RMI sign partnership for multi-modal service with ProAct

US rail software provider RMI has signed a strategic partnership with supply chain software provider ProAct International for a new online management service that will benefit automotive companies operating in the US, Canada and Latin America. The deal is estimated to be worth in excess of $500,000 over time.

 

RMI is moving beyond its traditional rail-focussed service to embrace a global multi-modal offering that will largely serve the automotive industry, an established market for ProAct, which provides supply chain software solutions for vehicle makers around the world including BMW, Cadillac, John Deere, GM in Mexico and VW in South Africa.

 

“We are extremely pleased to have a quality organisation such as RMI representing ProAct in the Americas,” said Garth Parker, chairman of ProAct. “This partnership will help us achieve greater market penetration and recognition – particularly in the Americas – and will ultimately strengthen our supply chain software solution offering and services globally."

 

The new partnership will target major OEMs and 3PL organisations in North and Latin America with a focus on end-to-end planning and execution of more complex, multi-modal supply chains.

 

What is unique to ProAct’s offering for RMI is the control in one strategic tool of all inbound to manufacturing movements, finished vehicle global multimodal transport, compound and yard management, as well as parts and aftermarket, said Parker. “The big thing it offers the market is governance, control and discipline with high levels of audit while still meeting the needs of today’s flexible supply chains all in a single strategic tool,” he told Automotive Logistics.

 

Paul Nurse, Chief Executive of ProAct added: “ProAct’s wholly browser-based solution is well suited to a hosted deployment model. RMI’s experience of providing services via the SaaS [Software as a Service] model, along with their state of the art data centre, will allow us to jointly offer innovative solutions more rapidly and with more flexible pricing models.”

 

The companies have been in discussion since early 2009 and expect to be able to provide solutions targeted at carriers, shippers and manufacturers in the automotive (and wider industries) before the end of the year.