18 DC VELOCITY JUNE 2016 www.dcvelocity.com
University of Arkansas taps Waller
to run business school
In a landmark move, the University of Arkansas has tapped
Matthew A. Waller, a long-time supply chain management educator, as dean of the school’s Sam M. Walton College of Business,
the first time a major university has reached into the supply chain
ranks for the head of its business school.
Waller, a teacher, researcher, and administrator at the Walton
College for more than 20 years, had been serving as interim dean
of the college. He holds the prestigious Sam M. Walton Leadership
Chair in Business along with his position as dean. He was named
to the dean’s position May 1.
Waller, 51, joined the university as a visiting assistant professor in 1994. He became a full professor in 2007 and chair of the
department of supply chain management when it was established
in 2011. He served as interim associate dean for executive education before taking over as interim dean in July 2015. He also held
the Garrison Endowed Chair in Supply Chain Management.
Under Waller’s leadership, the Walton College has expanded its
relationship with supply
chain-focused businesses
in Northwest Arkansas,
including motor carriers, third-party logistics
service providers (3PLs),
and manufacturers.
There are about 450 students in the school’s supply chain management program.
Waller also leads an initiative for the Association to Advance
Collegiate Schools of Business that brings educators from other
colleges and universities to the University of Arkansas to learn
how to develop and implement supply chain curricula.
The university and business school feed off of an active region
for transportation and logistics services. Besides Bentonville-based
Wal-Mart, which became a global phenomenon on the back of its
formidable supply chain, the state’s northwest quadrant is home
to, among others, Lowell-based truckload and logistics giant J.B.
Hunt Transport Services Inc., Fort Smith-based less-than-truckload (LTL) and logistics service provider ArcBest Corp., and
Springdale-based poultry producer Tyson Foods Inc., which has
long taken a keen interest in supply chain issues and trends.
Waller received a B.S.B.A. from the University of Missouri,
and an M.S. and Ph.D. from Penn State University. His research
and teaching focus on retail supply chain management, and he
is co-owner of a patent for optimizing inventory and merchan-dising-shelf space utilization. Waller, the author or co-author of
numerous research papers, is co-editor-in-chief of the Council
of Supply Chain Management Professionals’ Journal of Business
Logistics and co-author of the textbook The Definitive Guide to
Inventory Management: Principles and Strategies for the Efficient
Flow of Inventory Across the Supply Chain.
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go figure …
12,000– 13,000
The number of dry van trucks alone that
would have to exit the market over the
next three to four quarters for van supply
and demand to reach equilibrium. Parity
could also be reached if industrial production
returned to 2 percent.
SOURCE: BB&T CAPITAL MARKETS
Descartes acquires Pixi Software
for $10.4 million
Descartes Systems Group, the Canadian logistics software provider, has acquired Pixi Software GmbH,
paying US$10.4 million for the developer of technology solutions for e-commerce order fulfillment and
warehouse management.
Munich, Germany-based Pixi makes software that
helps its customers automate processes originating
from online orders and has a large installed base,
including hundreds of e-commerce businesses in
Europe.
Pixi’s platform collects order information from
e-commerce sites, translates the data into a scan-ner-driven pick-and-pack process within the warehouse, initiates the shipment to the consumer, and
synchronizes all of the information with the customer’s financial system for invoicing and shipment tracking, Waterloo, Ontario-based Descartes said.
By acquiring Pixi, Descartes gains a warehousing
and order-fulfillment tool that complements its foun-
dation in providing logistics and transportation appli-
cations, said Chris Jones, Descartes’ executive vice
president for professional services and marketing.
Descartes plans to market the new capabilities spe-
cifically to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs),
offering them a cloud-based pay-as-you-go model
that gives growing e-commerce firms the ability to
choose from Descartes’ menu of logistics services.
“We want to be broad enough that if they have a
logistics issue, we have the breadth to solve that, and
then to augment that with additional services such
as customs filings, carrier messaging, denied-party
screening, and other solutions,” Jones said.
The acquisition will provide Descartes with a footprint in Germany. The company has more than
400 employees in the Netherlands, Belgium, France,
Spain, and Scandinavia. It is Descartes’ 31st purchase
since 2006.
