In today's age, where energy is a crucial resource, the Indian government is taking various initiatives to reform the power sector in order to better serve the end user and optimise energy use. The losses in the power sector in India are huge. In order to minimise these losses, the government is planning to announce new legislatives for the power sector. Players in the utility sector are now realising the need for technology to automate their processes. Vendors, on the other hand, are lining up to offer packaged solutions to players in this vertical for their billing and collection system, meter management and network management.

Linda Jackman, vice president, Product Management, Utilities Business Unit, Oracle, says, "A smart, efficient technology strategy is the need of the hour for the power sector in India. Through the use of right technological solutions, the losses in the power sector could be reduced from 55 percent to almost 15 percent. As private companies are moving into the power distribution space, we are seeing a lot of tractions."

The power sector in India is facing the challenge of extending better quality services. The market is witnessing exponential growth due to the modernisation of the industry. The recent initiative taken by the state governments to introduce new automatic metering systems has been driving the need for IT adoption in the power sector.

Oracle, which has entered the power sector a while back with its portfolio of solutions, is now eyeing the central and state level players in this vertical to expand its reach. Oracle is working with the state electricity boards of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh already.

Jackman says, "Organisations in India are looking into SMS-based solutions to better serve their customers. They are also looking for technologies to reduce the movement of their mobile workforce. Modernisation and government legislations are the two major driving forces behind technology adoption in the power sector in India."

Jackman added that tangible incentives should be given to utility players to sustain their technology adoption drive. After the acquisitions of SPL and LODESTAR, Oracle is quite confident about the market. The Oracle Utilities suite provides applications for customer care and billing, mobile workforce management, outage and distribution, work and asset management and also enterprise-class meter data management. Oracle is working with leading local SI partners in India to further push its products.