White Paper on Oracle Trends in Ireland for 2017

Introduction:

Oracle is one of the most significant technologies in Ireland and powers many companies

towards achieving their goals everyday through their innovative secure use. It backbones the

Irish public sector, large multinational companies and the Financial Industry, if Oracle was

turned off tomorrow, it would affect approx. 2 million users, putting the whole country to a

standstill, much worse than the 2009 recession crash!

As part of my role in connecting the best Oracle professionals with the most interesting projects,

I talk to people every day about Oracle technologies and its impact on the world around them.

One of the perks of my job is that I get to visit company’s onsite, understand their game

changing projects and see the future of IT, right underneath the hood! It’s awesome to see the

level of work happening in Ireland at the moment and easy to match this with our reputation as

the European capital of IT.

By running an Oracle blog in Ireland, previously being involved in the OUG [Oracle User Group]

Ireland committee and going to all the Oracle meetups in Ireland, feel like I’m in a singular

position, through my passion, in seeing the overarching trends happening with this technology in

Ireland for 2017. This white paper is to share this vision, backed up with evidence for your

benefit. We are a point where people are doing their projects and budgets for 2017 so we’re in a

unique position to influence the decision makers to take into account what’s happening with

Oracle tech stack in Ireland next year.

This information is no means by exhaustive, I chose the most important points for brevity. I love

feedback [which is a gift!] so feel free to email me on c.mulloy@computerfutures.ie with

anything.

Content:

● Locations

● Technology trends

● Evolution of Oracle reputation in Ireland

● Conferences and meetups

● A note on the public sector

● Salary expectations

● External factors on Irish Oracle Market

● Summary and About Author

Locations:

The Southern capital of Cork is exploding with growth in Oracle projects and it’s becoming one

of the hottest places if you work with Oracle. Several large companies have decamped here and

the hiring boom is looking to continue into 2017.

Long looked at as the poor cousin of Dublin with lower salaries and less possibilities, Cork has

benefited largely from strong infrastructure investment. Examples include the modern industrial

parks with good transport links, cheaper accommodation [than Dublin] and an airport with

growing connections. Even the famous accent has become easier to understand!

The roles come across the board in all areas such as DBA, Developer, Ebusiness and OBIEE. I

personally worked on 4 jobs where we couldn’t source local candidates with the correct niche

skillset, this pushes up salaries/rates to entice people to move and in the end we filled the jobs

with people who had never been to Cork!

The projects are exciting from Oracle system upgrades to Greenfield sites to implementing new

Business Intelligence systems. There is something to keep everyone engaged in their job and

ensure their own personal development. Previously people in Dublin had turned their noses up

at Cork jobs as it was too far away and lower salaries, but this has changed in 2016 and will

continue into 2017. This will shift the balance of power in job choice to candidates as the

economy continues to grow, the best Oracle candidates are usually motivated by technology

and exciting projects so they are more flexible in their geography. As Cork is seen as a more

viable location [only 3 hours in the car], then this will open up a new conversation amongst

many people.

I’m involved in setting up a Cork Oracle meetup https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5GRPNW6]

which will meet up regularly to discuss tech over drinks, I’ve seen the level of interest grow from

1 person to a group of 30, showing the enthusiasm and buzz around the city.

Employers be prepared to hear about the rise of the Rebel city and candidates be ready with the

suitcase, Cork is the centre of some of the best Oracle projects in Ireland and this changes the

game.

The number of sites in Dublin continues to grow with more large multinational companies

looking to relocate here, traditionally Oracle has not been used by SMEs in Ireland due to cost.

A key issue is office space as many locations in the city centre are full up. The population in

Dublin is expanding westwards and commuters wish to work close to home so predict a growth

in offices in the area to match this.

Outside of the 2 main urban centres, there has been no change in the number of companies

using Oracle, which remains worryingly low. If you are working in this regions then the advent of

remote working and self-driving cars can’t come soon enough!

Technology: There have been several notable shifts in Oracle tech in 2016 that will continue into 2017 and

will discuss them here. The traditional role of Oracle developer is under threat for a number of

reasons, jobs for this area have fallen 26%. Reasons are a shift to outsourcing from big

companies [particularly Financial], companies moving away from Oracle [to specific industry

specific software], the 2 largest Oracle sites having hiring freezes and a general move away

from bespoke development with PL/SQL.

The writing has been on the wall for a while shown by the decline of Oracle Forms and Reports

and Oracle shifting their focus to ERP systems which require no customisation. At the moment

there are many PL/SQL experts within Ireland looking for work but not enough roles to fit the

supply. This in turn has lowered salaries and rates as competition has intensified, with the

pound to euro exchange rate changing, there is also an increased interest from the UK, we have

seen applications from there spike by 48%, no doubt a result of Brexit.

