The recent announcement by GXS and Inovis of their intent to merge will not result in a significant realignment of the B2B service provider space, but it will make the largest provider evener bigger when the current largest provider (GXS) combines with the fourth largest provider (Inovis).

What will each vendor gain from the merger? For GXS, the initial answer is new customers. Even factoring in existing customer overlap, GXS stands to gain an additional 10,000 or more new customers. Beyond that, GXS will now be able to provide its customers with access to the extensive retail expertise that Inovis obtained via its acquisition of QRS several years ago. In particular, the Inovis Catalogue has been instrumental in helping many organizations with their retail data synchronization needs. GXS also gains the expertise of Inovis’ experienced and proven development team.