ENTERPRISE software vendor Oracle, along with more than 50 of its partners, is launching a new portfolio of 80 industry-specific applications for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in Singapore and the Asia-Pacific region.

Speaking to BizIT, Oracle's Asia-Pacific vice-president for application product solutions Adrian Johnston said these new solutions would address the needs of companies in more than 30 industry segments across 14 countries.

'These Oracle-based solutions from our partners are specially designed, packaged and priced for SMBs, with the aim of enabling these companies to adopt modern technologies easily while reducing IT complexity and costs,' he said.

The new initiative is part of the global Oracle Accelerate programme, which is Oracle's approach to meet the diverse IT requirements of SMBs. 'It combines partner expertise with the industry's most comprehensive software portfolio, comprising both Oracle applications and technology solutions.'

Mr Johnston explained that Oracle applications - including the Oracle E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft Enterprise, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and Siebel - are combined with rapid implementation methodologies, such as Oracle Business Accelerators, as well as Oracle partners' industry solutions and services, to deliver efficient deployments, faster returns on investments (ROI) and reduced risk for SMBs.

'Oracle Accelerate will provide SMBs with highly scalable, integrated solutions delivered by Oracle partners, for managing industry-specific processes and key business operations such as the management of finance and accounting, human resources, supply chain and customer relationships,' Mr Johnston said.

He said all 30 industry sector solutions will be available in Singapore.

Katherine Lee, Oracle's Asean general manager for the Applications Channel, said demand from SMBs in Singapore would be mainly in the areas of engineering and construction, food and beverage, banking and capital markets, industrial equipment, real estate developers, retail and semiconductors, among others.

Ms Lee said some of the industries that Oracle is focused on at the moment in Singapore include financial services, government, education, health care, engineering and construction, manufacturing and wholesale distribution.

SMBs in the republic tend to be more interested in privacy and security of information and quality of services from the solution provider, the Oracle official noted. They also look for open standards and interoperability of systems, as these make systems easier to implement, maintain and upgrade, she added.

Singapore SMBs also look for convergence of all services onto one single network, like FTTH (fibre-to-the-home), in order to maximise usage and convenience.

'Technology has become a matter of necessity than choice today and most SMBs in Singapore recognise the importance of leveraging and continually upgrading their technology capabilities to meet business requirements,' Ms Lee said.

The Oracle official pointed out that technology and innovation work hand in hand to help SMBs improve the way they do business and to enable them to move up the value chain and remain competitive. 'There's a lot of interest among SMBs in Singapore to adopt IT because of the priority that the Singapore government has placed on infocomm technology investments. The Singapore government understands how important infocomm technology will be for the future economic and long-term growth of the country and its businesses.'

She added that programmes such as Technology Innovation Programme (TIP) - launched by Spring as part of the national Science and Technology Plan 2010 to sustain Singapore's competitiveness for long-term growth - encourage SMBs to adopt technology for their product and process innovations as this can positively impact their growth.

A sum of $150 million has been set aside to support the various initiatives under the TIP, including tapping the expertise of research partners like the local universities and polytechnics, and building up in-house technology innovation capabilities.

'Oracle is working closely with our channel partners to develop specific industry solutions to meet the needs of the SMB customers. We also offer Oracle Financing options to provide SMBs with flexible payment solutions to support their critical business objectives,' Mr Johnston noted.

Oracle serves more than 25,000 SMB customers in the Asia-Pacific region and over 190,000 SMB customers globally.

Quoting IDC, Mr Johnston said there were 24 million SMBs (that is,companies with up to 999 employees) in the Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) as at the end of last year. Of these, as many as 77 per cent were in Greater China, South-east Asia and India. South-east Asia had 24.4 per cent of the SMBs, second only to Greater China's 28.1 per cent.

IDC said SMBs in APEJ spent US$47.3 billion on IT last year. Of this, South-east Asia as a region was the third-highest spender, accounting for 13.3 per cent. Greater China with 38.2 per cent was top regional spender followed by ANZ (Australia, New Zealand) with 23.9 per cent.

This year, SMB IT spend in APEJ is expected to grow 10 per cent to US$52 billion. This will grow yearly at 9.1 per cent to US$66 billion by 2010. Out of the total US$47.3 billion IT spend last year, SMBs spent US$18.1 billion on just software and Oracle hopes to get a larger slice of this market with its Oracle Accelerate programme, Mr Johnston said.

This article first appeared in BT on March 29, 2007