LogicalApps’ software provides real-time policy enforcement for business processes, detecting, preventing, monitoring, and reporting on financial and operational risk. It adds controls in the areas of access, set-up, and transaction monitoring, and helps enforce segregation of duties in enterprise applications, reduce fraud using preventative controls, and provide evidence of a proper control environment. Its inclusion within the Oracle family addresses the need for real-time policy enforcement within the GRC area.
The LogicalApp software is already optimized for use with Oracle’s E-Business suite and the two share a large number of customer implementations, which makes the transaction a complementary one. It also helps address increasing competition from SAP which has an established GRC set of applications.
It does, however, represent a diversion from Oracle’s previous M&A strategy and may just signal a fourth phase of acquisition strategy, said Ovum analyst David Bradshaw. phase I was the acquisition of a substantial customer base, through purchase of assets like PeopleSoft and Siebel. phase II has seen Oracle building out its middleware strategy, filling in technology that needed to be enhanced. phase III has seen Oracle building industry footprints, through acquisitions such as iFlex Solutions, Retek, SPL World Group, Hotsip, Netsure Telecom, etc. LogicalApps is much more in the horizontal applications domain, and therefore quite different strategically. It will be interesting to see whether future Oracle applications acquisitions will be in this horizontal specialist category.
The transaction is scheduled to close in November. Financial details were not disclosed.
