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Chennai, April 4 In response to client preferences for “one vendor”, i-flex Solutions, acquired by Oracle Global a couple of years ago, has changed it name to Oracle Financial Services Ltd. The name change would help the company enter markets such as the US, where i-flex is a relatively unknown name.

However, i-flex products such the popular Flexcube, a banking solutions suite, would not undergo a name change, Mr N. R. K. Raman, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, i-flex Solutions said at a press conference conducted on the Internet.

“But there will be a common branding exercise carried out across all i-flex products in the next three months,” he said, without sharing details such as investment details.

Explaining that the name change would “increase synergies between” i-flex and Oracle, Mr Rajesh Hukku, Chairman, i-flex Solutions and General Manager, Oracle Financial Services Global Business Unit, said clients may now feel confident of opting for more solutions centred around governance, risk, compliance and profitability as opposed to their earlier preferences for core banking solutions or investment/ Internet banking solutions.

When asked if the company was seeing any impact of the US economic slowdown, he replied in the negative saying “RFPs (request for proposals) are increasing for core banking solutions” and that there was no impact on the company’s future pipeline.

He did not divulge any growth-related details.

The name change would not entail any structural change in the organisation and i-flex’s sales and development centres would function independent of Oracle, Mr Hukku said.

i-flex and Oracle both have development centres in Hyderabad that will continue to function independent of each other’s influence. Further, none of i-flex’s over 10,000 employees in India would be asked to leave.

“Our sales force will be seen as a domain-led specialist team focused on banking and Oracle’s sales force will look at verticals such as telecom,” he said.

However, when it comes to setting up development centres in new geographies, the companies would exercise caution.

Oracle holds 82.83 per cent in i-flex Solutions and has been attempting to increase its holding to a little over 90 per cent, possibly in a bid to de-list i-flex from the bourses.

When asked of this, the spokespeople said there was no imminent announcement and that the name change was not indicative of de-listing. i-flex share stock closed at Rs 948.66 a share on Friday.

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