Oracle’s Big Vision for Portfolio Management
July 19, 2012
Oracle, www.oracle.com, Redwood Shores, Calif., has its eyes on creating a complete lifecycle management solution for capital planning and construction through to operations and maintenance. This is one of the key reasons Oracle has entered into an agreement to acquire Skire—a transaction that is expected to close in the second half of 2012.
Skire is a provider of capital program and project management technology for all phases of a project from planning through to operations. Oracle’s plan is to create a full lifecycle EPPM (enterprise project portfolio management platform) by combining the capabilities within Skire with the features in Oracle Primavera.
To truly understand Oracle’s position in the market and its momentum for the future, let’s take a look back at its history of acquiring software players in construction. In 2005, Oracle made one of its first big moves in the construction industry when it acquired JD Edwards—a product which was center of many construction businesses’ ERP (enterprise-resource planning) initiatives. Following that up, Oracle next announced in 2008 that it would bring Primavera into the mix.
Primavera, at the time, had a lineup of products for scheduling, contract management, and enterprise project portfolio management. And now the motives for the acquisition of Primavera are becoming quite clear—the tech giant has its sight set on developing an end-to-end EPPM solution for project and asset-intensive industries.
At the end of 2010, in another big shift for the construction industry, Oracle announced it was going to cease sales of both P3 and SureTrak—both of which were central to scheduling in construction—while continuing lifetime support of both products. Of course, Oracle’s Primavera P6 product still provides a scheduling option within a full project-management system. This news made it even clearer that Oracle’s product roadmap was focused on project portfolio management.
Now, with the addition of Skire, Oracle is looking to provide project-intensive enterprises with an end-to-end solution. In a statement, Oracle Primavera’s Mike Sicilia, senior vice president and general manager, says by adding Skire to the Oracle Primavera suite, it will allow customers to gain visibility and control of financials across the entire project and program portfolio.
Massy Mehdipour, founder and CEO of Skire, adds the capital construction and facilities industry has sought a tighter relationship between owners and service providers for decades and says combining Oracle and Skire makes this a reality.
While the overlying focus of this announcement is on creating a full lifecycle EPPM platform, an underlying component is the cloud. Skire offers both a cloud-based and on-premise solution, and Oracle has been taking steps to up its offerings in the cloud. In June, Oracle announced one of its initial moves to the cloud with the release of its enterprise cloud infrastructure. Now, with the pending acquisition of Skire, Oracle has another cloud-based solution in its toolbelt.
But what does this announcement mean for Skire and Oracle customers? Well, for one the acquisition has yet to finalize, with an expected close in the second half of 2012. Both companies will continue to operate independently until the transaction is completed. The industry can continue to purchase products from Skire for the time being and work with Skire’s team for support. Following the acquisition, Oracle says it will support investments in Skire products, which will become part of the Oracle Primavera applications portfolio, and it will combine Skire’s education program with Oracle University. The management team at Skire is expected to join the Oracle Primavera Global Business Unit.
The company says it also intends to continue to invest in Skire technology, evolving the solution organically and integrating with Oracle products. Since the acquisition of JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management, Oracle has taken steps to integrate the solutions.
For the construction industry, Oracle does have a good suite targeting teams that are working on complex projects. It will be interesting to see how Skire is brought into the fold, ultimately creating that complete solution set.