CDC Software completes acquisition of Activplant Corp.

CDC Software Corporation (NASDAQ: CDCS), a global provider of enterprise software applications and services, today announced the acquisition of Activplant Corp., a Canadian-based provider of manufacturing business intelligence solutions. CDC expects the move will position its CDC Factory as a market-leading manufacturing operations management (MOM) solution.

For more than a decade, Activplant solutions have promoted continuous improvement initiatives for the factory floor in discrete and process manufacturing. Activplant’s patented manufacturing business intelligence software is installed at more than 200 plants around the world in Tier 1 automotive, food & beverage, forestry products, and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies. Aimed at high-volume, high-automation plants, Activplant’s technology consolidates plant floor data into relevant real-time and historical intelligence, enabling productivity gains through better decision making. It helps companies manage operational performance by focusing on the key issues in their facilities that affect cost, quality, and supply chain demand requirements.

CDC Software’s product suite includes: CDC Factory (manufacturing operations management), CDC Ross ERP (enterprise resource planning), and CDC Supply Chain, among others. These solutions are used by more than 6,000 customers worldwide within the manufacturing, financial services, health care, home building, real estate, wholesale and retail distribution industries. This acquisition is expected to generate new cross-selling opportunities for CDC Supply Chain in the Tier 1 automotive market, as well as expand CDC Software’s manufacturing solutions’ already significant footprint in the food and beverage and consumer packaged goods markets, said Bruce Cameron, president of CDC Software.

"We expect this to be an accretive acquisition and fits within our strict valuation criteria," said Cameron. "With CDC Factory and Activplant’s out-of the-box MOM functionality, manufacturers do not have to spend costly consulting fees to customize the software to fit their distinct business processes. [Instead,] manufacturers can now focus their budgets on implementing best practices and continuous improvement initiatives that will ultimately improve their profitability."

This acquisition announcement marks the latest of several strategic initiatives undertaken by CDC Software . Last quarter, CDC Software completed the acquisition of WKD Solutions Ltd., a leading provider of supply chain event management solutions marketed under the brand Categoric. In addition, CDC Software recently announced plans to acquire two SaaS companies as part of its SaaS rollup strategy to expand in this growing market.

Most recently, CDC signed a reciprocal original equipment manufacturer (OEM) agreement with Pilgrim Software, Inc., a global provider of enterprise compliance and quality management (ECQM) software solutions, under which both companies will sell each other’s solutions. This OEM partnership is expected to help CDC Software expand its footprint in the highly regulated industries of life sciences and CPG. As part of the agreement, Pilgrim will sell CDC Software’s technology solutions to further increase its compliance platform. In turn, CDC Software will sell its Ross Enterprise solutions with Pilgrim’s SmartSolve ECQM solutions.

Pilgrim offers solutions for highly regulated markets, such as life sciences, food & beverage, consumer packaged goods (CPG), and chemical industries, that manage key compliance and quality management processes such as change management, nonconformance and corrective and preventive actions (CAPA), customer complaints, document and content management, employee training, internal and external audit management, investigations, and risk management.

CDC Software’s technology portfolio of compliance solutions includes: Ross ERP, CDC Respond, a complaint and feedback management solution, and X-alert, an Event Management tool.

– Edited by Renee M. Robbins, managing editor, MBT www.mbtmag.com

Do you have experience and expertise with the topics mentioned in this content? You should consider contributing to our CFE Media editorial team and getting the recognition you and your company deserve. Click here to start this process.