More Sri Lankan firms empowered by Oracle Cloud

Oracle’s Regional Director South Asia Growth Economies Chandita Samaranayake (centre) gestures during a presentation to media last week flanked by MAS Holdings Group Human Resources Director Shakthi Ranatunga (right) and Virtusa Executive Vice President, CIO and General Madu Ratnayake – Pix by Sameera Wijesinghe

Three companies reveal how innovative Oracle Cloud ERP, HCM solutions help increase agility, scalability, reduce costs, unify experience and enhance sustainability and security in transforming businesses

Sri Lankan firms are increasingly being empowered to transform their businesses by innovative cloud solutions by industry leader Oracle.

Last week, three firms – MAS Holdings, Virtusa and Etisalat, went public about their journey to cloud as well as how Oracle Cloud Applications have helped to increase agility, reduce costs, unify experience via Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Human Capital Management (HCM) with Software as a Service (Saas) solutions.

They explained how Oracle Cloud Applications help organisations drive innovation and business transformation by increasing business agility, lowering costs, and reducing IT complexity by showcasing Oracle Cloud – the industry’s broadest and most integrated public cloud. 

Offering best-in-class services across Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), it also allows organisations to host Oracle Cloud in their own data centre via Oracle’s unique ‘Cloud at Customer’ offering. 

“It is exciting to see companies in Sri Lanka at the forefront of using cloud to drive innovation and push boundaries,” said Chandita Samaranayake, Regional Director Oracle SAGE. 

“These organisations are using Oracle Cloud Applications to transform and modernise everything from customer experience to enterprise resource planning, human capital management and many more, making their business more personalised, connected, and secure.”

Virtusa 

“We are early adopters of Cloud technology,” said Madu Ratnayake, Executive Vice President, CIO and General Manager at Virtusa a leading worldwide provider of information technology (IT) consulting and outsourcing services.

He said five years ago Virtusa decided it will stop procuring hardware followed by a decision not to buy new software from this year. “So today Virtusa is all on cloud,” he said adding a year ago Virtusa opted for Oracle ERP and HCM Cloud solutions.

Ratnayake explained that being a 20,000-strong global organisation with a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 24%, Virtusa needed a robust platform that aligns with growth and plans of the Company. “A Cloud strategy was the right move given the requirements to address scale, security and cost,” he added.

 

“Contrary to popular belief that on-premise is more secure, a single company cannot match the large investments made by specialist firms like Oracle with large infrastructure to make their solutions including the Cloud secure. They also have better security practices than an individual company,” he explained.

“We chose Oracle specifically for couple of reasons. In a Cloud strategy, we are buying a roadmap and a vision which is very different buying a product that you are trying to install in your infrastructure. In Cloud you are really buying a service based on a comprehensive vision and innovation. Secondly, is the platform robust, built from ground zero upward to the Cloud as opposed to bringing together multiple and different acquisitions and trying to put those together,” Ratnayake said. Final reason is the Oracle team and the right kind of relationship, he added. Oracle and Virtusa partnership in the cloud journey is for five years.

Virtusa helps accelerate business outcomes for Global 2000 businesses in banking and financial services, insurance, healthcare, telecommunications and media.

“Digital transformation is real. It is not an option anymore. Additionally digital disruptions are a new challenge for traditional businesses. Firms need to continuously invest in technology. Managements need to take firms digital or start building a strong digital foundation. Going forward most successful companies will be driven by digital strategy,” Ratnayake emphasised.

MAS Holdings

MAS Holdings Group Human Resources Director Shakthi Ranatunga said given the Group’s size of 89,000 employees in 52 locations across 15 countries, “scalability, security and sustainability” were the key determinants for selection of Oracle Human Capital Management (HCM) Cloud solutions for the global apparel firm. “Additionally in Oracle we are working with a global leader,” he added.

MAS is a $1.6 billion conglomerate and is positioned as one of the world’s most recognised ‘Design-to-Delivery’ Solution Providers in the realm of apparel and textile manufacturing.

MAS too isn’t new to cloud strategy. Being tech-savvy among apparel giants, MAS four years ago built several in-house applications, but as business growth outpaced the in-house scale, it was looking for external help. 

“We realised that it was important to evaluate and work with an organisation that has global scale and one that understands our business challenges too,” Ranatunga explained further in MAS’ selection of Oracle. “Given our scale of having data of 89,000 employees, security is paramount as well,” he added.

“Within HCM talent management is getting disrupted very fast with rapid digitalisation,” Ranatunga explained adding that a robust solution was required for talent management including training and development, succession and career management within a large organisation such as MAS which has employees in different regions of the world. 

“Manpower planning in a 89,000 people strong organisation is challenging. In the HCM space there are many players in the market but we felt given our scale now it was important we opt for a solution that is integrated and scalable,” he said adding, “It is a pleasant surprise to work with a company which has frequent upgrades or new versions. Our experience with others in the past has been more erratic and unpredictable in terms of upgrade versions of a software solution.”

Ranatunga also said it wasn’t a one-off exercise but continuous hence the focus on sustainability as MAS persists with its expansion globally. The contract between Oracle and MAS is seven years. 

Ranatunga confirmed that post-implementation of Oracle HCM Cloud solutions, MAS has seen benefits. 

“In HR space, Sri Lanka is still at infant stage in terms of use of digital. Talent has always been MAS differentiator in a highly competitive global business environment. We are very mindful of what positives digital can make in talent management – bring, engage and deploy talent. So cloud strategy is an important step,” emphasised MAS Group Human Resource Director.

Etisalat Lanka

Etisalat Lanka, a fully owned and operated by the Emirates Telecommunication Corporation in UAE, which has operations in 16 countries with over 167 million subscribers is yet another customer of Oracle cloud solutions.

 “As we grow rapidly and in keeping in line with our vision of a world where people’s reach is not limited by matter or distance, we were looking for a solution to simplify and modernise our business processes, providing a comprehensive view across the entire organisation with the ability to seamlessly integrate across multiple systems,” Etisalat Lanka’s Chief Technology Officer Perihane Elhamy said in a statement. “With Oracle Cloud Applications, we will have the modern tools that will enable us to grow our business operations, simplify our existing business processes, and increase employee productivity through proper talent management.”