Caterpillar Venture Capital, a wholly owned subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc., has announced a strategic investment in Alight Inc., a San Francisco-based SaaS technology company that develops industry-specific solutions for financial forecasting and scenario analysis. The unique software has modules that are designed specifically for different industries, with mining and mortgage banking as the first two target industries.
Caterpillar has begun discussions with Alight Mining Solutions to develop enhanced solutions that will combine data from technology-enabled machines with financial forecasting software to help mining companies make more real-time business decisions.
Alight’s cloud-based products allow users to pull data from other systems, quickly run multiple scenarios to facilitate financial decision making and then create enterprise-level financial forecasts.
“We’re always looking to invest in new ways that could help Caterpillar’s customers improve their profitability, especially through the use of technology,” said Jim Hawkins, managing director of mining technology for Caterpillar. “Alight’s technologies can allow our customers to see the financial impact of a machine or technology purchases as well as operational decisions before they’re made.”
“We are thrilled to partner with Caterpillar and help bring new levels of innovation to the global mining industry,” said Michele McGovern, CEO of Alight Inc. “Caterpillar’s technology is making huge quantities of rich information available to its customers and our intention is to combine this data with Alight’s solutions so that data can be used to drive decision making to find greater profits and opportunities for growth.”
Like Cat MineStar, Alight’s mining offering was developed by mining industry experts, specifically for mining customers. Combining Alight’s software with Cat MineStar will allow production data such as tons-moved to be viewed in context of financial information such as costs and revenues, helping miners make assessments at the site level and analyze strategic opportunities throughout the enterprise.
“Our mining customers make decisions on very large capital investments, in market conditions that are constantly changing,” added Hawkins. “We believe that the solutions we are looking to develop with Alight could help them better understand the impact of these decisions on production and operations as well as on profit margins and cash flow.”
Cat MineStar, which is part of the Cat Connect group of technologies and services, helps customers deal with everyday challenges such as controlling costs, extending equipment life, and enhancing safety. Cat MineStar works with any brand of equipment helping customers leverage data across their existing machines, systems, and technologies to boost business results and gain competitive edge.
