Oracle, Inc. has sued Procore in federal court in Northern California, accusing the construction management platform provider of stealing confidential information related to the development of enterprise resource planning products for contractors.
Oracle’s lawsuit, filed Oct. 28, alleges that former Oracle employee and Textura executive Mark Mariano took “thousands” of trade secrets with him to his new job at Procore when he was hired in 2021. This allowed Procore to add connections to popular ERP software systems. in its construction payment management platform, Oracle claims.
Spokesmen for both companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and lawyers for Oracle also did not immediately respond to questions about the lawsuit.
The complaint details how Mariano led the Oracle team integrating contractor client payment software with the company’s payment management platform, Textura. Mariano was an executive at Textura when Oracle acquired the company in 2016 and held a leadership role in developing Textura’s systems to integrate ERP systems with the platform until 2021, when he was hired by Procore.
Contractors often face challenges in linking ERP systems that manage back-office functions to their construction management platforms, where payments and other data are often project-based rather than project-based. internal business practices of a company. Textura was known for being able to simplify this integration for its customers.
According to the complaint, Mariano took “thousands” of files from Oracle to Procore, including source code, customer information, research plans, as well as two laptops belonging to Oracle. Mariano’s laptop was eventually returned to Oracle. But Oracle alleges that its own analysis of forensic data found that the laptop’s hard drive had been wiped of data and that specific files had been removed. These include files titled “TexturaCloud.zip” and “TexturaSPs.zip,” which Oracle said include more than 50 Oracle proprietary and confidential SQL source code files (along with log files) developed by Oracle engineers and related to the implementation of its Textura Viewpoint payment management system. adapter This is a technology that Textura uses to connect to ERPs.
Oracle’s complaint also states that when Procore was approached about these issues, Procore refused to provide “full information regarding the full scope of access to and use of Oracle’s materials.”
The complaint also alleges that Oracle had agreed to an industry-standard forensic inspection of Mariano’s new Procore laptop for Oracle files, but Procore would not agree to the terms, even though Mariano’s personal attorney had already agreed the inspection Oracle decided to take legal action rather than resolve the matter through ongoing discussions between the two companies, according to the suit.
ERP integrations are a growing business for both companies and a long-standing request from contractors. Payments, invoicing, compliance, approvals and owner billing are mentioned in the lawsuit as areas that Procore’s new payments service touched through ERP integrations.
Oracle is seeking unspecified damages to Procore, as well as requesting the recovery of the files and that Procore be discontinued.
