Last Monday (17th October 2011), SolArc, Inc. announced that it would be acquired by OpenLink Financial for an undisclosed sum. This is a step in OpenLink's quest for dominance in the CTRM (commodities trading and risk management) market, adding a smaller-footprint, fast-to-market solution to their existing high-end Endur and Findur product suite. It also helps to further improve OpenLink's standing in the physical bulk commodity market, where SolArc also has a strong reputation.
Integrating SolArc's business into OpenLink will be a lengthy process, and the two companies have stated that SolArc's product range will continue to mature independently, so Baringa doesn't expect the customers of either to see significant changes in the short term. It does seem likely, though, that some consolidation of the product ranges will eventually take place, perhaps by making OpenLink's risk management solutions available to SolArc users, or by integrating the bulk scheduling features of OpenLink's cMotion and SolArc's RightAngle. When a software vendor acquires one of its competitors, the ability to assimilate acquired products is a major success factor in extracting value, so it will be interesting to see how OpenLink approaches this challenge
Baringa has been helping its clients make sense of the road ahead for over ten years, by assisting with system selection and implementation, advising on IT strategy and defining IT and business operating models. Our vendor-neutral position and our deep understanding of all the major CTRM software packages means we are ideally placed to take a dispassionate view of trends in this area and help you make the right decisions.
Posted by Lewis Brown on the 24th of October 2011
