Oracle Corp. announced yesterday that it has completed the acquisition of Art Technology Group (ATG). In a webcast on January 6, 2011, Oracle and ATG executives jointly explained the strategic rationale around the acquisition as well as the product roadmap.
“The reason Oracle acquired ATG is that every business is going to want to offer all consumers and customers a cross-channel CRM, commerce and retail experience,” noted Thomas Kurian, Executive Vice President, Product Development, Oracle. “Together Oracle and ATG have a crystal clear roadmap” to bring that experience together quickly.
Kurian pointed out that the two companies are tapping into a growing software marketplace where ecommerce currently is a $4.2 billion industry, retail application software is $8.3 million and CRM software has reached $15.7 billion.
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Both Oracle customers and industry analysts responded favorably to the acquisition.
“As a customer of both Oracle and ATG, we view the integration of the two companies as a natural fit,” said Kevin Cunnington, Global Head of Online, Vodafone Group. “We look forward to new efficiencies that address our online and cross-channel business strategies and help us further provide superior customer experiences.”
“Oracle has already assembled quite a few key components to the new connected commerce offering with robust CRM, merchandising, analytics, inventory management, etc. and with this addition to its portfolio, extends the platform significantly,” said Michael Fauscette, Group Vice President, Software Business Solutions, IDC. “In particular, ATG adds a robust platform that works across online, in store and mobile channels creating the new omni-channel commerce offering,”
“Oracle’s acquisition of ATG is important for current Oracle Retail users who’ve been contemplating an eCommerce refresh, but it also creates an opportunity for the mid-market, with end-to-end-to-end-to-end solutions available from a single vendor,” said Paula Rosenblum, Managing Partner, RSR Research. “Oracle is assembling a stunning suite of retail products.”
Explaining the product roadmap in more detail, Anthony Lye, Senior Vice President, CRM for Oracle, said the plan encompasses building “a single solution to leverage all the customer information from all channels and systems; to manage interactions across all channels; to unify commerce, merchandising, marketing and service; to provide personalized and choreographed consumer journeys across channels; and to tightly integrate with the supply chain and order fulfillment systems.”
Integration between ATG applications and Oracle systems will be led by ATG’s latest introduction — ATG Commerce10, which is designed to leverage the web framework across channels, noted Ken Volpe, Senior Vice President of Products and Technology, ATG. Specifically, ATG solutions will integrate with Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle Siebel CRM and Oracle Retail applications, in order to create a seamless personalized customer experience across all channels. Volpe describes their efforts as “dropping the ‘e’ from e-Commerce.”
