iTAC Software AG (itacsoftware.com), a member of the Dürr Group, is strengthening its position in the area of digitalization/Industry 4.0 by acquiring 100% of the shares of Canadian company Cogiscan Inc. Cogiscan is a solution provider for the electronics manufacturing industry leading in connectivity and analytics, and will continue to operate independently. Cogiscan brings a deep domain expertise in the area of machine connectivity, analytics and factory automation software along with an extensive network of partnerships with leading machine and software vendors.
“Digitalization is one of the Dürr Group’s core competences and offers great potential for growth. With the acquisition of Cogiscan, we will be adding a strong team of experts and key technologies to the Digital Factory, which is a cross-divisional virtual organization for joint development of digital products within the Dürr Group,” explains Peter Bollinger, CEO of iTAC Software AG.
Founded in 1999 with headquarters in Bromont, Quebec, Canada, Cogiscan has a global footprint with over 450 customer sites across 50 countries. Over the past 22 years the company has grown to become a technology leader in the electronics manufacturing industry. The Cogiscan TTC (Track, Trace and Control) platform sets the foundation for the smart factory of the future and bridges the gap between the shop floor and enterprise systems such as MES, PLM and ERP.
Trend towards greater integration and connectivity
With the acquisition of Cogiscan, the Dürr Digital Factory is taking a strong position in an expanding segment: “The segment of machine connectivity is expected to yield superior growth rates as manufacturers face increasing pressure to accelerate their digitalization initiatives to better compete in a fast-changing global supply chain,” explains Peter Bollinger. “At the beginning of any digitalization roadmap is the automated collection of quality data and the need to integrate and share data across all machines and software applications, a challenge that is exacerbated by the large variety of data sources and interfaces associated with legacy equipment and systems.”
History of collaboration
iTAC Software AG and Cogiscan already have a long and successful history of collaboration. One of Cogiscan’s key business segment comes from a network of partnerships with software vendors that leverage the machine data collected by Cogiscan to increase the value and efficiency of their own solutions. This includes several leading MES providers that operate in the electronics manufacturing industry, among others. Cogiscan has collaborated for over 10 years with iTAC, feeding machine data to their MES for corporate customers.
In addition, Cogiscan has developed strong partnerships with leading machine vendors, providing connectivity and other TTC technology that is embedded in the machine vendor’s software portfolios.
Leveraging synergies and expansion of business areas
“Together with Cogiscan, we will be able to offer our customers a broader range of smart factory solutions. Cogiscan is a technological leader in machine connectivity and analytics solutions,” says Peter Bollinger.
Cogiscan will continue to operate as an independent company and will maintain their core business strategy which includes working with other machine and software companies outside of the Dürr Group. The integration within the Dürr Group offers a good basis for accelerating Cogiscan’s sales growth as they will have improved access to large global customers, and will be able to expand their business more quickly.
“Cogiscan will benefit from the Dürr Group’s reputation and resources in many ways. This merger accomplishes two significant goals for Cogiscan and for our customers. First it ensures the long-term future of Cogiscan through the financial support and stability offered by a large corporation. In addition, the synergies will accelerate the execution of our original vision. We feel that this is a perfect fit for both companies and we look forward to this new stage in our corporate history,” says Vincent Dubois, CEO of Cogiscan and co-founder of the company. Vincent Dubois along with the other co-founders and the management team will remain on board for several years as part of the transition plan.
