A bold bet: Talavera goes from ceramics to digital tech

Oracle is the latest multinational to join the Regional Centre for Digital Innovation

Talavera de la Reina is a place known for its traditional ceramic production, but signs are indicating that this might change in the future thanks to the growing presence of the Regional Centre for Digital Innovation (RCDI). This is a multi-purpose site composed of three knowledge centres housing well-known multi-national companies working on different aspects of digital information management.

The newest addition is Oracle, whose joining was presented on 24 March in the presence of high-level officials from the city and the region of Castilla-La Mancha in Spain. The creation of the Center reflects high ambitions for the dynamization of the economic sector in this part of the Iberian country, in a way that probably few had expected. It is also aimed at keeping young, forward-thinking talents closer to home.

The COVID pandemic has accelerated the establishment of the Centre

The RCDI’s knowledge centres have already incorporated other digital tech companies. Palo Alto Networks (and their local partner Unitel) are working on cybersecurity. Red Hat and IBM (with their Spanish subsidiaries Sercaman and Vermon) have taken up the cloud computing section, and Oracle (together with Tecon) will be working on data intelligence.

Tita García Élez, the mayor of Talavera, was delighted to see the development of this centre and her words showed optimism about the provision of new economic opportunities to people and for the shift in the image that her city is expected to receive thanks to this investment.

“Talavera could not wait any longer and it needed an injection of, not only illusion but also realities,” she said, adding that Talavera will now become a visible spot on the global "map of telecommunications, technologies and innovation".

For his part, Pablo Muñoz Ruiz, general director of the public sector in Oracle, described the administrative step towards digitalization of the economic sector as a ‘bold bet’, and that the application of intelligence to the data in the administrative service would foster much more effective relationships with the citizens.