Real-time Yard Visibility integrated with Yard Management

Mont Tremblant, Canada, May-31-2007 - C3 Solutions, the world leader in yard management, and PINC Solutions, the leader in low-infrastructure, real-time visibility, announced today a strategic partnership to integrate PINC’s Yard Hound real-time visibility system with C3’s Yard Smart yard management solution. 
“We have always maintained that real-time trailer position data is a real value-add to our yard management system. But, in the past, the cost of this data has been too high for us to justify it to our clients,” says Greg Braun Vice President of Business Development at C3 Solutions. “The cost effectiveness of PINC’s solution makes standard passive RFID very attractive to our present and future customers.”
The combined solutions from C3 and PINC will be deployed as part of a yard management pilot project with a leading logistics and transportation provider during the summer of 2007. 
“We are very pleased with the way that C3 has completely integrated our technology into their yard management solution,” explains Aleks Gollu CEO of PINC Solutions. “With PINC integration into C3, customers with serious yard management issues can utilize cost effective yard visibility combined with the automation and optimization features available in C3’s Yard Smart for an even faster return on investment.”
C3 and PINC are presenting their integrated solution this week at the C3 user conference in Mont Tremblant.
About C3 - C3 is a market leader in innovative Yard Management solutions. With an international roster of high-profile clients ranging from Ford to Royal Mail to Canadian Tire Corporation C3’s Yard Smart software suite is the first to move beyond the typical rules-based model and implement smart-agent technology to solve the problems caused by today’s high-velocity logistics systems. Learn more at www.c3solutions.com.
About PINC Solutions - Founded in 2004, PINC is headquartered in Berkeley, California, and has numerous customers in North America. PINC has pioneered the use of passive RFID and MEMS-based sensors in determining the position of items, eliminating the needs for heavy, up-front infrastructure. For more information about PINC Solutions and the Yard Hound Product Suite, visit: www.pincsolutions.com.

C3 Contact: Marc Trudel (mtrudel@c3solutions.com, +1 514-315-3116)
PINC Solutions Contact: Farshid Arman (press@pincsolutions.com, +1 510-845-4900)

First ever solution for real-time yard visibility that does not require new infrastructure at the customer site 

BERKELEY, CA – April 26, 2007 – PINC Solutions, leader in low-infrastructure, real-time asset visibility, introduces the Yard Hound Product Suite.  Designed for rapid installation, Yard Hound uses inexpensive passive RFID tags to track the location and the status of trailers, traces the movements of the yard trucks, and provides a real-time picture of all yard activities via an intuitive, web-based application.  Optional components of Yard Hound Product Suite include: Yard Hound Director to communicate assignments to drivers, Reefer Monitor to observe the temperature and fuel levels of refrigerated units, and PINC Gate to expedite the check-in and check-out processes.
Combining advanced sensor and passive RFID technologies, PINC's solutions represent a fundamental shift in mobile asset tracking, asset visibility, and RTLS capabilities. PINC has secured top-tier customers, who are world leaders in transportation, manufacturing and retail. Today, these improved operations are proving the value and the effectiveness of the PINC approach. Customers of Yard Hound enjoy automatic yard checks, automatic alerts, automatic documentation for all yard activities, and numerous reports used for increasing operational efficiency.  The benefits of Yard Hound translate to an ROI in less than a year. 
About PINC Solutions – Founded in 2004, PINC is headquartered in Berkeley, California, and has many customers in North America.  PINC has pioneered the use of passive RFID and MEMS-based sensors in determining the position of items, eliminating the needs for heavy, up-front infrastructure.  For more information about PINC Solutions and the Yard Hound Product Suite, visit: www.pincsolutions.com.

Contact: Farshid Arman, PINC Solutions, 510-845-4900, press@pincsolutions.com

From The Wall Street Journal Online

By DANIEL ROSENBERG 

Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal.

Deep within Siemens AG, one of the world's largest companies, lies a tiny technology incubator.

In Berkeley, Calif., eight small companies, each with the financial backing of Siemens, are in the start-up stage. Siemens backs the companies -- most of which share space in the same building and some of which began with the proverbial "inventor-in-a-garage" status -- through a program it started six years ago called Technology to Business.

The program provides companies with seed-stage financing of around $500,000 and helps with early commercialization. In return, Siemens gets a percentage of each company and access to new technologies that can aid the German engineering giant's own businesses.

"TTB was created as a model to bring technology and innovation that are outside into Siemens," said Stefan Heuser, president and chief executive of TTB since last year. "It's an outside-in approach. We're like an early-stage investor."

The program looks for technologies that fit into Siemens's businesses, but doesn't prevent the small companies from eventually seeking outside venture financing and selling to other customers. The companies can move out on their own when they are ready. However, some entrepreneurs who hitch up with TTB do so knowing Siemens will make a solid customer for their products.

For instance, Amine Haoui, CEO of wireless-sensor company Sensys Networks, came aboard TTB two years ago, hoping Siemens would have a number of applications for his technology.

"I felt very strongly that, in our type of business, a partnership with a large corporation from the get-go would be very useful," said Mr. Haoui, whose company makes traffic-monitoring systems used by government agencies. "With Siemens being the dominant traffic vendor in the world, it made a lot of sense to me. We'd know the market a lot better and get faster access to customers."

Within two months of receiving financing from Siemens, Mr. Haoui and his team were getting a grand tour of Siemens's industrial divisions in Germany and the U.S. "We got access to people it would have taken two years to [meet] on our own," Mr. Haoui said.

Aleks Goellue, CEO of PINC Solutions, whose technology helps companies track products before they are shipped to customers, said it wasn't a difficult choice to couple with Siemens's TTB.

"Even though my previous start-up was funded with traditional venture capital from Day One, I preferred not to directly try to fund-raise" this time around, Mr. Goellue said. "Back in 1998, you could just present your idea. Now, VCs want a lot more traction," he said, referring to venture-capital investors.

Another advantage is that at the TTB facilities, Mr. Goellue said he is able to exchange ideas with both Siemens's employees and with people from other seed-stage firms whom he bumps into in the hallway.

In return for the seed-stage investment in Mr. Goellue's company, Siemens obtained an ownership stake and also will have contracts under which PINC will build certain products for Siemens. Although PINC plans to seek additional financing from traditional venture-capital firms, "the relationship with Siemens will stay even when we graduate out of TTB," Mr. Goellue said.

Could the relationship with Siemens become an impediment? Mr. Haoui doesn't think so.

"We have an investment from Siemens and a partnership with them, but there are no strings attached," he said. "There were instances where we talked with Siemens's competitors in the market and I had to explain to them that we could work with them if we wanted to."

Siemens's Mr. Heuser compares the difference between classic corporate research-and-development efforts and TTB to that between farming and hunting. "You work on technologies for years and develop things, just like developing a crop and harvesting it again and again," he said.

But with TTB, "The idea behind this was to go in a more hunting direction, looking for technologies outside of Siemens's R&D, looking for ideas from the start-up community and universities," Mr. Heuser said.

Siemens and a host of other companies have venture-capital arms, and 40 are corporate members of the National Venture Capital Association. But Siemens goes further than most with TTB and other programs, said David Spreng, managing partner with Crescendo Ventures and a board member of the NVCA.