Descartes announces acquisition of OCR Services Inc.

The acquisition train keeps rolling on for Waterloo, Ontario-based Descartes, a provider of logistics based on-demand, software-as-a-service offerings.

The company recently announced it has acquired Rockville, Md.-based OCR Services Inc, a provider of global trade compliance solutions and content, for roughly $90 million. This represents the 30^th acquisition Descartes has made going back to 2015.

Descartes’ officials said OCR’s service portfolio focuses on solutions and content for export compliance and controlled commodities, which helps customers streamline and automate processes around denied party screening, license procurement/management, and product classification. They added that OCR’s platform, called GlobalEASE is used by blue-chip, multinational organizations globally, focusing on a changing regulatory environment. The company also monitors regulatory sources and updates its trade data content libraries on a daily basis, and OCR’s controlled exports data will expand Descartes’ extensive global trade content library for customers and partners.

“The OCR team brings a wealth of domain expertise in global trade compliance to Descartes, including experience leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) in the content management process,” said Andrew Roszko, Chief Commercial Officer at Descartes, in a statement. “By adding OCR’s solutions and content to our Global Logistics Network, we see an opportunity to bring new functionality and enhanced content to our customers and partners around the world. With our combined solutions and team, we also see an opportunity to further penetrate markets in Europe and Asia.”

Brian Hodgson, GM, Trade Intelligence at Descartes, said that there were a few factors that drove Descartes to bring OCR into the fold.

“Descartes recognizes the value of making access to and analysis of comprehensive global trade data easy for our customers,” he said. “The OCR acquisition brings additional content and capabilities in export compliance, specifically strong solutions for companies that manufacture and export goods that require export licenses.”

In terms of what made OCR an attractive acquisition target, Hodgson explained that with governments increasing export compliance regulations around the world, the OCR team brings a wealth of domain expertise in global trade compliance to Descartes, including experience leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) in the content management process. And he added that with Descartes’ combined solutions and team, it also see an opportunity to further penetrate markets in Europe and Asia.

“By adding OCR’s solutions and content to the Descartes GLN (Global Logistics Network), we see an opportunity to bring new export compliance functionality and enhanced content to our customers around the world and to our partners, such as SAP and Oracle,” he said.