Although SSA already has a SCM solution constructed from its own products and several acquired and assimilated products, it is targeted at larger mid-cap organizations that need high-volume distribution fulfilment. The Provia software offers an integrated web services offering that provides warehouse management, order management, analytics, transportation management and RFID capabilities. By catering for areas such as materials ownership, labor optimization, security, and workflow, the Provia software is particularly appealing to third-party logistics suppliers.
Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Provia Software is a subsidiary of Viastore Systems, a privately held provider of automated storage and retrieval systems, and material handling systems. It is headquartered in Germany and has several subsidiaries including one in the US.
Viastore has owned Provia for 15 years and about two years ago the companies announced a joint software development project around RFID, setting out to become a single source supplier for RFID hardware and software, combined with an automated material handling control system.
Viastore’s reasons for selling have not been disclosed, but historically its operations have been focused on the warehouse with hardware geared toward the physical management of goods and software that concentrated on linking the distribution center to business software, whereas Provia is geared up for more distributed SCE operations among 3PLs and is heavily into RFID.
Financial details of the deal were not released but the privately owned Provia operation is relatively small with annual sales estimated to be in the region of $20m.
