Leaders of Oracle Company—one of the largest and most important information technology (IT) companies in general, and databases in particular—described the Egyptian market as one of the most promising markets. In light of the visit of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to the United States of America, Daily News Egypt interviewed one of the most important US companies operating in the Egyptian market.
Daily News Egypt interviewed the leaders of Oracle in Egypt and the Middle East, represented by Abdul Rahman Al Thehaiban, senior vice president of Oracle Middle East, and Oracle Egypt CEO Basil Mubarak, who announced that the 2017 strategic plan in the Middle East and Africa targets injecting large investments in the field of cloud computing.
How does the company see the Egyptian market?
The company sees the domestic market as one of the most promising markets for investment in the current period, in light of the economic conditions taking place in it.
Injecting new investments into the field of cloud computing this year is being negotiated. Oracle is distinguished through providing cloud computing solutions within the domestic market and various markets around the world over the past eight years.
The company seeks to support the Egyptian government to provide technological solutions commensurate with the economic development, the reduction of costs, and the completion of mechanisation and management processes.
You announced last year that you deal with your local customers in Egyptian pounds; are you still following the same strategy?
Indeed, we did that last year and we are still dealing with our customers in Egypt in Egyptian pounds to support the local currency against the dollar, and to maintain our presence in the local market and increase the size of our investments.
Oracle Egypt has been operating since 2003 in partnership with the government sectors, represented by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. The company focuses on the implementation of its projects in the service and information technology sectors.
Do you think the government sector reduced its expenses?
The governmental sector did not reduce spending on projects that target improving the services and mechanisation operations during the last period, but it directed a large part of its expenses for the development projects to improve services and drive growth rates, since technology in general helps to boost the economy.
What are the main features of the strategic plans for 2017?
The strategic plan for Oracle during 2017 in the Middle East and Africa region aims to significantly inject investments in the field of cloud computing and expanding into new cities and countries to benefit from their own technological techniques.
Oracle is also focused on inaugurating a center for the development of human resources in Egypt, serving the entire region and providing the technical services and technical support for all the projects that we carry out.
Activating the fourth generation services will serve as an opportunity to increase the size of our projects in the local market, and to provide technologies that rely on the fourth-generation networks, especially considering the Egyptian market is the best market in the Middle East in the size of business and the implementation of projects—especially the government, banking, and service sectors.
The local human cadres working in the field of information technology are exported to the markets of the Gulf, which contributes to increasing remittances from Egyptians abroad.
The centre is specialised in the development of human cadres through training, while the domestic market is growing dramatically in terms of the number of graduates each year in the fields of engineering, information technology, and computers.
Oracle has 1,500 customers in the Middle East in the field of cloud computing, and 19 centres for cloud computing around the world.
What are the main solutions you provide to the SME sector and entrepreneurial companies?
Oracle is supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in various sectors in order to obtain a numeric value with an integrated set of cloud computing solutions.
The company is supporting SMEs in the field of cloud computing to provide them with all forms of support and to embrace any company capable of offering added value to cloud computing solutions.
The use of Oracle’s cloud computing solutions supports the business strategy with its partners and provides them with an environment that enables them to build success. Oracle provides the best integrated cloud computing programmes to enable partners to take full advantage of the benefits offered by cloud computing.
In general, companies with different sizes rely on Oracle’s portfolios and safe institutional and industrial applications, which contribute to provide supported data.
Oracle allows for multiple possibilities in the field of cloud computing applications, such as enterprise performance management, resource planning, human capital management, and various other functions.
The middle-ware platforms of Oracle institutions and cloud computing solutions for businesses are flexible and work to improve the effectiveness of information technology through the full use of the equipment and software.
What is different about your solutions compared to competitors?
Oracle is combining all hardware and software to work consistently to reduce complexity and costs, and they are easily updated. We also manage software efficiently, in addition to providing storage solutions applications designed to accelerate their performance, increase their effectiveness, and improve their management. The SMEs provide services through the provision of modern and comprehensive cloud computing to speed up the time needed to take advantage of their solutions.
Oracle-Global provides support services to more than 3.1 million students annually in more than 110 countries around the world, in addition to its advisory, financing, and advanced customer support services.
Oracle-Global’s revenues registered $37bn in the 2016 fiscal year, and it deals with 420,000 customers around the world, divided into 310,000 users of Oracle database solutions, 110,000 application users, and 6,000 specialised systems users.
