MarketWatch

— September 13, 2006

TNT Expands Presence in India with Acquisition of Speedage

TNT N.V. has acquired ARC India Limited, a ground express delivery company operating under the trade name Speedage Express Cargo Services. TNT called the deal a key component in its “Focus on Networks” strategy, announced in December, 2005. The acquisition will also help the company to expand its service presence in emerging markets in Asia. “Combining Speedage's strong domestic road network with TNT's international and domestic networks will form a powerful platform for further expansion in the fast-growing Indian express market,” TNT said. Acquiring Speedage puts TNT in the top three providers of domestic road express services in India, boosting expected revenues from India operations to more than $128m in 2007. The road-based express segment is projected to more than quadruple in the coming decade,” according to Marie-Christine Lombard, group managing director of TNT's Express division. Founded in 1995, Speedage generated turnover of $21.8m in fiscal 2005-06. The acquisition will add 514 depots, 26 transit hubs, 730 vehicles and 1,195 employees to TNT's resources in India.
http://group.tnt.com/

DHL Starts Up New Mexican Air Network, Breaks Ground on Chicago Service Center
DHL has begun operations in its redesigned Mexican air network. The company is adding six new daily domestic flights linking up with the Mexican cities of Hermosillo, Ciudad Obregon, Ciudad de Mexico, Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Monterrey, Villahermosa, San Luis Potosi, Mazatlan, La Paz and Guadalajara. With the additions, DHL Mexico will fly an average of 1.9m miles each year, the equivalent of 6,200 flight hours. It will also increase its air-cargo capacity in Mexico by more than 40 percent, to more than 10.5m pounds annually. The new Mexican domestic flights will be operated by contracted, new-generation aircraft, featuring larger, independent cargo-loading doors, large cargo-hold areas, cargo netting and ground rollers. In another company development, DHL has broken ground on a new service center two blocks south of Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. DHL said it will invest $7m in the 78,960-square-foot facility, which will support the company's local pickup, delivery and sorting operations. The Chicago service center is expected to be operational by early 2007. It will provide throughput capacity of 7,500 packages per hour, with a staff of nearly 250, when fully operational.
Mexico Air Network: http://www.dhl.com
Chicago Service Center: http://www.dhl-usa.com/

SAP Expands Compliance Services; Teams With Cisco Systems
SAP AG has expanded its portfolio of services to aid companies in the management of governance, risk and compliance (GRC). The vendor is adding three new products in that area: GRC Repository, GRC Process Control and GRC Risk Management. They address the specific GRC requirements of public-sector organizations and private companies in multiple industries, including chemicals, financial services, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals and utilities. GRC Repository will document and maintain GRC information in a single, central system of record. GRC Process Control aligns key controls with business risk in order to promote desired employee behavior and optimize business processes. GRC Risk Management helps customers to implement collaborative risk-management processes that provide analysis of key business risk throughout the organization. In a related development, SAP has entered into a joint marketing agreement with Cisco Systems, Inc. for the U.S. and Canada. The deal addresses GRC business processes and information technology control issues across the entire I.T. infrastructure. The effort draws on access and identity intelligence tools within Cisco's service-oriented architected network architecture (SONA). It covers collaboration in sales and marketing as well as advanced service offerings.
GRC Expansion: http://www.sap.com/
Cisco Partnership: http://www.sap.com/

Penske Truck Leasing Opens New Multi-Service Facility in K.C.
Penske Truck Leasing has opened a facility in Kansas City, Mo., the first in a series of newly designed, state-of-the-art operations. Built at a cost of $6.5m, the new facility will offer commercial and consumer truck rental services, full-service leasing and contract maintenance, all under one roof. Covering 24,118 square feet, it includes five service bays, one fully automated truck-washing bay and a three-lane fuel island for diesel and gasoline refueling. Also included are wireless technology, a larger rental counter and a driver waiting area with wireless internet access and a flat-screen television. According to Penske, the operation will integrate multiple diagnostic and repair software applications for vehicle maintenance. It will have the capacity to maintain more than 1,000 vehicles onsite. Service will be provided around the clock, seven days a week, while rental operations will be open during set hours each day.
http://www.gopenske.com/

BIT Creates “Virtual VAN” for Exchanging Business Documents
Business Integration Technology Inc. (BIT) has developed a service that allows suppliers and customers to exchange business documents electronically, without relying upon fax, phone of Web forms. The Virtual VAN combines the Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS) and Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), from Amazon Web Services, with BIT's standards-based EME integration engine. The result, claimed BIT, is lower cost, less complexity and reduced risk in business-document exchange. Virtual VAN eliminates the need for a corporate communications hub, or traditional value-added network. Users can administer message routing and transformation without the need for local configuration storage. They can even outsource all trading-partner services to BIT. The system works with existing applications and open-source software. It provides encryption, authentication, authorization and non-repudiation for all messages, whether in-transit or stored in the message archive.
http://thevirtualvan.com/

