“Oracle’s new SaaS applications transforming Healthcare, BFSI sectors amongst others” says Deepa Param Singhal, Vice President, Cloud Applications, Oracle
Deepa Param Singhal, Vice President, Cloud Applications, Oracle recently spoke with CXOToday about key innovations Oracle has made in the Applications market space along with major applications launches announced at their recently concluded flagship event Oracle CloudWorld 2022 in Las Vegas. She talked about how Cloud based SaaS business has grown remarkably over the last few years and overall transformed businesses in a variety of sectors such as Healthcare, BFSI, Manufacturing, IT/ITes etc. She shares how cloud-native applications like Oracle Cloud HCM and SCM are particularly helping the healthcare sector to streamline their business as well as internal operations.
- What are some of the market growth projections for Cloud Applications? How do you see the market developing for Cloud applications providers?
We have observed the Cloud applications industry growing tremendously at a fast-paced scale from the last few years. With digitalisation being the topmost agenda for many CMOs, CHROs, CIOs and other business leaders, we have seen a growing demand for cloud adoption in the industry. There is a growing trend of organisations adopting a “cloud only” strategy instead of “cloud first”. With more inclination towards digital first approach, there has been an increasing dependence on new age applications to streamline the finance, human resources, supply chain, commerce, marketing, sales, and services functions. Several advanced technologies like AI, ML, and data analytics are playing a vital role to deliver efficiency, innovation, and performance to organizations, while Cloud being the most preferred choice by businesses.
We see ample opportunity and huge potential for Cloud applications providers as SaaS is a cost efficient and the most attractive markets. According to McKinsey, the SaaS market is currently between $200 to $300 billion and is expected to double in size by 2025 and continue growing from there to about whooping $800 billion in revenue by the end of the decade. As we analyse the demand further, the public sector market appears a significant industry for us as we focus on the localization of our products and solutions in India. As we move forward, we expect our cloud business to grow even further. Aligned with our growth strategy, Oracle has also put together a dedicated team within the SaaS segment focusing primarily on the public sector side and ensuring fast-paced growth.
- What are some of the current technology trends gaining traction in the cloud applications space that will shape the coming year?
We have seen remarkable growth in the significance of SaaS applications over the last few years, especially ever since the pandemic has hit us. The rapid growth was driven by variety of reasons including cost-effectiveness, user-friendliness, scalability, and accessibility. India has emerged as the fastest-growing region within JAPAC, generating double-digit growth year-on-year across all pillars in FY22. Amongst all relevant applications, Human Capital Management (HCM) and Supply Chain Management (SCM) solutions and applications have seen much popularity post the pandemic in terms of streamlining internal infrastructure and ecosystem at businesses. We have also seen Analytics as another trend and playing a significant role in presenting insight on work behaviours, employee interests, the propensity to volunteer, etc.
Looking from a sectoral perspective, healthcare is one of the sectors witnessing numerous business challenges and Cloud based applications and solutions are enabling in streamlining the internal processes and they are seen more inclined in investing in such solutions. To support front-line workers at healthcare organisations, Oracle has recently introduced specialized HR solutions for the healthcare industry as part of Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM) at the Oracle CloudWorld event.
Additionally, there are significant opportunities for AI to improvise a healthcare environment. From optimizing workflows to create better efficiency to improving diagnostics and early detection of patterns in patient care. Overall, AI, ML, Data analytics are playing a much bigger role in driving efficiency, innovation, and performance backed by business insights to drive the applications market.
Apart from this, digital skill development is emerging as an important aspect for enterprises and CHROs discussions. Since employees today want to develop their professional careers, achieve new skill sets, build meaningful connections. Thus, digital skilling will continue to be the topmost priority for companies, and they will invest more in learning programs and workshops.
- Healthcare sector remains a key sector for the socio-economic ecosystem of India. How do you see the SaaS applications transforming the sector? What are some of the sector-specific launches you have introduced?
Healthcare industry emerged as one of the most significant sectors during the global pandemic. While it was challenging times for all the key sectors especially for the healthcare industry considering it was the healthcare providers who at the front-end were tackling the health crisis. During this time, several healthcare organisations understood the significance of advanced technologies-based solutions and especially SaaS based applications and the opportunities these create in the enhancement and evolution of the entire industry.
