Oracle has rolled out a series of upgrades and new features for the PPM (project portfolio management) software suite it gained through the 2008 acquisition of Primavera.
The software is used by construction companies, utilities and other concerns that conduct major projects, helping managers keep track of project timelines and finances, manage assets and people, as well as collaborate more effectively. Oracle's PPM suite competes with ones from the likes of CA Technologies and IBM.
Version 8.3 of Primavera P6 Enterprise includes a series of improvements in areas such as graphical reporting, mobile device access, and communication tools for team members.
Also Monday, Oracle announced the release of Primavera Gateway, which gives employees working on major capital projects "access to material, resource, schedule and financial information," Oracle said in a statement.
Gateway also "delivers integrated project plans that can provide a single view of all work activities across systems and functions," Oracle said.
Gateway includes a built-in integration with SAP's Plant Maintenance and Project system applications, and can be easily tied to other third-party systems as well, according to Oracle, which made the Primavera announcement during the Collaborate user group conference in Denver.
The updates are the latest by Oracle to round out Primavera. Last July, Oracle acquired a company called Skire, maker of both project portfolio management and facilities management software, and rolled the technology into Primavera. Then in November it bought yet another PPM vendor, Instantis.
Oracle also announced a number of new analytics products on Monday, including release 11.1.1.7 of its flagship Business Intelligence Foundation Suite software, and version 3.0 of Endeca Information Discovery.
Taken together, the Primavera and BI announcements reflect how broad Oracle's software portfolio has become. The same could be said for Collaborate, which is put on by three separate Oracle user groups.
Oracle co-President Mark Hurd is scheduled to deliver a keynote address on Tuesday at the event, which runs through Thursday in Denver.
Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Chris' email address is Chris_Kanaracus@idg.com
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