Valogix Updates Software for Inventory Planning, Optimizing
Valogix, Inc. has released several new versions of its software for advanced inventory planning and optimization. The upgrades include the vendor's Inventory Planner for forecasting and planning of finished-goods inventory, Parts Planner for spare-parts planning (including reverse logistics), Retail Planner for retail stock, and MultiLink for companies that plan for multiple stocking locations, including customer locations. New features in the upgraded versions include the ability to use a Proxy History function for new items. The system automatically generates a 12-month forecast and optimal stock quantity on the first day the item is available in the system. Other enhancements include hot keys, custom mouse commands, rapid item search and automated links to other software programs. In all, more than 30 new features have been added to the Valogix suite of applications. The vendor supports a number of major industries, including automotive aftermarket, aviation, medical supplies, gourmet foods, high technology, home furnishings and industrial distribution.
http://www.valogix.com/

Avalara, Epicor Partner for Midmarket Sales-Tax Compliance
Avalara and Epicor Software Corp. have joined to offer mid-market companies a service for automated sales-tax compliance. Avalara is a vendor of sales-tax compliance software. Epicor is a provider of business software to the global mid-market. The deal calls for Epicor to integrate Avalara's full line of sales-tax products, including an automated, Web-services-based tool, with Epicor's suite of enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications. The product can be deployed by customers on-premise or in an on-demand, hosted environment. The partnership allows Epicor to offer all of Avalara's products and services, while linking AvaTax, a Web-based sales-tax automation service, with its industry-specific software for manufacturing, distribution, retail, hospitality and services. The integration will provide users with an accurate, automated means of calculating sales tax in real time, across thousands of North American taxing jurisdictions, the partners said.
http://www.avalara.com/

ALK Unveils Version 13 of PC-MILER/Rail for Train Routing
ALK Technologies, Inc. has released PC-MILER/Rail 13, the newest version of routing, mileage and mapping software for the rail industry. The tool is designed for railroads, shippers, railcar lessors, railcar mileage auditors, logistics companies and intermodal carriers. Version 13 features 240,000 miles of North American rail lines, with 1,072 additional active freight stations. Nine additional railroads are also included, bringing to 700 the total number of carriers. The new PC-MILER for rail also includes more than 3,400 unique junction interchanges and enhanced interline routing. A new Auto Racks routing option provides additional tools for multi-level railcars. Detailed route reports list railroad mileage in addition to via points and major cities with leg and cumulative mileage. Supplementing PC-MILER/Rail 13 are two connectivity products: PC-MILER/Rail-Connect, which links routes, mileage and reports to leading transportation and logistics-management software, and the Dynamic Link Library, for custom development applications.
http://www.alk.com/

New Tool for Digital Modeling From Geomagic, Z Corporation
Two companies offering tools to support new-product design are joining their software and hardware offerings to support digital modeling. Software vendor Geomagic has signed an exclusive worldwide agreement with Z Corporation, a maker of equipment to manage 3D design data. Geomagic will bundle its Geomagic Studio software with the new ZScanner 700 from Z Corporation. The latter is a self-positioning 3D laser scanner. The lightweight, handheld device is free of traditional mechanical arms, making it suitable for scanning hard-to-reach places. It offers real-time surfacing, captures 3D data in one continuous process to reduce post-processing, and allows objects to be moved during scanning. Geomagic Studio creates accurate models from any physical part. The Geomagic Qualify module allows users to compare designs with actual units and simplify inspection analysis. The combination of the ZScanner 700 with Geomagic Studio and Qualify “brings a highly sophisticated level of digital shape sampling for rapid prototyping, design and quality assurance at the lowest price point available today in the market,” the companies said.
http://www.geomagic.com/

New Product for Field Service Support Aims at Small Business
New on-demand software from MyServiceForce.com integrates with Windows Mobile 5.0, providing a tool for small businesses. Road service teams get real-time access to sales and customer information. With the help of low-cost PDAs and smart phones supporting Mobile 5.0, myServiceForce.com gives users access to the kinds of back-office systems that are typically affordable only by large companies, the vendor said. By integrating with the Windows Mobile 5.0 platform, the hosted system ties mobile systems to central applications, including QuickBooks accounting programs, scheduling software and inventory management. The mobile devices continue to work when out of range of a wireless network, then re-synchronize as soon as they are back in range. Devices print invoices immediately upon service. According to the provider, linking up with scheduling software optimizes routes, while ensuring that dispatched trucks have the required equipment. The system can be up and running within three days, according to myServiceForce.com. Initial devices to be supported include smart phones from Verizon, Cingular or Sprint, PDAs, and the ruggedized handheld Symbol MC70.
http://www.myserviceforce.com/

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