Inovis Acquires Freeway Commerce to Accelerate European Expansion and Growth
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Acquisition increases Inovis presence by 300%, builds on 75% Managed Services growth in 2006
ATLANTA and LONDON, Aug. 1 -- Inovis, a leading provider of on-demand business community management solutions, today announced that it has acquired 100 percent of the share capital of Freeway Commerce, Ltd, specialists in EDI and electronic trading systems based in Preston, England. Together, the companies will deliver strategic managed services, hosting and business community management capabilities to UK organizations. The acquisition gives Inovis an ideal platform from which to launch into the rest of Europe.
Sean Feeney, president and CEO of Inovis, said, "The acquisition of Freeway Commerce continues our investment in strengthening Inovis' direct presence in the United Kingdom and our global network of business and application partners. We look forward to delivering the benefits of our expanded capabilities, services and support to our customers and prospects in North America and Europe."
Neal Moores, Joint Managing Director of Freeway Commerce, said, "Freeway Commerce is delighted to be joining the Inovis Group of companies. We have a very loyal and high quality team here at Freeway and they will continue to take care of our UK customer base to ensure continuity and first class service. This is a fabulous opportunity for Freeway Commerce to become part of a much larger operation to the benefit of both employees and customers alike."
John Redfern, managing director of Inovis in the United Kingdom, said, "We are clearly seeing momentum in the UK and broader European markets for expertise in EDI, XML, AS2 and other secure data transmission and governance technologies, but the strongest momentum has centered on companies outsourcing supply chain communication and, in many cases, day-to-day trading community management. The addition of Freeway provides Inovis with an even stronger product, marketing, sales and support base to accelerate our growth in this important region."
Mr. Feeney concluded, "This acquisition is excellent for all parties, not just Inovis and Freeway Commerce, but also for customers and partners. Freeway has an excellent reputation for developing innovative products and delivering great customer service. It is our intention to keep both Inovis UK and Freeway Commerce as operating divisions within the Inovis Group, with customers having access to both product ranges."
Freeway Commerce strengthens Inovis presence with over 2,000 UK customers ranging from small businesses to major 'blue chip' multi-nationals. The Freeway customer base also complements Inovis' North American retail presence with grocery, department store, food service and building supplies, including do it yourself (DIY), companies in the UK and provides opportunities to expand into new market sectors. The company brings Inovis expanded support and services for key UK trading hubs and communities, including community enablement and management expertise. In addition, Freeway delivers strong small and mid-sized business enablement and integration solutions with over 60 accounting and enterprise resource planning (ERP) packages in the UK.
Freeway customers will benefit from Inovis' Integrated Business Community Management suite that enables businesses to transact, collaborate and optimize communications with their business partners. A cornerstone of this suite is Inovisworks, a fully-integrated, state-of-the-art platform that drives communication, visibility and governance across business communities. With its Inovis Data Synchronization platform, the company is the leader in retail data synchronization services that enable over 5,000 companies to synchronize product data on over 110 million unique items. Inovis offers a wide range of software-based solutions -- from on-premise software and hosted services to fully outsourced support of secure data translation, exchange and governance regardless of file format or protocol. In addition, Inovis offers best-in-class AS2 support for global community requirements.
John Redfern, currently MD of Inovis UK Limited will become Managing Director of both Inovis UK Limited and Freeway Commerce. Vicki Sewell, Senior Vice President, Client Services and Customer Support at Inovis Inc, will lead the integration of the two companies.
Financial terms of the transaction, which closed on August 1, 2007, were not disclosed.
For more information on Freeway Commerce Ltd, please visit http://www.freewaycommerce.co.uk/
About Inovis
Inovis is a leading provider of on-demand Business Community Management solutions that empower companies to transact, collaborate and optimize communications with their entire trading community. By standardizing and automating mission-critical business interactions, companies can dramatically reduce the complexity and cost of supply chain communication. This foundation of high-quality, reliable and secure connectivity provides real-time visibility across the order-to-payment lifecycle. The resulting actionable intelligence enables users to proactively address supply chain issues before they impact profitability, shortening cycle times, improving productivity and increasing customer satisfaction.
With more than 20 years of expertise, Inovis delivers its products and services to more than 20,000 companies over a wide range of industries and markets across the globe. For more information, visit http://www.inovis.com/.
Source: Inovis
CONTACT: David Fontaine of Inovis, +1-404-467-3355, david.fontaine@inovis.com;
