BANGALORE: HCL Technologies Ltd (HCL), a provider in IT services, today announced that it has entered into a three-year contract with MJ Logistic Services Limited, a third-party logistics (3PL) solutions provider in India.

The contract will enable MJ to focus on its core business, manage the growing complexities of its logistics operations, reduce its cost and enhance inventory visibility, said a press release.

MJ is setting up a logistics centre at Palwal on Delhi-Agra highway and HCL would provide end-to-end integrated services for MJ including implementation, support, hosting, monitoring and VSAT connectivity to extend the capabilities of the upcoming facility, said the release.

HCL, as a reseller of Sterling Commerce, will also implement Sterling Warehouse Management System (WMS) and Sterling Director Solutions at MJ.

MJ will use Gentran, an electronic data interchange (EDI) and data translation solutions in the industry, for their business-to-business (B2B) communication needs, the release added.

“Justifying warehouse management investments and the challenges of its implementation have been long-standing bottlenecks for seamless integration of 3PL offerings with customers IT systems,” said Anil Arora, managing director, M J Logistic Services Ltd.

“MJ has addressed these issues by partnering with HCL and investing upfront in a world-class product from Sterling WMS.”

He said this will ensure superior logistics services through real-time inventory visibility using Radio Frequency (RF) technology and customer-specific Management Information System (MIS) and alerts.

“The overall 3PL market in India accounts for less than 20 per cent, compared to more than 40 per cent in developed countries. There is a huge potential for IT investments by companies such as MJ as they develop state-of-the-art warehouse operations for multiple users,” said Sidhartha Chowdhury, vice president and global head, Retail and Logistics, HCL Technologies.

Through this relationship, HCL’s Retail Practice would orchestrate infrastructure and business process outsourcing services, thereby adding value to MJ's business at the point of sale and throughout the entire value chain, added the release