by Prix D Banzon

Davao City (31 January) -- The huge opportunities available in Davao City convinced Oracle Asia Pacific to expand its operation in the city by tapping clients mostly from the services sector, agriculture and manufacturing.

In a press briefing yesterday (Tuesday) at The Marco Polo, Francis Ong, managing director, Oracle (Philippines) Corporation said they have noticed that Davao can move quickly with all the industry leaders around.

Ong said with an easy to access product, Oracle has a strong data base which their customers could use that could make their company grow and competitive.

"Our presence in Davao is also to assist the small and medium entrepreneurs and help them compete globally," he said.

Ong who manages Oracle Philippines operations and activities that includes long-term business development, customer care as well as government and community relations said that when SMEs buy products they go for low cost, easy to access and not lacking in security.

He said with the ICT sector posting a rapid expansion in 2007, Davao is among the high growth potential cities where they need to locate it ranking 15th for 2006 Global City Competitiveness as reported by California-based firm NeoIT.

Using the product, he said ,it find ways to grow market share and profitability with tighter cash flow management, business controls with timely information for better decision making.

He also said that they offer solutions for organizations of all sizes, needs and requirements even as he said that their biggest clients in government are the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Social Security System.

In a press statement Ong also said that Oracle has trained and recruited partners to meet the needs of small to large organizations across key industries. It partners include Technopac, Inc. (VAD) and Lane Systems. These partners have the domain expertise as well as technical knowledge of Oracle's product offerings.

"We want emerging companies to have unprecedented level of choice in enterprise to meet their growing information needs and we are working closely with such companies so customers will benefit with greater on-the-ground support from Oracle and our partners," he said.

Oracle is working actively with the Mindanao Business Council (MinBC) as they jointly promote the adoption of the technology in high growth cities like Davao.

MinBC ICT Committee chairperson Benjamin Garcia said that ICT is a vital tool in sustaining the economic competitiveness of Mindanao, but it needs to upgrade the services and products offered by Oracle which are important tools that would help improve the business.

"If they have to grow they need to get the tools that would help them do the business and make it better," he said.

Sanjay Aurora, regional director, ASEAN Mid-market Technology Sales, Oracle Corporation Asia Pacific said that every big company now was a small company before.

He said the small ones have always the ambition to grow and with their presence in Davao they also want the small ones to develop and become big.

He said the business application solutions will be made available to companies at affordable cost, easy to administer and their company to ensure that partners support the customers.