Real-time logistics software vendor Global Logistics Technologies Inc. has revealed a partnership that lets it offer the kind of end-to-end real-time international logistics package many companies need to move into global business-to-business. G-Log has formed a partnership with NextLinx Corp., a vendor that provides software used to manage the sticky, and tricky, government requirements for moving freight between the United States and other nations.

Under the partnership, the two companies will integrate their products and pitch the joint offering to each other's customers. G-Log's software is used to plan and execute multimodal, multilegged shipments. NextLinx's products ensure that the exports and imports of more than 19,000 product categories are properly licensed and that taxes and other government charges are calculated correctly. The NextLinx software also screens shipments against a U.S. government list of banned people and countries, and it creates required export, import, and commercial documentation. NextLinx uses costs such as shipping and tariffs to determine the final "landed cost" for shipments.

ARC Advisory Group analyst Adrian Gonzalez says the joint offering lets G-Log position its software as a technology platform for global real-time logistics and pits the joint offering against much more expensive custom integrations of logistics and import-export management software products. "The NextLinx software is the piece of the global-logistics puzzle that was missing from G-Log's software products," Gonzalez says. "NextLinx lets you see, 'Yes, I can ship this product this from this place. Here is the kind of paperwork I need for customs,' and G-Log optimizes the move."

The joint offering, which will be available in October, is available as a hosted service by G-Log or can be installed internally on a company's own Unix hardware.

--Steve Konicki