The recent announcement of Mythics acquiring SpearMC and SmartERP (congratulations to my friends Marcus Bode and Doris Wong!) made me think about Gideon Taylor acquiring IntraSee and Newbury Consulting Group, and how together these four M&A events contribute to a significant wave of consolidation in the PeopleSoft / Oracle provider space. I wondered, if I were a customer in that space, should I see that consolidation as a positive or a negative?
I could see how consolidation could mean reduced choice and vendor competition, and the potential for higher costs.
In our particular Oracle ecosystem, though, and especially in the PeopleSoft world, I’ve decided the benefits to customers outweigh any downsides.
What Customers Get Out of Industry Consolidation
Broader Service Offerings
Although the PeopleSoft space is a very narrow vertical, it contains multitudes, so to speak – a vast array of specialties, across and within pillars, industries, and localities. Bring several consultancies together and they fill one another’s expertise gaps, providing customers with more comprehensive service from less vendors.
Improved Innovation and R&D
Consolidated firms with larger revenues and better economies of scale can choose to funnel more resources into product and solution development. At Gideon Taylor, for example, we reinvested growth from the Newbury acquisition into more feature advancement for GT eForms, Gen AI and the Knowledge System for Ida, and GT eForms for Cloud.
Stronger Vendor Relationships
Bigger consultancies can build stronger relationships with key players like Oracle. Customers can benefit from the firm’s earlier access to industry intel, better responsiveness to requests, priority escalation paths, and better publicity for successes.
Enhanced Stability and Longevity
With size and diversity comes stability, making it less likely a customer will have to deal with project disruption from a compromised vendor.
Improved Project Methodologies and Standards
Turbulence and disruption can eventually lead to better processes and practices. From our experience of pulling three companies together, I never would have thought separate teams
doing essentially the same sort of work could do them so differently! Out of the mess, after a lot of thought, effort, and change, order emerged and we got better at our core competencies than we’d ever been.
In Closing…
‘Merger’ and ‘messy’ start with the same letter for a reason, but most of that mess happens on the inside. From a customer perspective, look for the Mythics mergers to add value for the client base of each of the firms, for new and improved offerings to arise, and for the industry as a whole to be lifted.
At Gideon Taylor, we’re committed to putting our consolidated resources to work in advancing the PeopleSoft and broader Oracle ecosystems, and providing more value for each of our customers. Congratulations again to the new, improved Mythics team; I’m confident our community will be the better for your upcoming successes!
Paul Taylor
Founder, President & CEO
