Amber Road acquires Hong Kong-based ecVision

Global trade management technology provider Amber Road (formerly known as Management Dynamics) said this week it has acquired ecVision, a cloud-based provider of global sourcing and collaborative supply chain solutions.

The purchase price was $24 million and up to $9 million over the next two years for an earn out provision based upon achievement of certain revenue milestones and employee retention.

Amber Road said ecVision works with some of the world’s largest brand companies to effectively manage their relationships with product suppliers, raw material vendors, product testing and social compliance audit firms, and global logistics companies.  And it added that driven by the need to get the right products to market faster and respond to ever shortening ‘seasonal’ cycles, retail brand companies must collaborate with their suppliers and tier-n material vendors to speed innovation and manage product compliance with fine-tuned control over costs.

ecVision also has operations in China and the United States and has automated the collaboration between brand companies, including leading retailers like The North Face, Timberland, and Calvin Klein, among others, and their suppliers in more than 40 countries through a SaaS model with long-term subscriptions.

The ecVision Suite currently focuses on the following four primary business areas:
Vendor and Production Management – allows global brands to efficiently on-board new suppliers, monitor capacity, manage purchase orders and raw material orders, as well as monitor production status;
Material and Product Management – helps brands, their suppliers and tier-two material suppliers to collaborate and deliver more innovative products, by efficiently managing the sampling and testing processes, planning, forecasting and reserving raw materials and sourcing finished good production;
Risk and Quality Management – helps to ensure that what is produced meets international regulatory testing requirements, brand specifications and social compliance standards with comprehensive functionality to manage component and product testing, auditing and finished goods quality inspections; and
Shipment and Logistics Management - provides a platform to document, manage and monitor all logistics activities from in-factory carton label creation, advanced shipping notice generation, carrier booking and tracking, and invoicing through receipt into the warehouse.

“This acquisition delivers value for Amber Road customers by providing new global supply chain capabilities to increase product innovation while balancing product compliance risks and costs with shorter product lead times,” said Jim Preuninger, CEO of Amber Road, in a statement.  “It expands our solution footprint by providing more services at origin, where the global supply chain begins, and strengthens our value proposition in key industries.  This combination extends our leading presence in the Asia Pacific region which continues to be a strong growth market for us.  Finally, this union gives us another significant differentiator in the marketplace. We believe Amber Road is the only international cloud-based supply chain vendor offering such an expansive suite of capabilities.”