I’ve been remiss in not talking about this before now but in October, Oracle announced that they had purchased Primavera.
Primavera has been around since the early 80s and my firm, HMS has been a technology partner since the mid-90’s. The sale became final late in 2008 and now we’re starting to see some of the effects of the sale.
Oracle has explained that Primavera will form one of the major wings of its strategic systems but I think it’s fair to say that over the next 12 months we’ll see a range of changes that would seem natural when such a big software company swallows a company that is much smaller but highly specialized. While I don’t have any inside knowledge of Oracle’s plans, some of the changes I’m sure we’ll see include some of the following:
Channel Changes
While Oracle has told the existing channel partners (known as Primavera Authorized Resellers or PARs) that they will be kept on, I’m sure we’ll see a division of labour. The mega enterprise accounts will no doubt be serviced by Oracle’s account management team themselves with the PARs perhaps in attendance as service providers. The middle market will be left to the channel is my guess. That makes for a change in the business model of every PAR on the planet so look for these organizations to be shifting their stance over the coming year or two.
Technology Alignment
It makes no sense to buy something as significant as Primavera without using it for strategic value. Primavera could serve as a ‘door opener’ for Oracle to get into accounts that they’ve not been able to penetrate thus far. If the Primavera products work best with the Oracle datbase, the Oracle Financials ERP, the Oracle CRM etc. then these products can follow the thin end of the wedge into these clients so look for the Primavera product line to take even more advantage of Oracle’s technology over the coming year.
An Integrated Story
Primavera’s strength for many years has been as a ‘best of breed’ project and portfolio management tool. Now, however, look for this position to change. As a part of Oracle, I’d expect an ‘end-to-end’ integrated story starting from the task level and ending at the centralized ERP level. I’m not sure if this is a good or bad thing but it’s a change for sure.
3rd Party partners
I’m not expecting huge changes here. Most of the 3rd party partners have something to add to the Primavera line that adds value. Not every Primavera client will be ready to climb aboard an all-Oracle product line up so many of these technology partners will still find a place which makes a difference to Oracle-Primavera sales.
If you’re interested in the the Oracle press release, you can find it here: www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/017594_EN.
