rimble Aquires Quantm for Pre-Design Construction Planning

Trimble announced recently that it has acquired privately-held Quantm International, Inc. and its subsidiary Quantm Ltd. of Australia in an all-cash transaction. Quantm is a leader in transportation route optimization software used for planning highways, railways, pipelines and canals. The innovative software system enables infrastructure planners to examine and select route corridors and alignments that simultaneously optimize construction costs, environmental restrictions, existing feature avoidance and legislative obligations. The improved solution for the proposed route results in significant reductions in project planning time and cost. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Trimble's Connected Construction Site strategy seeks to improve efficiency through a tighter integration of construction process information. Transportation route alignments generated by Quantm's software add another piece to the strategy by forming a closer link between the planning and design phases of a transportation project. Infrastructure owners, such as Departments or Ministries of Transportation, and the construction companies that support them can all benefit from Quantm's capabilities.

"Quantm is an industry leader for optimizing transportation route planning. The Quantm acquisition positions us to provide our customers with productivity enhancing products that cover more phases of a construction project than any other supplier," said Bryn Fosburgh, vice president responsible for Trimble's Engineering and Construction segment. "Quantm has successfully built a strong worldwide market position and has demonstrated profitable revenue growth."

"We are pleased to join Trimble," said Alan Griffiths, founder of Quantm. "The acquisition is an ideal fit. Now more customers around the world will have access to the advantages provided by Quantm's unique planning software."

Quantm will be reported within Trimble's Engineering and Construction business segment.

The Connected Construction Site

A goal of Trimble's Connected Construction Site strategy is to improve construction project management by providing easy integration of project data and customized status information to the construction professional in real time. Trimble has a range of solutions for the construction market including: design and data preparation, earthmoving grade control, site positioning, general and interior building and asset management. Through all phases of the construction process, Trimble provides tools to streamline work processes, minimize downtime and re-work. The Quantm system brings similar productivity enhancements to the planning, or pre-design, phase of a project and provides a seamless link to the design phase.

The Quantm Project Planning System

The speed of the Quantm system and its ability to deliver a range of alignments that meet defined constraints means that planners can now evaluate a large number of corridor and alignment options and model noise, travel time, vibration, user costs, fuel consumption or life-of-project costs. The system can also import or export data into CAD and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) packages when the project is ready to proceed to the design stage.

The Quantm system uses an advanced IT infrastructure, linked to the Internet, which enables project planners to take advantage of Quantm's unique technology from their desktop. The system is supported by a team that includes road and rail engineers, GIS technicians, transport researchers, mathematicians and system developers.