Another technology that hasn’t prospered is OBIEE [Oracle business intelligence]. There has

been a lot of talk in the IT industry about the benefits of data visualisation, dashboards and

business actions. As new market predictions were done, Oracle jumped in and tried to leverage

their existing client network to upsell on the BI software, pushing it amongst companies that

already had Oracle licenses. Unfortunately the market remains fragmented and the uptake has

not been as strong as predicted, because of this, consultancies in Ireland do most of the work in

this area. This allows the companies to manage their costs while getting an expert onsite.

There is slow growth but it hasn’t been the dominant driver as was predicted, companies are

more cautious with the purse strings and shopping around for choice and value.

Altogether, this will most likely result in cross training for PL/SQL Developers into other exciting

areas of growth of Oracle such as Apex and Ebusiness. Apex, while still only used on a small

number of sites is a technology that excites me. At the last Oracle User Group conference for

Ireland in March, 5 slots were given over to talk about the functionalities and benefits of this

coding language. This came from interest in submissions for talks and also demands from users

on what they wanted to see in the conference. Apex comes free pre-installed with a database

license and with its nifty features, you can build applications quickly which is great for the

reactive tech environment we all live in nowadays.

Another point about Apex is that there are few very people in Ireland who can use it! Demand is

expanding and the last 6 jobs I worked on with this tech, I had to find someone outside of

Ireland. As Oracle Apex goes from niche to mainstream, more people will learn it but there is an

opportunity now to get the right certification and become an expert.

A keen area of focus for me is also on Oracle Ebusiness, many articles and people speak about

Cloud and Fusion but I believe EBS is the future growth of the Redwood Company. Reason

being that the ERP market is developing into a key growth area, companies are seeing the

benefit of managing their work through these systems and the high quality associated with

Oracle.

Functional and technical areas of E-business are both experiencing growth, unfortunately

Ireland has quite a small market so when there is a need for specific modules then consultants

usually come in from the UK again. The main area is Oracle Financials but seeing great projects

on OBIA, integration and some remaining R12 upgrades. As referenced earlier, Oracle are

moving their tech to be less customisable and ready to work straight out of the box, indeed one

CIO was telling me a story of how he didn’t hire any extra developers to implement Oracle EBS

as they were just following the instruction manual! There are training courses and certifications

out there in order to learn more.

DBA continues on unabated but am anticipating some changes with the release of 12.2 as more

companies upgrade to take advantage.

Evolution of Oracle reputation: A worrying trend is talk from managers about moving away from Oracle, the technology is

perceived as expensive and was a slower innovator than their competitors. Indeed there are 2

projects happening right now where companies are migrating away from the Oracle tech stack!

There are few new companies signing up for Oracle due to high entry costs and nimbler rivals

so am unsure how this will play out for the future. There will always be a role for Oracle

databases due to legacy systems but we don’t want to be talking about it the same way as

Nokia in 20 years because of costs and functionality.

An observation of mine was also the aging of the average Oracle professional, a quick scan of

roles reveals the lack of graduate entry level roles with Oracle tech in Ireland at the moment.

Remarked on it to a friend at an Oracle meetup and he agreed that there was very little young

blood entering the industry at the moment, we talked about the rise of new tech stacks and how

it had diversified the workforce. Another contractor remarked that senior consultants were

getting calls about junior/mid-level as there was no one available to do it. I’m not sure if Oracle

has stood still or if technology is just going through the next stage of its evolution, but this is a

key trend to observe in the coming years and I’ll be crunching more numbers in future blog

posts to verify.

Meetups: A key trend of 2016 that will continue into 2017 is more meetups for people interested in Oracle

Technology stack. The highlight of every year is the Ireland Oracle User Group Conference, this

event in March happens only once a year and can see more info here. Usually people can get

the budget approved internally to go [including accommodation outside of Dublin] as it’s key to

personal development. It was harder in the past to gain information on Oracle but the growth of

the internet and the L&D budget has changed that.

That’s why it’s a great idea that OUG Ireland have started doing meetups after work during the

week, the last one was on the 20th of October and the next one is planned for the 12th of

January. If you’re reading this and want to learn more or get more into this world then signing up

to the meetup group is key. If you’re outside Dublin I’m involved in creating the Cork User Group

[https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5GRPNW6] and have our first event planned for 2017 so

watch this space! Topics range from key takeaways from Oracle open world, IT security within

the Cloud and preparation for the Conference. There’s a great opportunity as well to speak at

the events or at the conference, if you have a great idea or worked on a cool project then you

should share it so we can applaud you!

Oracle have also started doing more events themselves as well to share information about

Cloud. It’s interesting to hear which topics they highlight and the demos about the features

although sometimes it can feel like a long sales pitch! They regularly do them once a quarter,

the list for next year hasn’t been released yet but will post on my blog when they go live.

