DC Velocity - September 2016

NEED
A LIFT?

HELP

is just a step away…

STRUCTURAL
PLATFORMS
from HEP are engineered
to elevate
your profitability.

SAFETY
PRODUCTS
from HEP are designed
to eliminate damage-related
risk and cost.

800-333-0080
www.heartlandengineeredproducts.com

SAF-T-RAIL

TRAK ARMOR
BOLLARDS
POST GUARDS
SAF-T-GARD
RACK GARD
SAF-T-HEADER
SAF-T-CORNER

77058 HEP_DCVelocity 2.25x10.indd 1 11/9/15 12:09 PM

newsmakers

David Schwebel has joined Forte as senior director of business development. … Invata Intralogistics has added four new automation engineers to its engineering and integration staff: John Leonard, Justin Warren, Andrew Wheeler, and Zane Ford. The company has also welcomed Brent Burkitt as a senior design engineer, Adam Henkle as a senior account executive, and Mike Franklin as a senior project manager. … Matt Powers, a former Walmart real estate executive, has joined real estate services firm JLL as an executive VP. Powers will serve on the company’s “Retail e-commerce Distribution” (ReD) platform. … I.D. Systems has appointed industry veteran Chris Wolfe chief product officer. … Wynright Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Daifuku North America Holding Co. and a U.S.-based provider of intelligent material handling systems, has named Gordon Hellberg vice president - integrator sales for North America. … CBRE Group Inc. has hired Tripp Eskridge as managing director of project management services. … Intelligrated has appointed Tom Tobin senior sales manager for its Midwest regional operations. … Saddle Creek Logistics Services has promoted Eric Newman to vice president, corporate controller. … Symphony EYC, a provider of software and services for retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers, has appointed Brian Gillis general manager, Americas and Adriano Araujo general manager, Latin America.

Supply chain optimization firm Logility Inc. has acquired software systems integrator AdapChain Inc. in a move designed to address a growing challenge for practitioners: linking multiple software platforms to ensure that data flows properly to support inventory movement.

Acquiring AdapChain extends Atlanta-based Logility’s ability to deploy “innovative supply chain and retail optimization solutions more quickly and at a lower total cost of ownership than our industry peers,” Logility President Allan Dow said in a statement.

West Chester, Pa.-based AdapChain touts its software templates as a simple way for companies to connect enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to a wide range of logistics applications. “We have helped develop an innovative solution that turns the complexity of enterprisewide application integration into a quick, simple, and repeatable process,” AdapChain President Svenne Juul said in a statement.

Connecting multiple software platforms is an ongoing challenge for end-users. In a recent survey by DC VELOCITY and Boston-based consulting firm Nucleus Research Inc., 28 percent of logistics and supply chain managers called systems integration the biggest challenge they face in deploying supply chain software.

“Information has to follow inventory in the supply chain,” said James A. Cooke, a supply chain management journalist, consultant, and author. That can be a major challenge when a company starts with input from an order management system (OMS) and tries to hand off the data flow to an ERP platform, transportation management system (TMS), warehouse management system (WMS), demand planning application, and inventory optimization system, Cooke said.

Those information handoffs are a major roadblock that delays the implementation of new software systems. “Buying this outfit, which already has a menu of pre-built templates, [addresses] that issue,” Cooke said.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Logility said it would fold AdapChain’s “AdapLink” tool into its stable of business optimization tools, renaming it “Logility Voyager AdapLink.”