Kewill Systems Plc, the Surrey, UK IT services company, says it will invest an additional 6.3m pounds ($10m) on e-commerce product development over the next two years after securing a huge deal with FDX, the international logistical group.
The agreement, for an undisclosed figure, follows the roll-out over the past year of more than 10,000 Kewill multi-carrier management systems throughout the US at FDX subsidiary RPS Inc. A further 4,000 licenses were bought for Kewill’s TracerX, a middleware tool that connects shipping systems with ERP, warehouse management and other supply chain management systems. Under the new deal, FDX will use Kewill technology as the platform to provide shipper system tools and back office integration.
Flushed with the success of its FDX agreement, Kewill now plans to create a business portal that is due to be in operation in the second half of next year. It is designed to build up sales with a combination of subscription and transaction-based revenues. Kewill plans to complete a web-based multi-carrier shipping system that will enable users to conduct all the transactions necessary for major US package carriers including FedEx, UPS, RPS and the US Postal service. Kewill plans to provide Carton Level Detail (CLD) for shipments in transit to provide full supply chain visibility.
Kewill’s shares rose 20% to 506.5 pence on Wednesday.