Understanding the industry scenario and requirements we have recently introduced specialized SCM, HCM and EPM solutions specifically for the healthcare industry during our global flagship event Oracle CloudWorld (October 17-22, 2022). The new industry-centric solutions HCM, SCM and EPM for Healthcare are part of our existing applications portfolio with additional customizations for the Healthcare sector specially. The SCM for Healthcare solution aims to support the unique requirements of healthcare organizations with optimizing planning, automating processes, and enhancing visibility across the supply chain, similarly, HCM for Healthcare enhances employee experience and help the healthcare organisations grow the skills of their staff, reduce burnout and costs by improving efficiency. On the other side, to help healthcare providers with better planning and management of their internal core processes, we have the EPM solution.
Furthermore, on recruitment and talent front several businesses are struggling to hunt for the right talent. Oracle has also introduced new talent acquisition solution at this global flagship event, Oracle Recruitment Booster which has built-in consumer grade capabilities and can attract the right kind of talent just like any commercial. It can effectively be implemented to set up internal talent marketplace for our customers to help increase their hiring base.
Overall, these solutions enable organisations in adopting the best internal strategies and leveraging innovative technologies to improve insight, optimise planning and forecasting, cut costs, and improve patient care.
- What are some of the innovations introduced by Oracle in the B2B Commerce space to increase scalability, expansion, and connectivity among stakeholders?
Trade and commerce being a critical component and a key growth generator for Indian economy, still wary of some challenges. Difficulties in terms of having a more streamlined structure for a smooth transactions and business between buyers and sellers. While understanding the dynamics of B2B Commerce space, we at Oracle, wanted to streamline this critical process and help buyers and sellers spend more time on strategic work. To support organizations eliminate the cost of doing business, introduce new offerings and improve the customer experience, Oracle has launched new services that will integrate and automate end-to-end business-to-business (B2B) transactions. The new solutions, launched at Oracle CloudWorld event will help eliminates the disparate systems, processes, and data integration challenges that make B2B transactions extremely complex by directly connecting more than 40,000 buyers, sellers, and service providers via Oracle Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).
With our new B2B Commerce services, Oracle is trying to build a network of these buyers and sellers and automating end-to-end business-to-business (B2B) transactions. By combining the capabilities of Oracle ERP, one of our flagship offerings, we are developing a combined unified data model and secure workflows with direct connectivity with service providers ranging from J.P. Morgan and FedEx to other financial services firms, insurance companies, and delivery services to digitise the entire B2B commerce process.
- How is Oracle addressing the need for specialised and customised SaaS applications? How are you working with your customers and partners to improve the capabilities of your SaaS applications?
At Oracle, we have been dedicated on providing personalized solutions and services depending on individual business needs. To deal with emerging business challenges, harness cloud capabilities and contribute to a digital transformation any sector, we have made conscious efforts to deliver new solutions that are purpose-built for businesses to cater to their customer demands. We believe that personalization is something that needs to go beyond advancing digital experiences and a pleasant one. We all have been reached out by marketing teams with a communication that has wrong content. Our SaaS based applications helps overcome such challenges for our customers.
Oracle’s Cloud Fusion applications and Oracle Fusion CRM Application provides customers with personalisation to the great extent at alter as per customer needs. With growing popularity, there are conversations happening that how the solutions that are standardized with low levels of personalization for businesses operating across industries. Part of our existing applications portfolio, the new industry-focused solutions Supply Chain Management for Healthcare, Human Capital Management for Healthcare and Enterprise Performance Management for Healthcare comes with additional customizations for the Healthcare sector particularly. Furthermore, we have the Enterprise Performance Management solution to help healthcare organizations with better planning and management of their internal processes.
For Oracle, providing ultimate customer experience has been the top priority since beginning and that has been a major growth driver for us. And within our SaaS portfolio, our ERP businesses has been our biggest growth driver in India, giving us 70% Y-o-Y growth in FY22. We have been offering our services to across sectors and industries like BFSI, IT/ITes and others are contributing to this growth. We are committed to offer our customers with best SaaS based applications suiting their demands. Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, RBL, AU Small Finance Bank; Apollo Tyres, Hindalco, JK Lakshmi Cement Unilever, Bata, Tata Steel, Mphasis, Genpact, UST Global, Omega Heathcare and others are some of the key Indian customers using our SaaS solutions.