Public Sector:

2017 will see investment in IT services in the public sector finally, honestly it’s about time and

I’m just saying that as a public citizen! During the recession, investment was pared back in IT

infrastructure and development due to austerity measures, thankfully we have left that dark

chapter behind us and the government has created a plan to expand the IT workforce within this

area. This is good news for Oracle professionals who want stable jobs as there is a large part of

the public sector who exist on the Oracle database stack. I’m currently talking to several public

sector bodies about their 2017 budgets and hearing their interest in talking to the right type of

multi-skilled Oracle DBA/Developers. There will be a lot of openings in this industry next year,

one point to be aware is on the rigid entry protocols and also plenty of red tape but expect to

hear about more jobs in different departments and universities.

Salary information and Relocators: Earlier this year, I conducted Ireland’s first ever specific Oracle salary survey. I’ve reposted

some of the key numbers below to show each positions value and other interesting information.

For 2017 I expect it to stay the same, reason being that although we are experiencing shortages

in some areas for Oracle, the release valve of British candidates should level this out. As stated

before, the factors of Brexit, the ensuing uncertainty and the exchange rate fluctuation have

made Ireland a more attractive proposition to Oracle candidates from abroad. There are

concerns for employers in taking on “relocators” due to commitment to the job, logistics and

interviews but we have seen how the Irish IT industry has benefited in the past from diversity in

building great IT firms. Personally I have a 100% rate from 12 placements in 2016 of bringing

candidates from abroad and placing them successfully into Oracle jobs in Ireland, including from

South Africa to rural Ireland! I have heard many stories from employers and employees of being

“burnt” by people returning home or low salaries/misleading expectations of work, resulting in a

loss for both sides. There’s a number of key steps that am going to share in a future blog post, if

the right resourcing and process is done then relocators can be a boon to any company and

approached with confidence as a solution to skill shortages.

If there is a candidate that needs sponsorship [citizen from outside the EU], then it will cost you

€1,000 and typically 3 weeks to process, see more info here. Sometimes candidate will offer to

pay it themselves as they’re very keen to start working in Ireland.

I fully expect the Oracle workforce in 2017 to become even more international and diverse as

Ireland’s reputation as an English speaking country with a growing economy and the Euro

continues to spread worldwide. With recent elections in UK and USA, we are looking more

stable to relocators and have already seen an upturn in applications from abroad for Irish IT

jobs.

Summary: Overall my vision for the Oracle market in 2017 can be summed up in bullet points below;

● Cork to become more prominent in Oracle community with the best projects and hiring,

more Oracle sites created in Dublin West.

● Oracle Developer to shrink in demand and OBIEE to stay flat

● Oracle Apex and Oracle Ebusiness to increase in demand with DBA to stay the same

● More companies to move away from Oracle due to license cost, quality and perception

on lack of innovation

● Fewer graduates entering the Oracle world in Ireland

● Increased meetups and availability and sharing of information within Ireland

● An increase in jobs in the public sector particularly for Oracle DBA/Developers

● Salaries to stay the same due to increased skills migration from UK and EU

● Increased use by employers of “relocators” to alleviate shortages

I see change in 2017 for Oracle users and fans in Ireland, it will start to shape the world we

make decisions in and will change our lives at work and home. These are the trends happening

for the future, I hope personally some come true, hope that others don’t, I have a plan at the end

of 2017 to review and see how my predictions compared to reality. That’ll be a fun moment,

when looking back on my Oracle of Delphi moment!

Oracle truly is a wondrous technology and has already enriched my life immensely, my passion

remains undiminished and my plan for 2017 is to match as many people as possible with the

most interesting with projects in Ireland. I’m looking forward to the challenge and hope you are

prepared for the opportunities that lie ahead, hopefully the insights provided can aid you in your

quest. Keep an eye on the blog as similar content will continue in the future.

Feedback is a gift so if you want share anything then see the “about Author” section below to

contact.

About Author: Conor Mulloy Passionate about connecting Oracle professionals with the best projects in Ireland Email: c.mulloy@computerfutures.ie Phone: 00 353 1 888 3444 LinkedIn: ie.linkedin.com/in/conormulloy/ Blog: https://conormulloyoraclerecruiter.wordpress.com/ Twitter: @MulloyTheMerry #1 Oracle recruiter in Ireland and #1 in Computer Futures office on contract team

I’m really into Oracle! In another life I would have been a developer. I enjoy talking to people

about tech and try matching the best Oracle professionals to the most interesting projects. Want

to help people boost their skillset and achieve their professional goals, also that the company

can add value from gaining the insight of the best employees. I found the optimum way to

engage with people is to find out as much as possible about the technology, go to as many

events as I can and listen to as many smart people as they will allow me! People started seeing

my interactions and asking me to share the information so created a blog to share the knowledge with a wider audience and to start

creating new connections and colleagues. This white paper was a continuation of that passion.

Am quite an open person so any questions then just send me an email or LinkedIn connection request and can start chatting to how

we can work together to benefit you. On a personal side, I’m a big Connacht rugby fan, interested in politics, historical fiction novels

and also go to the gym 4 times a week [when possible!]. Originally from Galway in the West of Ireland I now live in South Dublin and

loving my career and its possibilities.