Crisp Buys EDI Specialist Integral Group

Retail industry open-data platform Crisp has acquired Canada-based Integral Group, which provides outsourced EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) services and helps clients integrate with APIs. Terms were not disclosed.

EDI is a standardised system for the electronic exchange between companies of business information and documents, including orders, delivery notes and invoices - developed as long ago as the 1980s. Integral Group works with those suppliers to the retail and manufacturing industries that are mandated to use EDI with their customers, managing and monitoring the movement of their EDI data - pushing files that are ready to send, and pulling files that are ready to be received; managing the frequency of connections; and ensuring files arrive when expected.

Crisp says the deal will mean CPG suppliers get a 'holistic view' of their retail business through the merging of retail point-of-sale and inventory data with ordering, shipment and invoicing data. Integral Group will complement Crisp's services for gathering, verifying and analysing data, and its platform which takes in complex sales data, standardizes it and delivers insights and alerts on sales, inventory levels, products and locations.

Crisp CEO and founder Are Traasdahl (pictured) comments: 'We are gaining a very talented team with deep experience supporting customers in the EDI space. Combining EDI, point-of-sale, and inventory data sets in one place can facilitate an entirely new, deeper set of insights to help brands optimize operations and realize new sales opportunities'.

Web sites: www.gocrisp.com and www.integralgroup.ca .