Is SAP Too Preoccupied?

We've wondered here before that in this Performance Guy's opinion/hypothesis, was Oracle always intending to go after BEA and not Business Objects, forcing SAP's hand and tying them up in a costly and lenthy acquisition and integration process while continuing to encircle them with more competitive technology?

Now news comes that Oracle has added to its performance management portfolio with the announcement of their intent to acquire Interlace Systems, a maker of integrated planning systems, which in large part acts as an extension of sales and operational planning--kind of a "planning for planners" type of approach. This move will further differentiate Oracle's performance management portfolio, and adds a solid extension of planning capabilities that you would expect to be used in sales cycles as soon as the acquisition is closed.

Interestingly, the "SAP may be distracted" angle was just picked up by another blogger we're now linking to on the right hand side here, Tony Baer at www.SandHill.com/opinion. Tony's insights are interesting in that as he looks on the Interlace site, while they have IBM, Oracle, and SAP as partners, the SAP partnership does have prominence over the others, particulalry on the support and certification side vs. what they are doing with Oracle, and he surmises that this may be another acquisition that Oracle has snatched away.

Time will tell, but first BEA, now Interlace, stay tuned for more developments...