Accellos and HighJump Software, two competing supply chain and warehouse management software companies, announced this week that they planned to merge.
The combined company, which will be called Acccellos, will have 11,000 customers in 23 countries and operations in North America, Asia and Europe. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Accellos CEO Michael Cornell, who will head the combined company, said demand from customers for omnichannel solutions is what drove the deal.
“This combination brings extremely complementary technology to both Accellos and HighJump customers,” Cornell said in a press release.
Accellos will focus on helping retailers, distributors, manufacturers and logistics service providers manage complex order fulfillment cycles and collaborate with supply chain partners.
HighJump provides warehouse management systems, networked electronic data interchange (EDI), trading partner integration and direct store delivery software solutions. Accellos’ product portfolio includes warehouse management, 3PL, fleet management, transportation management, trading partner integration, automated barcode data collection, parcel shipping, transportation optimization and supply chain business intelligence.
John Haber, founder and CEO of supply chain consultancy Spend Management Experts, said the merger made sense on a couple of levels: combining mid-market and enterprise approaches, cost reductions and the ability to compete on a more even footing with larger warehouse management players.
“From a size standpoint, it moves them more in the direction of companies like Manhattan Associates and JDS, scales them up to be a third player in that area of top WMS vendors,” Haber said. “There is some product overlap, but they gain good-cross-sell opportunities.”