Speed and agility are not restricted to entrepreneurial start-ups alone?large enterprises can be agile too. Also, a great predictor of success is an organisation?s ability to detect market changes and then translate that insight into execution. When a large enterprise such as the $27-billion US software maker Oracle focuses on execution and adds agility to its arsenal, that enterprise can become a truly formidable tech behemoth. In recent months, it has not only grabbed new business opportunities in the Indian IT market, specifically in the e-governance, telecommunications, banking, insurance, manufacturing and utilities sectors, it has adapted quickly to changes in the marketplace.

Oracle beat many of its competitors? Microsoft, IBM and SAP?to win deals in a variety of industries. The strong India performance by Oracle, which makes database software that underpins everyday transactions, from bank withdrawals to airline reservations, is further testament to the recovery in business spending on technology. It is also a sign that the $7.5 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems, which turned Oracle into more of a one-stop shop by adding server computers to its software and consulting services lineup, is humming right along.

?We have made some big wins in the country,? says Sandeep Mathur, the new managing director of Oracle India. ?We have occupied a good position in the technology business here, we are the preferred vendor of choice for most customers, and across the key markets that we like to focus on. The strategy is clearly working. I think we are at the biggest phase of the evolution of Oracle in India,? he adds.

Operating in India for more than 20 years, first through a distributorship and thereafter through its own subsidiary since 1993, Oracle has emerged as a major partner for e-governance initiatives of Central and State government bodies in India. It has grabbed new customers across the government and private sector and the customer tally now stands at 7,000-plus. Oracle has seven development and solution centres in India. This includes an e-governance centre, a retail centre of excellence, as well as three global development centres at Bangalore, Hyderabad and Noida that focus on developing next-gen Oracle products.

Last year, Oracle spent $4.3 billion on research and development (R&D) and its India development centres work closely with Oracle?s global software development team, headquartered at Redwood Shores, California, on the entire Oracle product family. These centres comprise the largest R&D effort for Oracle outside the US. India is also a hub for several of Oracle?s global support, consulting and financial services operations. To put it crisply, India is one of the two jewels for Oracle in the Asia-Pacific region and is a very important market for it, both in terms of business opportunity as well as the talent pool available for development of products.

A quick snapshot of the success stories achieved in India in recent months: Punjab National Bank (PNB), India?s second largest public sector bank, has become the world?s largest site for Infosys? Finacle banking solution running on Oracle hardware and software offerings. Catering to over 60 million accounts, over 5,000 branches and extension counters and managing nearly 14 terabytes of data, Oracle solutions have helped PNB to run its operations more efficiently, securely and with zero downtime.

While Oracle has been associated with Maharashtra government?s Kalyan Dombivali Municipal Corp (KDMC) e-governance model of delivering citizen services since its inception, a mega e-governance opportunity is round the corner. The State government has now directed all State urban local bodies to adopt the KDMC e-governance model of delivering citizen services including payment of taxes, property related queries for telephone or internet connections, application for new water connection, birth/death certificate or simple registration of any civic complaint. Oracle India and ABM Knowledgeware have created a solution that allows urban local bodies to operate with high levels of transparency and accountability. The solution, that will benefit millions of citizens, is being implemented across all 231 urban local bodies by creating an online presence for all Municipal Corporations and Nagar Parishads.

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), one of India?s largest public sector undertakings, has deployed Oracle database security solutions to protect trade secrets and competitive bid information from unauthorised access. HPCL has implemented Oracle Audit Vault and Oracle Database Vault to be able to safeguard volumes of classified information of competing bid data. This could include information on material quality, quantity, loading port, pricing period among others, which are all submitted, online by over 60 international vendors. These Oracle solutions help HPCL ensure confidential data is not leaked during the bidding process that is critical to the HPCL?s profitability.

On the product front, Oracle intends to make available its long-awaited Fusion applications suite globally as well as in India from the first quarter of 2011. With Fusion, Oracle has taken the best features and functionalities from the different kinds of applications software that the California-based company acquired over the years such as PeopleSoft, Siebel, JD Edwards, BEA and others. Fusion will be capable of running on-premise or in a software-as-a-service (pay as you use) environment, and will incorporate business intelligence, social networking and collaboration capabilities.

In recent months, Oracle has witnessed traction among large and midsize companies in India, not only for ERP but business applications that can improve efficiencies of other functions such as HR or SCM etc. For instance, IDBI Bank has implemented Oracle Financial Services Asset Liability Management and Oracle Hyperion Planning to control risks and improve profitability. Oracle has also introduced engineered systems?Exadata and Exalogic. The Oracle Exadata Database Machine is claimed to be the only database machine that provides extreme performance for both data warehousing and online transaction processing (OLTP) applications. Cloud computing is driving a significant part of Oracle?s product development plans? from enterprise applications to middleware, databases, servers and storage devices.

In sum total, India is emerging as an important market for Oracle both in terms of business opportunity as well as the talent pool available for the development of products and the company is in an overdrive to maintain its growth momentum.