Software consolidation continues

By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 6/1/2006

Three supply chain software companies announced major acquisitions during the last month, continuing a trend toward industry consolidation:

• Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software provider Infor is acquiring competitor SSA Global.
• JDA Software Group, another ERP provider, is acquiring supply chain planning software supplier Manugistics.
• Sterling Commerce, a supply chain management software company, is acquiring transportation management software supplier Nistevo.

The JDA and Sterling Commerce deals continue the trend of large software providers acquiring smaller niche software companies to broaden their offerings.

The Infor/SSA deal will drastically change the ERP landscape. Infor will become the third largest ERP provider, behind SAP and Oracle.

"The competitive dynamics of this are very powerful," says SSA Global CEO Mike Greenough. He describes the new competitive landscape as "the three behemoths, the two large battleships and one huge destroyer," coming together to threaten mid-market ERP companies.

SSA Global recently completed an acquisition of its own. In March, the company announced its acquisition of Provia Software, a provider of warehouse management systems (WMS).