-party application developers. Oracle addresses today's SDP as well as the ability to integrate smoothly with BSS/OSS to easily activate services, manage subscriber data and bill for services.

The Oracle Communications Service Delivery product portfolio includes - Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper, Oracle Communications Converged Application Server, Oracle Communications Presence, Oracle Communications Virtual PBX and Oracle Communications Residential Telephony. This comprehensive solution set positions Oracle to meet service providers' complex and evolving service delivery platform (SDP) needs, helping them accelerate time to market for new services.

Can you elaborate on Oracle TopLink and ADF s relationship with the J2EE application infrastructure?

Oracle TopLink and ADF is a component of Oracle Fusion Middleware. It provides a complete J2EE application infrastructure, combining the number one Java object-to-relational persistence architecture, with a flexible application framework based on Struts and JavaServer Faces (JSF). Toplink and ADF is available as part of Oracle Application Server, or independently for use with other J2EE-compliant application servers. With support for standard and open-source technologies, including Struts, JavaServer Faces, Enterprise JavaBeans, JSR-227 databinding, and more, TopLink and ADF offer developers freedom of choice for both technologies and platforms. Oracle JDeveloper 10g is the optimal design-time environment for TopLink and ADF applications, but Oracle is also committed to enabling choice of development tools. In addition, Oracle TopLink and ADF provide design-time and run-time support for two of the cornerstone technologies for the next generation of enterprise Java: EJB 3.0 and JavaServer Faces. These two technologies simplify the complexity of J2EE development, and serve as the building blocks of business services and rich Web interfaces for service-oriented applications.

How can Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management application serve the industry?

Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management puts communications service providers in control of their business, empowering them to succeed in an increasingly competitive market and can meet changing consumer demands and creating profitable new business models.

Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management enable service providers to transform their businesses. Many of the world s largest and most innovative service providers, such as France Telecom, Vodafone, Fastweb, US Cellular, AOL, Sony, XM Satellite Radio, and Telstra, rely on Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management solutions to achieve their most critical business goals.

Billing and revenue management is not just mission-critical for service providers to collect revenues on services rendered. It is also a strategic and competitive weapon in the race to become the ultimate one-stop shop for information, communications, and entertainment services. With Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management platform, service providers can change billing from a passive, back-office function to an active business solution that can transform their business.

What are modular solutions and applications for broadcasting and entertainment industry?

Oracle provides modular solutions and applications for the broadcasting and entertainment industry. Some of the key solutions include:
Oracle On Demand, Oracle Application Server, Oracle SOA Suite, Siebel CRM, Oracle Data Hubs, and Real-Time Sales & Operations Planning.