Descartes announces acquisition of Supply Vision

Waterloo, Ontario-based Descartes, a provider of logistics based on-demand, software-as-a-service offerings, recently announced it acquired Phoenix-based Supply Vision, a provider of shipment management solutions for North American-based logistics services providers (LSP).

The purchase price was $12 million, according to Descartes.

Supply Vision provides LSPs with modular applications, focused on helping LSPs to coordinate shipments on various fronts, ranging from quoting and booking through final delivery, said Descartes. And the company added that Supply Vision’s platform integrates with real-time visibility offerings, likeDescartes MacroPoint, which runs a connected network of more than 2 million trucking assets and drivers, and gives LSPs and their shipper customers enhanced information about shipment status and location.

“The momentum for digitization in the LSP community continues to accelerate,” said Scott Sangster, General Manager Logistics Services Providers at Descartes, in a statement. “In order to efficiently meet customer demand while operating profitably, LSPs need to invest in solutions that automate processes across multiple parties and leverage real-time information that improves decision making. We see an opportunity to combine the Supply Vision capabilities with the Global Logistics Network and make even more solutions available for the wider LSP community.”

Chris Jones, EVP Industry & Services at Descartes, toldLMthat there were various drivers that led to Descartes bringing Supply Vision into the fold.

“Descartes has been a leader in providing solutions for logistics services providers (LSPs) for a number of years and recognizes that there is no single approach to effectively address the diversity of business models that exist,” he said. “We were attracted to Supply Vision’s domestic freight forwarding management capabilities including air cargo and land-side transportation operations.”

As for the main benefits of this acquisition for Descartes’ customers, Jones explained that Descartes serves a wide range of industry verticals and has quite a number of LSP customers globally.

“Supply Vision’s domain expertise in air cargo and truckload domestic forwarding and systems capabilities will be complementary for our international forwarding customers and freight brokerage solutions,” he said.

In terms of what Supply Vision brings to Descartes that was needed, or missing, Jones observed that LSP’s serve a wide range of transportation modes and market needs that have unique requirements. As an example, he said that domestic air cargo does not always travel by air and that there are unique requirements for over-the-road movement of air cargo that Supply Vision helps Descartes address.

“Like many of our acquisitions, Descartes sees Supply Vision as an accelerator to serve their and our customers better,” said Jones. “Descartes brings a number of capabilities to Supply Vision customers such as real-time transportation visibility and international operations expertise.”