To tap the growing business-to-business (B2B) Internet opportunities in the country, Oracle India, subsidiary of the US-based software giant Oracle, is introducing the concept of its branded B2B electronic marketplaces to Indian companies. This is a logical extension of global initiatives taken by its parent company.
The company will now promote OracleExchange.com and branded exchanges to its clients here in India. OracleExchange.com is a global horizontal B2B marketplace, which enables companies of all sizes across industries to access a global base of buyers and suppliers to do business over the Internet. There are some Indian companies that are already part of this exchange.
Oracle's branded exchange however is completely new to India. In this case, Oracle India offers companies the ability to create their own private exchanges and offer participation to their trading partners. "These will be regional exchanges hosted by Oracle. We get the exchange up in 45 to 60 days for our client," S Dasgupta, country manager, Oracle India said.
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Oracle will offer the platform, applications and services necessary for a company to set up its own exchange.
The client could also be a large regional company that wants to add value to its existing customer base and recruit new customers by providing marketplace services.
Such exchanges have already been implemented in other countries in Asia including Hong Kong and Taiwan. An example of this is Cable & Wireless Hong Kong Telecom, a telecom provider that is working with Oracle to create a web-based B2B electronic marketplace for the Greater China region.
"We are seeing a lot of interest in this concept already. Our target customer in this case is the market leader in any industry because the leader is the one who can create a marketplace," Dasgupta said. He named industries such as financial services, commodities and petrochemicals where the possibility of such an exchange coming up, existed.