Oracle sees takeoff of Net software in Asia
The company expects up to 20 percent of its applications business in the Asia-Pacific region to be delivered online in the fiscal year ending May 2002.
With online delivery, customers can pay for Oracle's e-business software--including enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management and supply-chain management--over a two- or four-year period, and at a fraction of the full license fee.
Oracle will also provide application hosting, technical support, maintenance, education and consulting on a "pay-as-you-go" basis as part of its overall online service offerings, collectively branded Oracle.com.
Oracle.com President Timothy Chou made the upbeat prediction Wednesday during a conference call from the company's Redwood Shores, Calif., headquarters.
Chou also said he expects the growth rate for Oracle.com in the Asia-Pacific region to surpass that in North America this year. Among his rationale for the rapid growth rate: the shortage of in-house IT skills among Asian companies and the fact that companies in the region tend to look to the supplier for implementation and support.
For the year ended May 2001, Oracle's applications business totaled $99.7 million, or 12 percent of its total license sales in the Asia-Pacific region. The company declined to specify Oracle.com's contribution to the region's sales.
However, Chou noted that more than 10 percent of the company's North America applications business was delivered as an online service for the year ended May 2001.
Staff writer Irene Tham reported from Singapore.