Navis was acquired again!
On September 12, Navis, the industry’s top terminal operating system (TOS) supplier, changed its company again. In July 2021, Cargotec has completed the sale of its Navis to Accel-KKR. However, Navis changed the company again for more than a year. The main company was merged and integrated by Kaleris, a supply chain execution (SCE) company, to become a sub-brand. Comparing the frequent change of ownership of Navis with the recent news of port machinery giant Konecranes Group integrating another TOS and equipment control system (ECS) supplier TBA Group, in the era of container terminals turning to automation or semi-automation, TOS suppliers are faced with different choices.
By merging various supply chain software suppliers, Kaleris has initially assembled the puzzle of the entire supply chain and can provide supply chain data and visualization services for the entire chain. Other competitors in the same field lack operational data at the planning level of ships and container yards, and need to obtain some carrier data and public data, and use AI to build models to predict data such as operation data, such as predicting when the shipper will pick up the container and how to plan storage location of the container yards. Navis, which has the largest market share of TOS, can provide terminal data, such as real-time accurate data of ship space and container yards location, as well as container operation data, which has huge advantages.
Turning to supply chain visualization services is the new direction of the business for Navis. After being acquired by Accel-KKR, in November 2021, Navis proposed the next-generation TOS plan. One of the key changes is to transform TOS into a subscription system. Navis believes that its upgrade and maintenance services can reduce overall costs by optimizing resources. Accel-KKR has deep cloud service experience, and Navis joined Accel-KKR to join the frequent M&A competition in the field of supply chain visualization through more strategic mergers and acquisitions.
TBA, which was recently integrated by Konecranes Group, is actually retracing Navis’s way. Cargotec acquired Navis in 2011 to strengthen its ability to provide overall solutions for terminals. Konecranes’ integration of TBA is also based on combining TBA’s software with Konecranes. It can better provide one-stop solutions for automated container terminals and achieve the connection between the equipment, software, and services.
After Covid-19, all players in the supply chain are aware of the advantages of automated terminals and hope that the visualization platform can bring immediate changes. Both of them are actually in line with the new service needs, that is, one-stop or packaged. The core of the overall solution is to improve production efficiency through visualization of all aspects so that each operation link can be connected. TOS system suppliers are integrated with equipment suppliers to establish unique advantages in the field of automated terminals. Or integrate into a larger system and share a bigger cake by telling the story of supply chain visualization. Navis and TBA will take two different ways.
