Oracle buys PPM vendor Instantis

IDG News Service - Oracle on Thursday said it has agreed to acquire project portfolio management (PPM) software vendor Instantis, in a move that will build upon its past acquisition of Primavera. Terms of the deal, which is expected to be completed this year, were not disclosed.

Instantis has both on-premises and cloud-based software, which will be combined with Primavera as well as Oracle's next-generation Fusion Applications, according to a statement. All told, the software "will provide the ability to manage, track and report on enterprise strategies - from capital construction and maintenance, to manufacturing, IT, new product development, Lean Six Sigma, and other corporate initiatives," Oracle said.

Instantis' main product is called EnterpriseTrack, which incorporates dashboards and reports that can be shared "at any phase of the project life cycle from ideas to proposals to project execution to metrics and results," according to its website. The company's software also has a native social networking platform called EnterpriseStream, as well as an integration framework for tying EnterpriseTrack to other systems.

Oracle "plans to continue to invest in Instantis' technology, evolving the solutions organically and deepening the integration capabilities with Oracle technology," according to a FAQ document released Thursday.

As with all of its acquisitions, Oracle will also gain further footholds in enterprise accounts, giving its sales representatives opportunities to cross-sell and up-sell other products to Instantis users, which include Ingram Micro, DuPont, Credit Suisse and Xerox.

Oracle's competitors in the PPM market include CA Technologies, IBM and a number of smaller vendors.

Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Chris' email address is Chris_Kanaracus@idg.com