First announced in May, Deltek has completed its acquisition of Replicon, the time intelligence vendor. Replicon will provide Deltek with applications for project-centric businesses, such as Time Management, HR Attendance and PSA offerings, including its cloud-based Polaris PSA.
The acquisition will further strengthen Deltek’s position as a vendor for project-centric businesses. It also brings a strong customer base for IT Services and consulting. However, that latter market will see it go head to head with firms such as Kantata and Certinia, which have been rapidly growing their customer base, sometimes at Replicon’s expense.
Mike Corkery, President and CEO, commented, “We are very excited to complete this acquisition – one of the largest in Deltek’s history – and welcome Replicon into the Deltek family. Just like Deltek, the Replicon team is dedicated to project-based businesses with a specific focus on customers, collaboration and innovation.
“With the combination of our two companies, we now have new and expanded capabilities to offer project and service-centric organizations globally. We look forward to the many new opportunities this acquisition brings to Deltek Project Nation, including those with Replicon customers and partners.”
What about product
One of the big questions for Replicon customers will be about what happens to the different products that Replicon has. Warren Linscott, Chief Product Officer, commented, “Replicon has an unprecedented technology stack with an impressive user experience, and we are excited to work on how we go to market together.
“As the industries we serve evolve, we continue to look for new ways to cater to our customers and a broader range of project-based businesses. With Replicon, Deltek will further its leadership in global IT Services and Consulting, and other Professional Service organizations in the enterprise and mid-market.”
Beyond this, Deltek has committed to maintaining the Replicon solutions where they integrate with non-Deltek ERP solutions. Deltek will also continue to invest in the native time applications that it has developed within its own ERP solutions. What is less clear is the longer-term roadmap for time intelligence. It would make sense for Deltek to replace some of its technology with the Replicon platform, where it can embed the technology and enhance the existing functionality.
Replicon currently offers four sets of solutions:
- Project Time Tracking
- Time & Attendance
- Professional Service Management (includes Polaris PSA and Polaris PPM)
- Knowledge Workforce Management
Its solutions are used by global brands such as NTT, Nielsen, DXC, Expedia, USDA, Siemens, Moody’s and many others. It is a powerful set of customers that Deltek hopes to leverage going forward.
Raj Narayanaswamy and Lakshmi Raj, Co-founders & Co-CEOs of Replicon, commented, “Deltek is the perfect home for Replicon. We know that with Deltek we will continue to hold up our commitment to meet and exceed Replicon customers’ needs and continue delivering innovative solutions. We are just at the beginning of a very exciting journey together.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
Replicon has a long history in the professional services market, its time intelligence platform was the market leader for years, but organisations are now looking for more. Replicon has not seemed as bullish about its results and customer wins in recent years.
This could be the reason why Deltek had the opportunity to purchase the company, with a strong technology and a rich customer base. The question is whether Deltek will manage to cross-sell its solutions to the existing customers and whether will it also target enterprise customers and start competing with other vendors in that sector.
