Leading North American Manufacturer of Building Products Selects

JOC Staff |
WATERLOO, Ontario — March 25, 2010 — Descartes Systems Group, a federated global logistics network, announced that Oldcastle, leading North American manufacturer of building products, is implementing Descartes’ transportation and private fleet management solutions to manage its delivery processes for its products and distribution groups.

Oldcastle was looking to improve the performance of its operations by improved management of its own dedicated fleet of vehicles and third-party delivery carriers. Oldcastle is implementing Descartes’ Transportation Manager, Route Planner and Automatic Vehicle Locator (AVL) solutions to manage its delivery processes. As part of the solution, Descartes’ Global Logistics Network™ (GLN) connects to Oldcastle’s trading partners to reliably exchange information.

Descartes solutions are designed to help companies, maximize the use of their assets, track vehicles in the field, reduce mileage driven, and reduce freight spend. Descartes’ solutions also help companies drive improvements in customer service through better on-time delivery percentage and single-call resolution.

“Descartes provides us with a solution that has a clear path to operational savings while reducing the complexity of our deliveries,” said Maria Ross, Vice-President, Logistics at Oldcastle. “With greater control over our delivery processes, we can more effectively manage the customer service experience. In addition, with Descartes hosting the solution, Oldcastle can continue to focus on its core competencies.”

“As organizations, like Oldcastle, strive to improve their processes and optimize their operations, technology implementation strategies based on results-driven methodologies are crucial to maximizing return on investment,” said Art Mesher, CEO at Descartes. “Our solutions enable organizations, like Oldcastle, to get rapid payback on their investment and identify opportunities for ongoing savings while simplifying and improving control and visibility of delivery operations.”

Oldcastle plans to implement Descartes’ solutions to interact with their telematics solution, to provide a streamlined, end-to-end offering that leverages Oldcastle’s existing investments.

To learn more about Descartes, the Oldcastle implementation and Descartes’ transportation management solutions, visit the 2010 National Private Truck Council (NPTC) Annual Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio from April 18-20 where Oldcastle is a key note speaker and Descartes is exhibiting at booth 521.

About Oldcastle

Oldcastle, Inc. is the North American arm of CRH, plc. One of the world’s leading building products and materials companies based in Dublin, Ireland. Oldcastle, Inc. is comprised of six Product Groups: Oldcastle Materials, Oldcastle Architectural, Oldcastle Precast, Oldcastle Glass, Oldcastle Distribution and Oldcastle Construction Accessories. Oldcastle operations include more than 1700 locations in 50 states, four Canadian provinces, with more than 45,000 employees. For more information visit www.oldcastle.com

About Descartes

Descartes (TSX: DSG) (NASDAQ: DSGX) is making the world a better place by enabling global organizations with logistics-intensive businesses to save money by improving the productivity and performance of their operations. Underlying Descartes’ offerings is the Descartes Global Logistics Network (GLN), one of the world’s most extensive multi-modal business application networks. As a federated platform, the Descartes GLN combines with component-based ‘nano’ sized applications to provide messaging services between logistics trading partners, shipment management services to help manage third party carriers and private fleet management services for organizations of all sizes. Descartes’ solutions and services deliver results by enabling organizations around the world to reduce administrative costs, billing cycles, fleet size, contract carrier costs, and mileage driven; improve pickup and delivery reliability; and optimize working capital through fleet visibility. Descartes’ hosted, transactional and packaged solutions deliver repeatable, measurable results and fast time-to-value. Descartes customers include an estimated 1,600 ground carriers and more than 90 airlines, 30 ocean carriers, 900 freight forwarders and third-party providers of logistics services, and hundreds of manufacturers, retailers, distributors, private fleet owners and regulatory agencies. The company has more than 400 employees and is based in Waterloo, Ontario, with operations in Amsterdam, Atlanta, Copenhagen, Eindhoven, Gent, Heverlee, Lier, Namestovo, Pittsburgh, Ottawa, Montreal, Miami, Washington DC, Derby, London, Silver Spring, Stockholm, Suzhou, Shanghai, Tokyo, Toronto, and Zilina. For more information, visit www.descartes.com.