Form 40-F DESCARTES SYSTEMS GROUP For: Jan 31

Exhibit 99.1

The Descartes Systems Group Inc.

Annual Information Form

APRIL 7th, 2021

Information contained herein is provided as at January 31, 2021 and is in United States (“US”) dollars, unless otherwise indicated.

Our Annual Information Form (“AIF”) contains references to The Descartes Systems Group Inc. using the words “Descartes,” “we,” “us,” “our” and similar words and the reader is referred to using the words “you,” “your” and similar words.

This AIF also refers to our fiscal years. Our fiscal year commences on February 1^st of each year and ends on January 31^st of the following year. Our fiscal year that ended on January 31, 2021 is referred to as “fiscal 2021,” “2021” or using similar words. Our fiscal year that ended on January 31, 2020 is referred to as “fiscal 2020,” “2020” or using similar words. Other fiscal periods are referenced by the applicable year during which the fiscal period ends. For example, 2022 refers to the annual period ending January 31, 2022 and the “fourth quarter of 2021” refers to the quarter ending January 31, 2021.

You should read the AIF in conjunction with our audited consolidated financial statements for 2021 and the management’s discussion and analysis thereon (“MD&A”). We prepare and file our consolidated financial statements and MD&A in US dollars and in accordance with US generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”).

We have prepared the AIF with reference to Form 51-102F2, which sets out the AIF disclosure requirements and which was established under National Instrument 51-102 “Continuous Disclosure Obligations” (“NI 51-102”) of the Canadian Securities Administrators.

Additional information about us, including copies of our continuous disclosure materials such as our MD&A, is available on our website at http://www.descartes.com, through the EDGAR website at http://www.sec.gov or through the SEDAR website at http://www.sedar.com.

Certain statements made in this AIF, as well as the MD&A referenced herein, constitute forward-looking information for the purposes of applicable securities laws (“forward looking statements”), including, but not limited to: statements in the “Trends / Business Outlook” section and statements regarding our expectations concerning future revenues and earnings, including potential variances from period to period; our expectations regarding the cyclical nature of our business; mix of revenues and potential variances from period to period; our assessment of the current and future potential impact of the current global pandemic being experienced in respect of the Covid-19 virus (the “Pandemic”) and related public health protection measures on our business, results of operations and financial condition; our plans to focus on generating services revenues yet to continue to allow customers to elect to license technology in lieu of subscribing to services; our expectations on losses of revenues and customers; our baseline calibration; our ability to keep our operating expenses at a level below our baseline revenues; our future business plans and business planning process; allocation of purchase price for completed acquisitions; our expectations regarding future restructuring charges and cost-reduction activities; expenses, including amortization of intangible assets and stock-based compensation; goodwill impairment tests and the possibility of future impairment adjustments; capital expenditures; acquisition-related costs; our liability with respect to various claims and suits arising in the ordinary course; any commitments referred to in the “Commitments, Contingencies and Guarantees” section of our MD&A; our intention to actively explore future business combinations and other strategic transactions; our liability under indemnification obligations; our reinvestment of earnings of subsidiaries back into such subsidiaries; our dividend policy; the sufficiency of capital to meet working capital, capital expenditure, debt repayment requirements and our anticipated growth strategy; our ability to raise capital; our adoption of certain accounting standards; and other matters related to the foregoing. When used in this document, the words “believe,” “plan,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “continue,” “may,” “will,” “should” or the negative of such terms and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and are based on assumptions that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected. The material assumptions made in making these forward-looking statements include the following: Descartes’ ability to avoid the impact of network failures, information

security breaches or other cyber-security threats, or any significant disruptions in the movement of freight or a decline in shipment volumes including as a result of the Pandemic or other contagious illness outbreaks, a deterioration of general economic conditions or instability in the financial markets accompanied by a decrease in spending by our customers; Descartes' ability to successfully identify and execute on acquisitions and to integrate acquired businesses and assets, and to predict expenses associated with and revenues from acquisitions; global shipment volumes continuing to increase at levels consistent with the average growth rates of the global economy; countries continuing to implement and enforce existing and additional customs and security regulations relating to the provision of electronic information for imports and exports; countries continuing to implement and enforce existing and additional trade restrictions and sanctioned party lists with respect to doing business with certain countries, organizations, entities and individuals; our continued operation of a secure and reliable business network; the continued availability of the data and content that is utilized in the delivery of services made available over our network; relative stability of currency exchange rates and interest rates; equity and debt markets continuing to provide us with access to capital; our ability to develop solutions that keep pace with the continuing changes in technology; and our continued compliance with third party intellectual property rights. While management believes these assumptions to be reasonable under the circumstances, they may prove to be inaccurate. Such forward-looking statements also involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements of, or developments in our business or industry, to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements or developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.  Such factors include, but are not limited to, the factors discussed under the heading “Certain Factors That May Affect Future Results” in the MD&A which is included in our Annual Report to the Shareholders for the fiscal year ended January 31^st, 2021, and in other documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Ontario Securities Commission and other securities commissions across Canada from time to time. If any of such risks actually occur, they could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. In that case, the trading price of our common shares could decline, perhaps materially. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Forward-looking statements are provided for the purpose of providing information about management’s current expectations and plans relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. Except as required by applicable law, we do not undertake or accept any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect any change in our expectations or any change in events, conditions, assumptions or circumstances on which any such statements are based.

