Oracle Acquires Data Quality & Creates A Stir in MDM

This week, Oracle completed the purchase DataLens’s parent company, Silver Creek Systems, with the intention of using DataLens’s product quality technology to supplement the Oracle ERP suite. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but there is speculation—not doubt largely due to Oracle’s stature—that the acquisition could trigger more companies to grasp at information management software.

Silver Creek Systems was a private company, and those using their DataLens technology were typically businesses dealing in electronics and repairs, and were buying, making, or selling products with complex data quality issues.

Last spring, Oracle dealt with Silver Creek Systems when they introduced a Product Data Quality Cleansing and Matching Server based on the DataLens technology. That Cleansing and Matching Server was used to restructure product data and load it into Oracle’s master data management (MDM) system, Oracle Product Hub. Research analysts tracking Oracle’s activity have thus been expecting the merger for a while.

And as noted earlier, the acquisition speaks to the rise of MDM in the ERP market. It’s one of the fastest-growing ERP software segments, and with this purchase, Oracle is likely trying to up the ante for its competitors, who include IBM and SAP. There is also speculation that Oracle will end its supply agreement with data integration company Informatica; only time will tell.

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