Supply chain optimization firm Logility Inc. has acquired systems integrator AdapChain Inc. in a move designed to address a growing challenge for practitioners: Linking multiple software platforms to ensure data flows properly to support inventory movement.

Acquiring AdapChain extends Atlanta-based Logility's ability to deploy "innovative supply chain and retail optimization solutions more quickly and at a lower total cost of ownership than our industry peers," Logility President Allan Dow said in a statement.

West Chester, Pa.-based AdapChain touts its software templates as a simple way for companies to connect sophisticated enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to a wide range of logistics software platforms. "We have helped develop an innovative solution that turns the complexity of enterprisewide application integration into a quick, simple and repeatable process," AdapChain President Svenne Juul said in a statement.

Connecting multiple software platforms is an ongoing challenge for supply chain companies trying to keep up with trends like integrated business planning (IBP) and the Internet of Things (IoT), Logility says. A fully connected network must link complex systems from software providers such as Infor, JDA Software Group Inc., Microsoft, Oracle Corp., and SAP SE.

In a recent survey by DC Velocity and Boston-based consulting firm Nucleus Research Inc., 28 percent of logistics and supply chain managers called systems integration the biggest challenge they face in deploying supply chain software applications.

"Information has to follow inventory in the supply chain," said James A. Cooke, a supply chain management journalist, consultant, and author. That can be a major challenge when a company starts with input from an order management system (OMS) and tries to hand off that data flow to an ERP platform, transportation management system (TMS), warehouse management system (WMS), demand planning application, and inventory optimization system, Cooke said.

Those information handoffs are a major roadblock that delays the implementation of new software systems. "Buying this outfit, which already has a menu of pre-built templates, expedites that issue," Cooke said.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Logility said it would fold AdapChain's "AdapLink" tool into its stable of business optimization tools, renaming it "Logility Voyager AdapLink."