Oracle, the world's largest enterprise software company, established a strategic partnership in China with Dell Thursday to create a major force in the Chinese market.

Loke Soon Choo, regional managing director for Oracle China, said the partnership is part of the expansion of their successful strategic global alliance.

"This alliance is very significant to Chinese customers, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)," Loke said.

This is because it will make it easier and more affordable for these ventures to deploy the combination of Oracle database solutions on Dell Linux servers, he added.

Last December, Dell announced it would offer customers Red Flag Linux operating systems on Dell servers.

"The market has responded positively," said Dell China President Foo Piau Phang.

Loke said the partnership is part of Oracle's strategic development in China, which has divided the Chinese market into three sections.

"We will focus on the north, the Yangtze Delta and the Pearl Delta to develop business with the governmental, telecom and financial sectors," Loke said.

"With this partnership with Dell, Oracle will be able to first develop the market in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces where a large number of SMEs exist."

To win customers both domestically and internationally, SMEs in China are increasingly looking at IT solutions to enhance their core competencies. Loke added that China will soon have more than 10 million SMEs nationwide.

However, small businesses have had many problems in implementing IT solutions in terms of funds, human resources and experience. They are now eager to find solutions that are tailor-made to meet their unique requirements, Loke said.

"The expansion of the Oracle-Dell Partnership in China will further highlight our long-term commitments to China," he said.

It is estimated that SMEs in China will invest about 215.1 billion yuan (US$26 billion) in IT in 2005.

(China Daily March 19, 2004)