Product lifecycle management player beefs up analytics capabilities and supplier collaboration
San Jose, CA — October 2, 2003 — Agile Software, a provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions, has acquired San Jose, Calif.-based software company Tradec, which offers a solution designed to help manufacturers manage their costs.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Tradec said that its flagship Material Cost Management System (MCMS) enables manufacturing companies to reduce material spend, improve productivity and manage supplier relationships by providing visibility into spending and cost trends, intelligence into projected future costs and control over the cost reduction process.
Founded in 1996, Tradec is privately-held. In a statement, Agile said the acquisition beefs up its own cost management offering, Agile Product Cost Management, by leveraging Tradec's software for addressing key aspects of direct materials cost and performance management.
With this acquisition, Agile said it would deliver increased analytics capabilities and supplier collaboration for its customers. Key members of Tradec's support and engineering team have joined Agile to support Tradec customers, while offering a migration path to the Agile Product Cost Management solution.
"The acquisition of Tradec not only extends Agile's leadership position in product cost management, but as Agile's fifth acquisition in the last year, it solidifies Agile's role as PLM market consolidator," said Tim Minahan, vice president of supply chain research at technology consultancy Aberdeen Group. "Agile's product cost management solutions provide the requisite collaboration, costing and sourcing execution capabilities to enable manufacturers to align design and sourcing processes across multiple tiers of the supply chain to optimize product costs and drive innovation."
Agile said it would use Tradec's content partners to provide reference data for enhancing PLM decision-making processes. In addition, this acquisition establishes a relationship for Agile with Avnet, a partner that specializes in bringing cost management solutions to small and midsize companies.
"Acquiring Tradec is part of our long term strategy to build market share within the PLM sector," said Bryan Stolle, Agile CEO, in the company's statement on the deal. "With this acquisition, we extend the analytics and market content within our products, while bringing more than 5,500 additional suppliers into the fold. We believe this will increase the value of the solutions we offer for our product cost management and direct materials sourcing customers."
