"Mobile computing is the next big market driver"

Oracle is confident that the mobile computing market will pick up in the near future and it has positioned itself well to reap the benefits. S P S Grover, senior director, e-Business, Oracle India, in a chat with Rahul Neel Mani explains how Oracle is best equipped to tap this market

What are the new technology applications in the mobile computing field?

Telecom infrastructure is now available in every nook and corner of India and this will make pervasive mobile computing a reality. The number of people on the move in field operations of various industries, be it FMCG, services, banking and insurance or agricultural products, is growing at a fast clip. Mobile technology and its applications help mobile workers become more efficient, productive and result-oriented. For example, if a person carrying out a land survey in a remote village is equipped with a PDA or any such handheld device, his productivity is likely to go up. So, mobile computing is the next big market driver as far as technology is concerned.

What are the mobile computing applications that Oracle is going to launch?

Oracle is among the leading IT vendors when it comes to providing applications for mobile workers. Key research firms, including Giga Research have declared that Oracle is the leader in this space. Now, it’s a question of taking that technology to individual customers and integrating it with applications. The cost of all sorts of mobile devices is drastically coming down. People are ready to make investments so that they can enhance their revenues. Once products like the ‘Simputer’ are available, mobile computing will be even more competitive and affordable. Oracle has the expertise to provide solutions for any kind of industry and market where there is a need for mobile data crunching.

What are Oracle’s offerings in this market?

Oracle acts as the facilitator to the task of managing information on the PDA. Oracle Lite has already hit the market. The Oracle database, as trustworthy as ever, is also available on the Palm or any handheld device. Next, we have the Oracle Mobile product, which essentially helps in synchronising information and data. It helps in running applications as well. The personal information manager is a good example. If you need to manage your work schedule from an outside location, you just need to log in to the central server with the help of your PDA. Oracle offers these mobile gateways for managing information lying in central repositories. They provide a major advantage to mobile workers. Standard applications like Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and business intelligence at the back-end, through which you can quickly analyse data and send it back, are also available now. It’s just a matter of 12-18 months before these mobile applications will see a big uptake from corporate and public sector users.

Are you developing customised products?

Yes, applications running on Palm or any handheld device are specific to customers and customised according to business requirements. But the database is the same and is synchronised by the same CRM application at the back-end. The only thing that changes is the front-end. Factually, the customisation at the front-end is not too much. It may be just four different types of interaction that one needs to integrate with the back-end database and a CRM application. Customisation is the key because we want more industries to adopt mobile technology. We see this market growing in many ways and Oracle, in India, is really looking forward to making this sector a winner.