Component and supplier management systems company Aspect Development Inc has wiped out its major competition, Boulder, Colorado-based Cadis Inc by buying it, and hopes to broaden both companies’ market base. Aspect will exchange some 1.5 million shares of Aspect common stock for all the outstanding shares in Cadis. Both companies were founded in 1991, and provide systems for managing the selection and purchase of components and mechanical parts. Aspect offers both software and a database to design engineers and the purchasing department. The database contains some 2.5 million parts, from 750 suppliers worldwide, and enables the design engineer to select all the components required for a product, and source where to get them. Purchasers can then access the supplier database to rationalize purchase decisions. Aspect, which made $36m revenues last year, says its typical customers are in high technology and aerospace or defense companies. Cadis developed a system for manufacturers to improve mechanical parts re-use. Aspect says the companies had focused themselves slightly differently, with Aspect targeting the electronic sector and Cadis, industrial and mechanical, so it says the merger will enable both to broaden their market scope. Cadis also developed the Java-based Krakatoa Web search engine (CI No 2,894), which enables search and retrieval on the internet, and Aspect says opens its offering up to suppliers wishing to publish data about their wares on the web. With Cadis safely in the fold, Aspect says the main competition left comes from companies developing their own internal systems for component and supplier management. However, it believes that the combination of the two companies’ skills and resources will enable it to invest in specific systems that meet the demands of most of the companies trying to develop their own systems. Aspect quotes International Data Corp figures for its market, which suggest annual compound growth of 45%, and Cadis chief executive Tom Kavanagh believes the potential market for CSM is enormous, and still relatively untapped.
