Oracle eyes cloud-based process management success with latest acquisition

Oracle has announced its intentions to buy its Aconex - its second cloud-based process and project management company in the last 18 months, with experts suggesting this means the company has its eyes on the collaboration space.

Indeed, Rob Bamforth, principal analyst at Quocirca, said this latest move - which follows on from Oracle's acquisition of Textura in April 2016 - demonstrates a firm focus on the collaboration market, especially in the construction industry where process automation and management as a service is becoming a vital IT tool.

"Process automation and management as a service is becoming more important whether for construction firms or software dev (ie DevOps)," he said.

"Despite being technology giants, organisations like Oracle seem to recognise that people coordination and the processes of team collaboration are critical to achieving productivity."

Aconex offers a collaboration platform for all teams in the construction space, including company owners, builders, project managers. Oracle plans to integrate Aconex into its Oracle Construction and Engineering Cloud to provide an end-to-end project management and delivery system to plan, build and operate projects.

"Delivering projects on time and on budget are the highest strategic imperatives for any engineering and construction organisation," said Mike Sicilia, senior vice president and general manager, of Oracle's construction and engineering global business unit.

"With the addition of Aconex, we significantly advance our vision of offering the most comprehensive cloud-based project management solution for this $14 trillion industry."

The acquisition is expected to close in the first half of 2018, as long as shareholders and regulators agree for the transaction to go ahead.