Northwest Analytical, Inc. (NWA), a provider of statistical process control (SPC) software, announced that it has signed a mutually exclusive partnering agreement with CA-China Soft Software Technology Co., Ltd. (CA-CSS).

This agreement enables NWA to serve as the exclusive provider of SPC software to CA-CSS. CA-CSS will serve as the exclusive general agent to sell, service, and provide training and support for all NWA products in China. Silicon Valley Bank initiated the introductions that led to the business relationship and agreement. This agreement is effective immediately.

NWA and CA-CSS will deliver manufacturing software and services that it is hoped will enable companies to meet international product standards and compete both on a cost and quality basis. NWA's SPC software will be internationalized for the Asian market and integrated with CA-CSS technologies to bring manufacturing process analysis, monitoring, data collection and web-based reporting capabilities to the CA-CSS manufacturing systems offering.

The primary business of CA-CSS is to create, sell and support ES/1, a complete family of software solutions that addresses Supply Chain Execution (SCE) and supports many languages including Simple Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. ES/1 Manufacturing, one of the ES/1 families of products, offers a system for manufacturing enterprises to track customers and analyze key information. The ES/1 manufacturing system is integrated with various modules including finance, production scheduling and controlling, purchasing, sales, inventory, project design, quality controlling, project management, product assembly, and service management. It also includes an e-business system interface to provide an integrated solution for its users' enterprise management.