Oracle to buy Agile Software for PLM cover

Oracle says: “PLM is evolving into an enterprise-wide discipline that spans multiple product design systems and interacts with a wide-range of enterprise applications to manage the complete product lifecycle from concept and design, to production, sales and service.” It believes that the combination of Agile and Oracle will create an integrated, enterprise-wide PLM solution based on open-standards. “Profitable product innovation is critical to product-based industries, making PLM one of the fastest growing application segments,” says Oracle president Charles Phillips. “The addition of Agile, which will serve as the foundation of our PLM offering, will further Oracle’s strategy of delivering industry-specific enterprise applications and allows us to offer yet another strategic application to SAP customers.” “With over 1,250 PLM customers and over 10,000 visualisation customers globally, Agile has a proven track record of rapid, successful implementations integrated to a wide range of ERP and CAD systems,” says Agile CEO Jay Fulcher. “By becoming part of Oracle we can bring Agile’s solutions to a wider audience and accelerate the advance of Enterprise PLM.” Agile customers include Acer, Flextronics International, GE Medical Systems, Harris, Heinz, Johnson & Johnson, Lockheed Martin, McDonald’s, Micron, QUALCOMM, Shell and ZF.