Soham ERP builds new app using Oracle Cloud

Based in Gujarat, India, the IT company develops software for businesses in the pharmaceutical industry, including formulators, manufacturers, exporters, and distributors. Soham ERP Solutions offers several products for its 2,000-plus customers, ranging from ERPs to salesforce automation systems to barcode tools.

As the pharmaceutical industry grew, Soham ERP’s customers expected improvements in software functionality, experience, and efficiency. Additionally, customers who had adopted the company’s on-premises software wanted help with growth challenges, such as costs associated with server upgrades, database licenses, and investments in IT staff to manage on-premises infrastructure.

These costs impacted the business. “Many times, we were not able to sell the product because the additional costs—other than our software—were very high,” says Suketu Shah, director of Soham ERP Solutions.

As customers matured, they expected to be able to access Soham’s software on a variety of devices, including tablets and phones. However, Soham’s use of Oracle Forms and Reports made this difficult to achieve. Additionally, it limited graphs and analytics, functions that customers wanted.

Ultimately the company decided to migrate to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and low code Oracle APEX, paving the way for a more modern approach to application development. However, the decision to choose Oracle was not a foregone conclusion. Soham’s team considered a few local cloud providers, as well as global platforms such as Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

Soham ERP selected Oracle for three reasons: Oracle servers were best suited to run large Oracle Databases; Oracle offered top-notch support; and Oracle Database licenses were easy to scale up with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

Soham ERP was able to develop a new application, PharmaCloud, using Oracle APEX with Oracle Database Cloud Service on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. PharmaCloud supports about 100 of Soham’s customers, equivalent to roughly 1,200 concurrent users.

Before the transition to the cloud, customers would need to invest about $100,000 for on-premises hardware, licensing, and maintenance. Now, that initial cost has dropped to about $20,000, which better aligns costs with benefits.  

Thanks to OCI, Soham has seen a 25% improvement in application performance—leading to faster turnaround time for complex processes—while reducing costs by 40%. Plus, customers can access PharmaCloud from anywhere in the world, from any device.

The decision to use low code Oracle APEX  is paying off, too. Soham has already introduced a new module that’s akin to a web-based document management system. It’s specifically designed for the heavily regulated and document-intensive pharmaceutical industry—one among only a handful worldwide, says Shah.

Oracle APEX also helps accelerate the company’s time to market, and comes with data security baked in. It also makes it easier for business users—as opposed to developers—to take advantage of analytics functions.