Tuesday, April 18, 2006

New action in the engineer-to-order ERP space

Following the acquisition of Encompix by Made2Manage, another deal in the engineer-to-order ERP market is taking place. Now Intuitive, a small manufacturing systems provider, is buying out Relevant, a long-standing provider of project-based manufacturing systems.

Intuitive has been quiet for many years, but since being bought in November 2005 by Marlin Equity Partners, a private equity firm, it has started an acquisition program, first picking up SupplyWorks, a supply chain management provider, in March, and now acquiring Relevant.

Relevant is best known for its use at the legendary Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, where its project-orientation is particularly well-suited.

However, there is an indication that Intuitive may not be interested so much in Relevant's product but rather is buying its customer base and expertise in the ETO sector. The press release says, "Intuitive's long-term product plan is to adapt Relevant's project-driven processes and functionality to the Intuitive ERP product. Intuitive will offer continued support to Relevant's customers and deliver several enhancements under development."

There's more on the Relevant deal in a press release on the Intuitive website.

Related posts
Making money in software with a niche-industry strategy
Made2Manage acquiring ETO vendor Encompix

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