How important is industry experience for an Oracle Apps Consultant?

With the growth in world economy, there has been a boom in IT packaged industry, especially packaged ERP products like Oracle and SAP. Indian software implementation companies are cashing in on this boom and are recruiting software professionals heavily. However, due to shortage of quality manpower, most companies are recruiting fresher as they come in cheap and also they will stick with the company for at least a couple of years. But, this strategy is fraught with danger as ultimately providing a business solution to a client is no child's play, and i have seen dozens of disgruntled business clients. Typically Indian IT companies have been involved in software projects (C, C++, java, Unix, .NET, etc) which are quite different from ERP projects, as knowledge of business is not that critical, or a few key persons in the software delivery may have the business understanding and not all the software professionals.

However, for an ERP implementation project a thorough understanding of business is of utmost importance. If companies recruit experienced people from industry who have considerable domain experience and train them in these packages, they become much better consultants and provide a lot better business solutions than a fresh engineering, accounting or a B-school graduate. In fact i feel the turnaround time, from a novice (ERP package illiterate) to an experienced ERP consultant is much less for an experienced hire compared to a fresher undergoing the same package training. But the downside of recruiting a very experienced person who has considerable domain experience but very little package experience is in providing them with suitable position and compensation, which the HR professionals have to confront. To resolve this issue, some companies are creating separate consulting divisions which have a very flat organisational structure, quite different from the usual pyramidal organisation structures.
Apart from this, the organisation structure should not be too formalised, and should be flexible. A bright performer should have ample chance and scope to excel and showcase one's talent. This an area which i feel most Indian IT companies are lacking in currently. Most IT professionals are straight-jacketed and are expected to follow the rut with very little scope to try out something new, with very little decision making powers. Now, an industry experienced person who comes from a different background faces the maximum difficulty in adjusting with this kind of company culture. Though this person has enough new ideas, but he/she has no avenues to put forth such views.
Its time Indian software companies rise to these challenges and start making changes to organisation recruiting policy, organisation structure and organisation culture.