Oracle Hellas to boost links with both public and private sectors
Just as US software giant Oracle was completing the buyout of Peoplesoft – the business software solution company ranked third in the world – the new management of Oracle Hellas was being announced, to be led by Vassilis Dimopoulos. «It will be an interesting battle,» Dimopoulos said, referring to the changes coming to the global market for business software systems after Peoplesoft’s purchase. This was why he decided to quit his post as IBM Greece service section head, and become Oracle’s CEO in Greece. Dimopoulos’s main goal is «the further strengthening of the good name Oracle Hellas has in the market,» he underscored. «We shall maintain the positive elements and develop further those domains where opportunities are emerging. We will seek to broaden our presence both in the private and in the public sector,» revealed Dimopoulos, placing great importance on maintaining the close relationship Oracle has with its 200 partners in Greece. The battle for Peoplesoft The head of Oracle in the US, Larry Ellison, fought for months to buy out Peoplesoft, to be able to compete on equal terms with German company SAP, which dominates the business software market internationally. Dimopoulos told Kathimerini this was an important move which «will allow the common project to advance faster toward the development of new innovative services and solutions.» Oracle Hellas has traditionally had a reasonable presence in the state sector, while recently it has become more actively involved in the private one as well. Dimopoulos noted, for example, the Oracle Suite Special Edition, a solution «based on the company’s best products, addressed to small and medium-sized businesses with 10 to 100 users.» He suggested that the private sector «is always moving,» even though investments in technological infrastructure are more modest than those seen during the stock market euphoria five years ago. «It’s just that today companies invest in sectors with a crucial role in improving productivity, such as in customer relationship management and the supply chain,» said Dimopoulos. He added that «there are also banks that continue to invest, for reasons including regulatory interventions such as Basel II,» a reference to a recent agreement pertaining to international capital movements. Revving up works What does the Oracle Hellas CEO say about the delays in big information technology projects of the state that are included in the «Information Society» program of action? «It was expected,» said Dimopoulos, adding that last year’s Olympic Games was one of the main reasons for the delay. The projects now must start, though without slicing them into separate works and with a central planning logic, he stressed. «The competent bodies which include projects in the program must know what exactly they expect from their materialization, to carry the projects on.» Dimopoulos believes that «the people and the know-how exist to continue the projects.» He also indicated that materializing some projects requires cooperation with other international firms. Oracle announced that its total of 50,000 staff after its purchase of Peoplesoft «will offer innovation and technical support to 23,000 application customers across the world.» The company’s management has suggested it is now «one of the largest research and development corporations, with 8,000 programmers.» The combined technical support section will consist of more than 6,000 employees in 16 international support centers. The next few months, however, will determine the way the new structure will function, while at the same time revealing whether the long and strenuous effort by Larry Ellison to strengthen Oracle against SAP was worth it.
