Accelerating Growth in a Down Economy

Continued

Targeted Business Strategies
While the Oracle Accelerate program is a good fit even in the current economic environment, Oracle partners are well aware that they need to use strategic approaches with customers. DAZ’s Arnold observes that the current economy finds customers more scared than usual—and they are taking longer to make decisions. Despite this reality, she says stable companies often use a market slowdown to make IT improvements that could not be scheduled during a boom—adding new application modules, changing systems, or initiating an upgrade. “ When business is good, systems are not always on the top of the list,” she says. “When times are tighter, businesses have the time to sit down and determine what they can do to be better, faster, and more streamlined. “

One of the most valuable lessons partners have garnered from the Accelerate program is to specialize in particular industries. “In this economy, what is truly important is to go in understanding a customer’s specific business problem and to be able to show how to adapt technology to it,” says Vince Vickers, Zanett Senior Vice President, Consulting Delivery. “The reality is that clients need to see that you understand how an IT solution is going to help them with their specific industry’s challenges, and when they are going to get value out of it.”

Oracle Accelerate has also enabled partners create innovative new offerings that address strong, emerging trends. Both Jibe and DAZ have targeted the emerging green technology market with Accelerate solutions. According to Moncrieff, Jibe leveraged Oracle Accelerate to do a financials implementation in 12 weeks for a renewable energy company based in the Northwest. DAZ recently created a clean energy vertical solution after it realized it already had five clean-energy industry customers. “We put it together with a go-to-market strategy and an in-depth knowledge of the industry,” says Arnold.

“Partners are talented and resourceful,” says Johnson. “They get into the Accelerate program and introduce industry solutions, and then they look at the market and think about what solutions to create that are similar to what they’ve already done. The mindset is such that partners continually look for solutions for sub-segments. It’s a synergistic approach.”

Think Global, Act Local
Oracle Accelerate is also helping partners target new markets by addressing the unique needs of local geographic areas. Johnson says, “We rely on local partners to have in-depth knowledge of their markets. They need that knowledge to avoid wasting time in an implementation. Longer projects mean more costs and more risk—two things that midsize organizations have to avoid if they want to deploy Tier One application suites.“

DAZ has embraced this reality and has strategically expanded from California to the entire West Coast, and now across the United States. Arnold says that midsize customers fear they won’t get the same level of support available to Fortune 500 companies spending a lot of money. But DAZ addresses this concern by hiring local employees to help address issues in the region. “You have to make a financial and business commitment because it takes six to nine months to build a territory,” she says. “We’ve worked very hard to make this happen, and we know that this is critical to our own success over the long haul.”

New York-based Zanett currently provides services within three regional geographies for Oracle’s Accelerate program and has eight local offices east of the Mississippi River. The company’s acquisition strategy will allow for westward growth via additional regional-based firms. “We try to support those organizations in the midsize market with industry experience and product expertise, but also working within a regional geography. Midsize companies aren’t excited about shipping people across the country to meet their needs,“ says Vickers.

Lucidity, which is primarily based in the central United States, is also looking to expand. Hatfield says, “We’ve been fortunate that we’ve been able to go out and “cherry pick” top talent to lead new service offerings and we’ve been able to establish a diverse but complementary practice.”