On 4 January 2010, Oracle announced that it has acquired Silver Creek Systems, a small, privately held software company based in Denver, Colorado, that focuses on product data quality solutions. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Oracle plans to sell the Silver Creek technology as a stand-alone data quality offering and as an option for the Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) tool, and will continue to sell it embedded within various Oracle applications, such as the Product Hub solution for master data management (MDM).

Oracle's relationship with Silver Creek began during April 2009, with an announcement that the two companies had entered into OEM relationship (see "Oracle Improves Its MDM Product Data Offering With Oracle Product Data Quality Cleansing and Matching Server"). Oracle's acquisition of Silver Creek indicates that it is finally responding to the market pressure exerted by the increasing focus on business intelligence and master data and the resulting requirements for greater data quality and integrity. This acquisition will improve Oracle's competitive positioning against IBM, SAP and other vendors that have already added data quality capabilities to their data management portfolios. It will also create a differentiator in the product master data domain. However, Oracle is late in acquiring data quality technology and still must make a significant effort to catch up with these vendors in brand recognition and presence, as Silver Creek had a relatively small customer base, limited, mostly U.S.-focused geographic coverage and very little mind share among potential customers.

Oracle plans to use Silver Creek technology to expand the reach of its data integration offering, and says it also sees its value for MDM and supply chain management solutions. This is consistent with a larger market trend toward convergence of the data integration tools and data quality tools markets, and also the convergence of the data quality tools and MDM solutions markets. Now that the largest application and infrastructure software providers all own data quality technology, the market for stand-alone data quality tools is under increasing pressure. Vendors of stand-alone tools must more clearly differentiate their offerings and develop capabilities to address a broader set of data-management-related challenges. As a result, expect other data quality partnerships and acquisitions within the data integration tools and MDM solutions markets.

The Silver Creek acquisition could introduce some conflict through overlapping capabilities with Trillium Software, one of Oracle's partners. Oracle must give clear guidance to its sales teams and customers regarding when they should leverage the Trillium and Silver Creek options for ODI. While Oracle intends to offer Silver Creek as a solution primarily focused on product data quality, the technology is potentially applicable to other data domains, including non-name-and-address customer data, where Oracle has positioned Trillium's technology. In the long term, customers will expect a unified, domain-agnostic data quality platform that can address customer and product data, or any other data domain, without requiring them to switch user interfaces, learn different tools, duplicate business rules in multiple software packages, or make other, additional efforts.

Current and prospective Oracle customers

• Evaluate the Silver Creek technology for complex product data quality solutions, particularly if you use or are considering using Oracle Product Hub.
• Ask Oracle for its road map for automating and integrating product data quality with MDM processes and technology.
• Consult with Oracle for guidance regarding when to leverage the Trillium and Silver Creek options for ODI.

Current Silver Creek customers:

• Expect ongoing support from Oracle, but also plan for changes in pricing and maintenance fees.
• Monitor Oracle's progress for deviations from the product road map that Silver Creek established.

• "Predicts 2010: Data Management Disciplines Drive Business Agility and Technology Adaptation"— Gartner's predictions related to data management and integration initiatives focus on user demands, emerging practices and technological changes that will impact organizations aiming to access and leverage data across the business. By Eric Thoo and others
• "Magic Quadrant for Data Quality Tools"— Vendors and buyers in the data quality tools market are pursuing innovations to improve support for business-facing roles and increase the pervasiveness of data quality controls. By Ted Friedman and Andreas Bitterer

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