Friedman Nabs Viewlocity for SCM

March 1, 2011 Alex Woodie

The consolidation of midrange application vendors continues in January when IBM i ERP software developer Friedman announced the acquisition of Viewlocity Technologies, a Dallas, Texas, company that developed supply chain management (SCM) software that ran on a variety of platforms, including IBM i.

Viewlocity was formed about nine years ago from the triple-merger of vendors, Viewlocity, SynQuest, and Tilion. The company originally took the SynQuest name, but changed it to Viewlocity soon after.

Viewlocity develops several products in the SCM space, including inventory management, supplier management, planning and production, logistics and transportation, and supply chain design software. The company claims to have been a leader in enabling greater visibility and controls over supply chains, and in the use of alerts for enabling greater agility.

Viewlocity claims to have companies like Pfizer, GE Oil & Gas, and the Ford Motor Company as customers. The company, which lists offices in Texas, Australia, and the U.K., does not list the number of customers or employees on its website.

Terms of the deal with Friedman were not disclosed. Friedman says it will continue to operate Viewlocity as an independent unit of the Friedman Operating Group. Friedman, which itself is a wholly owned subsidiary of Toronto-based Constellation Software, develops ERP software for manufacturers in the specialty “make to order” industries, such as the window and door manufacturing business.

Friedman, which is based in Deerfield, Illinois, originally developed exclusively for the IBM i platform with its core product, called Frontier. It rolled out a Windows product in 2009 following the acquisition of Windflite Computer Systems. The Friedman Operating Group also owns Varsity Logistics, a San Francisco developer of IBM i shipping software that was acquired by Constellation in the fall of 2007, and Computer Solutions Inc. (CSI), a Florida developer of order management and e-commerce applications for the IBM i platform. CSI was acquired one year ago.

Constellation Software reports its fourth quarter financial results on Thursday. For 2009, the company reported total revenue of $438 million, with net income of $10.2 million. The company, which increased its dividend in each of the last two years, was trading at an all-time high of $54 per share last week.