Manufacturing operations management software supplier Apriso Corp. last week said it has entered into a partnership under which it will collaborate with systems integrator EDS to extend, sell, and implement Apriso’s FlexNet product.
Under the agreement, Apriso will provide the FlexNet platform, and EDS, a unit of Hewlett-Packard Co., will provide related implementation and business process management services. The two companies will target six vertical industries, said Apriso President and CEO Jim Henderson in an interview with Managing Automation: automotive, industrial products, aerospace & defense, rolled products (paper, metals, etc.), consumer goods, and life sciences.
The agreement signals an increased interest among large systems integrators like EDS in participating more directly in the market for MOM and MES software, according to Henderson. Until fairly recently, he said, most large integrators believed individual MOM and MES products targeted only narrow vertical industries.
“The big SIs had trouble wrapping their business around that,” he said.