MES, CRM and supply chain: all from the Oracle

Database and applications giant Oracle is buying CRM (customer relationship management) software big boy Siebel for around $5.85bn, to add to its other big recent acquisitions – PeopleSoft (and thus also JD Edwards) and retail software developer Retek. Not the most important news for manufacturers, but it’s another indicator of Oracle’s determination top succeed with serious applications, and across the commercial sectors. More interesting for industrial users, and almost as high profile, is the conglomerate’s acquisition of logistics and transportation management software firm G-Log, in a deal due to close by the end of this year. G-Log’s systems are aimed at analysing, optimising and running supply chains in a single-system environment. So the acquisition will allow Oracle to extend its existing supply chain and logistics offerings with an integrated, total system coverage. G-Log’s customers include big shippers, manufacturers and logistics service providers like DuPont, Halliburton, Rohm and Haas, Tesco, UPM and Volvo. Indeed, over 50% of G-Log’s customers already have Oracle applications and there is clear synergy. Meanwhile, way down the pecking order, but potentially very significant for manufacturers is a small partnership deal between the Goliath and a little known David called Mestec in the UK. Mestec develops manufacturing execution systems (MESs) and electronic production management systems, and Oracle has asked the firm to provide its plant-floor data management solution to integrate with Oracle E-Business Suite Manufacturing. Why? Perhaps because the pair have joint clients in the likes of Thales Missile Electronics, Europe’s largest independent supplier of electronic subsystems for missiles and munitions, and James Walker, the UK sealing systems manufacturer. Why could this be so useful? Paul Tomlinson, operations director at Thales, says: “The Mestec system compliments our Oracle ERP implementation. The combination allows us for the first time to utilise an infrastructure to reach right through to the plant floor process, delivering true manufacturing efficiency and performance.” And it’s a similar story at James Walker. Says Peter Hall, finance director at James Walker: “By providing a touch-screen interface for operators and allowing them to speed up the required ERP transactions, we expect an ROI of less than six months. And that’s before we have even looked at other benefits that the system will offer us.” The deal didn’t make the hit parade of announcements at last month’s major Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco, but it is one to watch. The rest of the PR machine is predictable. Top of the list is Oracle’s clash of the titans with SAP, with the former claiming more than 1,000 customers registering with Oracle’s ‘Off SAP’ programme, which goes to head-to-head with SAP’s ‘Safe Passage’ initiative to tempt disaffected JD Edwards and PeopleSoft ERP users to the other side. Beyond that, Oracle last month launched its standards-based technology vision for the Oracle Fusion architecture, showing how its applications, middleware and grid technologies will fit together. Seems to be a success this one: more than 7,500 VARs and system integrators are no board with the Fusion story.