Oracle Corp yesterday announced an agreement to acquire Boston- based configuration software vendor Concentra Corp. Under the terms of the deal, Oracle will pay $43m in cash, or $7 a share, for the company and the deal is expected to close before the end of the year. Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Ron Wohl, senior VP for applications development at Oracle, said the acquisition was a ‘key part’ of Oracle’s e-commerce strategy. Through the deal, Oracle will get its hands on Concentra’s SellingPoint configuration engine, which is software designed to assist users by helping them configure the exact products they want before making a purchase. Traditionally, configuration software has been the domain of sales staff, who have used it to assist customers customize complex quotes and product orders. While Oracle will continue to sell the software as a standalone product for the sales environment, Wohl said the main thrust behind the deal was to offer it as a ‘self service’ option by integrating the technology with its front office and manufacturing application product lines. Now, users visiting Oracle-powered e-commerce sites will be able to ask detailed questions about products and get more in depth descriptions on the various available options including pricing, configuration, availability and so on, he said. As well as helping customers over the web, Oracle said the software would also play a vital role in the manufacturing acquisition process. For example, an airplane manufacturer could use the technology to allow its customers to custom configure their cabin requirements before buying any planes, the company said. Wohl said Oracle will combine Concentra’s SellingPoint engine with its own configuration software and integrate the new product within its applications over the next nine months. When asked why Oracle had chosen the relatively-unheard of Concentra Corp, Wohl said Oracle had considered tie-ups with leading vendors, including Calico and Trilogy, but in the end it decided to go for Concentra because it was the best. Oracle is not the only ERP supplier to acquire configuration software. Rival Baan bought Antalys and Beologic in 1996 and 1997 respectively and both Siebel Systems and PeopleSoft have struck similar deals. Wohl said that virtually all Concentra’s 100 staff would transfer over to Oracle. He admitted there was some administrative overlap but he declined to say exactly how many staff would be affected. Last year, Concentra generated around $10m in revenues.
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