Oracle Corporation`s global partners have entered the South African market with a focused drive to deliver Oracle CRM (customer relationship marketing) solutions to their local customers.
According to Glenn Lottering, E-Business business development manager at Oracle SA, KPMG, Computer Sciences Corporation and Hewlett-Packard are among Oracle`s global and local strategic partners which are delivering Oracle CRM business solutions to their South African customers.
"Oracle`s CRM expertise, particularly in the financial services, and e-business suite of applications, is now available in this country and is being implemented locally," Lottering says.
"Through their partnership with Oracle these partners can assist customers within the enterprise software, or ERP [enterprise resource planning] market, who want to go the e-business route with an end-to-end service and solutions partnership. Oracle SA will continue this trend with other local partners, but we are excited about this delivery capability brought to SA by our global partners."
Oracle`s e-business solutions include Internet Procurement, a full CRM Suite including a Store Front solution, plus Electronic Payment, allowing companies to e-enable their businesses to access a wider community of buyers and sellers electronically, while improving the efficiency and flexibility of their processes.
Lottering says Oracle provides the leading-edge technology, education, and technical support to enable partners to effectively integrate Oracle into their business. "The combination of Oracle`s technology and its partners` expertise broadens both Oracle`s and its partner`s potential to dominate the Internet space together."
According to Ian Beaton, a partner in KPMG Consulting, his company has been able to assist its clients in implementing Oracle`s CRM and e-business solutions, all of which are 100% referenceable.
He advises that KPMG has 40 dedicated Oracle technology consultants, most of whom who have completed at least one full implementation of an Oracle project. "We combine the functional and business skills required of such a project to add value to our clients.
"We cover the entire Oracle ERP offering, plus we have specialists who have applied specific focus to some CRM and e-business aspects, specifically Store Front (i-Store), an electronic commerce application that provides a web-based channel for unassisted selling of products direct to consumers, plus some of the service modules contained in the Oracle 11i CRM suite.
"KPMG has done the first implementation of Oracle`s Internet Procurement solution in the country. We are also assisting KPMG globally to develop our own Oracle implementation methodology called Rapid Return on Investment (RROI).
"Before the year end we will be launching our solution centre running largely on Cisco, HP and Compaq equipment, which will enable us to demonstrate and build specific end-to-end solutions using Oracle`s technology for our clients.
"KPMG Consulting has implemented Oracle Applications as the cornerstone of our information system. Oracle`s solutions have made the running of our business easier and added value. They have, for instance, enabled us to manage our business on a weekly basis instead of waiting months for results.
"We are now starting to maximise the use of the information that Oracle provides us through the use of business intelligence," he adds.
According to Peter Deering, CRM Practice Director at Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) SA, his company has the capability to deliver CRM projects, particularly in the areas of program management, application architecture, business change, and integration with legacy systems.
Deering says CSC helps clients in industry and government use information technology to achieve strategic and operational objectives.
Banking customers of CSC`s Financial Services division include Nedcor Bank, ABSA and FNB, where CSC provides systems integration and product support for various CSC software applications. Last year Old Mutual (LSE and JSE) and CSC announced a seven-year IT management agreement, whereby CSC acquired and now manages Old Mutual`s IT infrastructure.
"CSC`s market focus is on the Oracle CRM product set, with particular emphasis on marketing, service and sales force automation. We have had a global partnership with Oracle for almost 10 years, and CSC in SA will leverage that global partnership for the benefit of our clients.
"Internationally together with Oracle and HP we are focussing on e-CRM solutions," Deering adds.
According to Nicolas Leblanc, Oracle Alliance Manager and new business sales manager at HP South Africa, HP mainly dealt with Unix box business in the past. "Right now with the new HP focusing on E-services deliverables, we are able to deliver end-to-end solutions for our customers whatever the operating system is, and have formed strong partnerships globally and locally, specifically with Oracle SA and our joint local implementation partners".
"In terms of CRM solutions, Leblanc advises that soon one of the biggest worldwide Oracle CRM implementation will be HP itself. "HP is busy implementing Oracle CRM solutions internally (project name: Renaissance Project) and is one of the biggest Oracle CRM reference sites worldwide. Based on our own experience we are delivering Oracle CRM solutions to our customers."
In South Africa Leblanc says HP has put in place a CRM `SWAT` team which has business consultants for CRM, solution architects, and CRM pre-sales technology consultants. "We also have a E-services dedicated sales force and marketing expertise specifically for CRM solutions at HP SA."
Leblanc adds that HP`s market focus for Oracle CRM is on the financial services, public sector, retail, telecommunications and manufacturing industries, with some specific industry solutions and templates for each segment.
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