Blue Yonder’s acquisition of One Network is a done deal

Following a March announcement in which it said it acquired Dallas-based One Network Enterprises (One Network), a global provider of intelligent control towers and its Digital Supply Chain Network platform, which focuses on driving demand, supply, and logistics management effectiveness and efficiency, for $839 million, Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Blue Yonder, a provider of AI-driven and end-to-end supply chain management services, recently announced that the deal has been made official.

Blue Yonder officials said that going back to the fourth quarter of 2023, the company has invested approximately $1 billion with the acquisitions of Doddle, flexis AG, and One Network—with the company citing these acquisitions as a key cog in its “intent to transform the global supply chain network.”

The company added that bringing One Network into the fold provides its shipper customers with the ability to collaborate and share data—from inventory levels to raw and finished goods materials movement—in real time across all trading partners up and down the supply chain.  When the deal was initially announced in March, Blue Yonder said that upon completion of this deal, the company will be able to provide its customers with what it called a unified, end-to-end supply chains ecosystem and be well positioned to serve its customers’ needs across planning execution, commerce, and networks.

“One Network’s industry-leading commercial technology will seamlessly be integrated into the Blue Yonder Platform. Their supply chain network and intelligent control tower deliver superpowered insights to businesses looking to fortify their supply chains,” said Duncan Angove, CEO, Blue Yonder, in a statement. “Our customers can boost visibility, agility and speed thanks to a single source of truth provided by the Blue Yonder Platform and the digital network, all enhanced by our AI assistants, solvers and predictions. This allows customers to see issues both downstream and upstream in real time, so they can avoid disruptions and make better decisions. From One Network’s capabilities to its forward-looking mission, the company perfectly embodies Blue Yonder’s vision to transform the supply chain.” 

What’s more, Blue Yonder said that through this acquisition, the company can provide its customers with various benefits, including: a multi-enterprise, multi-tier network ecosystem; artificial intelligence (AI)-powered supply chain assistants to identify, monitor, analyze, and resolve problems; and a simplified process to onboard and work with trading partners.

“Real-time inventory and capacity views help customers match supply and demand, detect and resolve problems, and orchestrate resources across their network of trading partners,” it said. “One Network will continue to independently service and provide tailored technology solutions to its government customers.”  

The company added that this deal is increasing Blue Yonder’s Dallas presence, where it has been hiring extensively to support its momentum, while also designating Dallas as its Global Innovation Center. This follows its annual customer conference held in May, ICON, where it announced a new AI Innovation Studio in Dallas in which it si hosting design-led AI Agent workshops with customers. And the company added that it plans to add a state-of-the-art Customer Experience Center in Dallas.

In a March interview LM, Blue Yonder Chief Innovation Officer Andrea Morgan-Vandome explained that this deal serves as a key part of the company’s strategy to create what she called world-class supply chain solutions, touching every node in the supply chain.

“For us, we obviously had the end-to-end solutions in terms of planning, transportation, and warehouse management,” she said. “And we've been heavily investing in AI to be able to make the smart decision, so for what was missing for us, was always then the network that underpins that. “It has been something we've been looking at and working on for about the last 18 months to see what would be a good and the right network for us to take a look at, because if you think about where we going, if we truly want to get to this autonomous supply chain over time, it's going to really take these end-to-end solutions, and it's going to take AI at scale. But it is also about having all of these multiple enterprises and multi-tier enterprises on a network so that we can truly sort of have visibility and information sharing and be able to make some smart decisions and then action them across the supply chain. It's a very core part of our strategy.”

When asked how bringing One Network into the fold benefits Blue Yonder’s customers, Morgan-Vandome said that one key benefit will be that it will allow them to accelerate their decision-making, noting that there is currently visibility from materials and for loads, routes, and capacity, collectively enabling customers to see things earlier and make decisions.

As an example, she said if a customer has a shortage for a particular material, that leads to the question if the customer can source it from a different spot, expedite it, or rethink how to do it? That is something which previously may have taken more time to have visibility into, but now with the respective networks connected, it provides decision-making advantages.

Another key benefit she cited is the ability to share data across multi-tiered supply chains, including suppliers and carriers, which she said provides more insights to potential disruptions and the ability to manage those risks.