newsworthy
HighJump expands voice-picking tools for SMB market
Supply chain technology provider HighJump Software Inc.
has acquired voice-directed picking technology vendor
Vitech Business Group Inc., an under-the-radar deal that
continues HighJump’s strategy of growth by acquisition.
HighJump bought Bellingham, Wash.-based Vitech primarily to integrate the two companies’ technology offerings into one shared platform, HighJump’s chief operating
officer, Chad Collins, said in a briefing with reporters and
analysts at the firm’s “Elevate” user conference in Orlando,
Fla. The Vitech deal expands HighJump’s business in providing voice-directed picking technologies through its partnerships with providers such as Zebra Technologies Corp.
and Honeywell International Inc., company executives said.
Vitech provides supply chain consulting services and is
a reseller of Honeywell’s Vocollect brand of voice-enabled
distribution technology. Terms of the Vitech acquisition
were not disclosed.
In February, Minneapolis-based HighJump acquired
trade data network provider RedTail Solutions Inc. in a
move to add more cloud-based electronic data interchange
(EDI) capability for HighJump’s TrueCommerce business
unit. The Vitech acquisition happened shortly after the
Red Tail deal but had not been previously announced.
Collins said HighJump plans no changes in branding
or leadership at Vitech. HighJump and Vitech have been
business partners since Vitech began helping customers
select, purchase, implement, administer, and upgrade their
HighJump software, related supply chain solutions, and
auto-ID hardware in 1995.
HighJump will add Vitech to its supply chain portfolio, HighJump COO Ross Elliott said in the briefing.
Meanwhile, it will add the resources from its Red Tail acquisition to its TrueCommerce unit.
Elliott said Red Tail and Vitech customers will not see any
noticeable effect on service quality. “We will connect the
networks, then assimilate the different services, and make
them pervasive for all our users,” Elliott said. “The end
users will not notice any changes, because we take care of
the plumbing in the middle through our managed service
approach.”
HighJump marked a growth curve in 2016 that took
the company to $201 million in revenue for the first time,
based largely on a focus on small and mid-sized businesses
(SMBs).
