3PL Central acquires Scout Software

3PL Central, a provider of cloud-based warehouse management systems (WMS) built to meet the unique needs of third-party logistics (3PL) warehouses has acquired Scout Software, a leading inventory and WMS solution built for brands and retailers growing their ecommerce fulfillment capabilities.

This latest move follows 3PL Central’s recent acquisition of Skubana, which offers enterprise order management solutions for companies that need to service multiple channels. With these acquisitions, 3PL Central believes it has solidified its position in the cloud warehouse management category by offering industry leading solutions for both third party-logistics and private company operated warehouses.

The simplistic strategies of the past, where fulfillment was either done in house or fully outsourced to 3PLs are being replaced by dynamic, distributed, “hybrid” networks that locate inventory close to consumers and intelligently route orders to reduce fulfillment costs and accelerate delivery, 3PL Central believes. By adding Scout to the company’s product portfolio, 3PL Central leadership explained the company is now able to offer 3PLs, brands and retailers the right fulfillment software for their needs, whether just getting started or scaling to hundreds of thousands of packages a day. Companies performing fulfillment in house can use Scout’s WMS. Finally, Skubana’s intelligent order orchestration lets brands configure both systems to work in harmony, seamlessly routing orders to either in house or outsourced warehouses, based upon sophisticated business rules.

“Throughout the lifecycle of an ecommerce merchant, their fulfillment strategies become increasingly sophisticated. Virtually every brand starts out fulfilling orders from their own warehouse,” said Andy Lloyd, chief executive officer of 3PL Central.

“Too often as brands look to offer faster and cheaper fulfillment, they are forced to rip out old systems and migrate to entirely new software. By unifying Scout WMS and 3PL Warehouse Manager with Skubana’s advanced order routing, we will offer the first cloud-based software to help companies to grow through their entire lifecycle with a single vendor. Even better, our current 3PL customers will gain additional customers of their own by offering their services to brands that are looking for a distributed fulfillment capacity,” Lloyd continued.

Scout’s inventory and order management capabilities have helped hundreds of growing ecommerce brands better manage their fulfillment operations, pointed out Eric Luoma, CEO and founder of Scout. “As a longtime partner to Skubana, dozens of our common customers use the power of the Scout WMS for their in-house operations, and leverage Skubana’s sophisticated order orchestration to unify their sales channels and offer faster, cheaper delivery by supplementing their internal team’s efforts with geographically dispersed 3PLs and drop shipping,” Luoma said. “Combine that functional fit with the ability to scale our business faster through a dramatically increased investment in sales and marketing, and joining forces with 3PL Central makes strategic sense for both our customers and our team.”

“From the start, I’ve been really happy with both Scout and Skubana, as well as the integration between the systems,” added Mark Hoder, president of Rugby Imports LTD. “They’ve both helped Rugby Imports grow, then survive, and now rebound as a leading supplier of Rugby apparel, gear, and teamwear in North America. When you combine Scout with 3PL Central’s deep expertise in warehouse management software, there is incredible synergy of functionality and expertise. I’m extremely excited to see how and where 3PL Central will take the combined company.”

The price for this latest acquisition was not disclosed as part of the announcement.