The World Economic Forum in 2017 said to survive disruption and thrive in the digital era, incumbent business will need to rethink every element of their business and they need to act quickly to reap benefits.
As modern businesses and innovative IT technologies originate in the cloud, industry analysts predict that over 50% of all enterprise data will be managed in the cloud and 80% of application operations will be resolved autonomously, thanks to the significant improvements of cloud technologies.
In such context, Chandita Samaranayake, Head of Applications - Sri Lanka, Indochina and Maldives spoke with Daily News about the progress of Sri Lanka’s cloud journey and how far local organizations have come, helping Oracle to become an instrumental part in that whole journey.
Here are excerpts from his interview.
Q: The discussion about Sri Lanka’s migration to cloud has been a hot topic over the last three to five years. How do you view the progress of this journey so far?
A: Five years back, we told that Sri Lanka needs to go out of the box, which meant the transformation to cloud. Two three years back, we saw a number of companies gradually migrating to cloud after realizing the potential cloud brings to businesses. A lot of things have changed today and we have seen a huge progress and interest towards cloud technologies.
When we look at the regional momentum for cloud, we are not far away from it. To be honest, Sri Lanka is one of the top countries to adapt cloud technologies in the ASEAN market. In that sense, the country has come a long way and Oracle has been able to create significant interest and awareness among local businesses about cloud.
The adoption of cloud and SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) has been tremendous over the last five years. We have some big names on board with us now such as Virtusa, MAS Holdings, Aitken Spence, and Millennium Information Technologies etc. They are endorsing what Oracle has been preaching about cloud technologies. It has been an exciting journey and Oracle has the biggest cloud market share in Sri Lanka when compared to other major cloud vendors across globe.
Q: Five years back, you were preaching the importance of cloud platforms for local companies and there must have been a number of challenges in convincing Sri Lankan clients to come onboard. What have been some the key challenges and how did Oracle overcome them?
A: I think what is happening globally as well as regionally is that think every company is trying to cut cost. I guess that was a turning point. Everybody wanted to keep their major costs at a very low point and move towards an OPEX (operational expenditure) model from a CAPEX (capital expenditure) model. This triggered us to build a case around the importance of having affordable cloud solutions. We discussed why companies need not to invest heavily on building sophisticated data centres and even investing on people. With that, we helped customers to understand and realize the importance of moving into an OPEX model, which is our cloud proposition that makes absolute business sense. It is not just about technology but also making a positive return on investment.
So we looked at not just one but five to ten year period and it actually made sense for a business. We also did not speak with IT personnel but with business owners as well. That was the difference. We started talking to the boards, we started talking to the decision makers and we started talking to the process owners. We listened to them closely and helped us to work within their given business framework, which aligned well with Oracle’s cloud strategy.
Today, in my personal opinion we have a lot of operational CIOs (Chief Information Officers). Their main job or mandate is just to keep the lights on; maintain systems. The trend I see today is that we are helping Sri Lanka’s IT economy to build strategic CIOs. With our solutions, we have taken the burden of managing the organizational IT system from them entirely and paved a path for them to build innovative solutions and business processes. This means that they are going to save a lot of time and spend a lot of time on strategic thinking.
Our different approach has brought business owners to the table as well since they understand the pain points of a business. We have given them an entry into the system, which makes our approach much easier with an organization. At the end of the day, we want to see that whatever we do will help them to better their bottom line.
Q: With the local IT sector witnessing significant growth, what are your thoughts on Oracle as a key player in the local cloud market?
A: It is an ongoing discussion. We have been able to build a great partner eco system in Sri Lanka with some of the biggest organizations in Sri Lanka. They are integral players of the business and digital transformation which is currently happening in Sri Lanka. Our cloud and SaaS solutions are driving these businesses forward to achieve their key business milestones. In that way, we are proud of the fact that Oracle is playing an important role in uplifting Sri Lanka’s IT sphere.
Q: When you look at Oracle’s SaaS platform, what are the opportunities that you see in Sri Lanka, given that Sri Lanka is gradually becoming one of the largest cloud markets in the region?
A: With Oracle SaaS model, you do not have to go through what Singapore market or European markets went through. Customers don’t have to go through a journey of a previous company and learn from the mistakes they have done. They can just go straight into the latest technologies. And that jump is easier with SaaS. It gives you that push to immediately take control of your business.
The affordability is also a key factor. Those days it was almost impossible for small and medium-sized companies to buy a cloud product from a global vendor like us. Today, we have a transformational platform; any organization can come on board with us. The same technology used in a big US company can be used by a small Sri Lankan boutique company, thanks to affordability. It enables you to do business much better and become a global player.
Q: What are some of the major cloud implementations happened in Sri Lanka over the last few years?
A: MAS has come onboard with their entire HR process. There entire workforce is going to be on our cloud. So they believed in cloud, believed in scalable systems; it is one of the key things they have endorsed. They are the largest employer of the country, which is a symbolic win for Oracle in the SaaS market. We also have Virtusa, DFCC Bank, MIT and many other big names on board. We are constantly on chat with them to understand on how to leverage industry opportunities and overcome challenges.
Q: What is the contribution made by your partners namely assisting their customers to progress to cloud?
A: Many of our partners have re-looked at their business model. All this time, they have been surviving on support services, maintaining a system once it is implemented. Today, they have changed their ways to be aligned with cloud strategies.
It is now about building APIs on PaaS solutions, building industry-specific solutions on top of cloud platforms, rather than managing a system. It is not a one-time effort for these organizations; it is a long-tailed approach to SaaS which adds greater value, domain expertise and innovative processes to the entire SaaS eco system. It is a different ball game for our partners today and it is great to see the excitement coming from their end as well, enabling their clients with latest solutions.
Q: What are Oracle’s plans in the pipeline for Sri Lanka and for companies who would like to join with the whole cloud journey?
A: The momentum is already here for cloud and we are seeing how early adopter of the technology is thriving with great business results. We as a company want to make sure that every business, customer and organization—may it be public or private— in Sri Lanka gets an equal opportunity when it comes to adapting new technologies. We want to increase the awareness among people that Oracle brings greater affordability with our solutions.
Oracle also wants to bring innovation to Sri Lanka. Innovation is a key aspect and it is going to be crucial to succeed as a regional knowledge hub. Every year, we invest a huge sum of money on research and development; we want to bring those new technologies to Sri Lanka so that private and public organizations could elevate their businesses to compete with international markets.
We would take the burden of managing an IT system and leave ample space for companies to innovate further. That is Oracle’s vision for Sri Lanka. (SS)
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