ITEM 2

CORPORATE STRUCTURE

 

 

Descartes was continued under the Canada Business Corporations Act on July 5, 2006. On July 31, 2006, Descartes was amalgamated under the Canada Business Corporations Act pursuant to an amalgamation between Descartes and ViaSafe Inc. On February 1, 2010, Descartes was amalgamated under the Canada Business Corporations Act pursuant to an amalgamation between Descartes and Scancode Systems Inc. (“Scancode”). On February 1, 2010, Descartes was amalgamated under the Canada Business Corporations Act pursuant to an amalgamation between Descartes and 7322267 Canada Inc. On February 1, 2012, Descartes was amalgamated under the Canada Business Corporations Act pursuant to an amalgamation between Descartes and 882976 Ontario Inc.  On March 31, 2021, Descartes was amalgamated under the Canada Business Corporations Act pursuant to an amalgamation between Descartes and PinPoint GPS Solutions Inc..

The Descartes Systems Group Inc. head office and registered office is located at 120 Randall Drive, Waterloo, Ontario, N2V 1C6 and our general corporate phone number is (519) 746-8110.

 

 

We beneficially own, control and/or direct 100% of all voting, share or membership interests in our material subsidiaries. Our material subsidiaries, determined as at January 31, 2021, are as follows:

ITEM 3

GENERAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE BUSINESS

We bring together networks, applications, global trade content, and collaborative multi-modal logistics communities in ways that improve the productivity, performance and security of logistics and supply chain operations. Customers use our modular, cloud-based and data content solutions to route, schedule, track and measure delivery resources; plan, allocate and execute shipments; rate, audit and pay transportation invoices; access and analyze global trade data; research and perform trade tariff and duty calculations; file customs and security documents for imports and exports; comply with trade regulations, and complete numerous other logistics processes. Our pricing model provides our customers with flexibility in purchasing our solutions either on a subscription, transactional or perpetual license basis. We also occasionally act as a reseller of hardware devices from third party suppliers which are used by our customers in connection with their transportation and logistics operations and which provide data that may be relevant to our cloud-based solutions. Our primary focus is on serving transportation providers (air, ocean and truck modes), logistics service providers (including third-party logistics providers, freight forwarders, freight brokers, and customs brokers) and manufacturers, retailers, distributors, and business service providers. For these organizations, logistics is either a key or a defining part of their own product or service offering, or for which our solutions can provide an opportunity to reduce costs, improve service levels or support growth by optimizing the use of assets and information.

The Market

Logistics is the management of the flow of resources between a point of origin and a point of destination – processes that move items (such as goods, people, information) from point A to point B. Supply chain management is broader than logistics and includes the sourcing, procurement, conversion and storage of resources for consumption by an enterprise. Logistics and supply chain management have been evolving as companies are increasingly seeking automation and real-time control of their supply chain activities. We believe companies are looking for integrated solutions for managing inventory in transit, conveyance units, people, data and business documents.

We believe logistics-intensive organizations are seeking to reduce operating costs, differentiate themselves, improve margins and better serve customers. Global trade and transportation processes are often manual and complex to manage. This is a consequence of the growing number of business partners participating in companies’ global supply chains and a lack of standardized business processes.

Additionally, global sourcing, logistics outsourcing, imposition of additional customs and regulatory requirements and changes in day-to-day business requirements are adding to the overall complexities that companies face in planning and executing in their supply chains. Whether a shipment is delayed at the border, a customer changes an order or a breakdown occurs on the road, there are increasingly more issues that can significantly impact the execution of fulfillment schedules and associated costs.

The rise of ecommerce has heightened these challenges for many suppliers with end-customers increasingly demanding narrower order-to-fulfillment periods, lower prices and greater flexibility in scheduling and rescheduling deliveries. End-customers also want real-time updates on delivery status, adding considerable burden to supply chain management as process efficiency is balanced with affordable service.

In this market, the movement and sharing of data between parties involved in the logistics process is equally important to the physical movement of goods. Manual, fragmented and distributed logistics solutions are often proving inadequate to address the needs of operators. Connecting manufacturers and suppliers to carriers on an individual, one-off basis is too costly, complex and risky for organizations dealing with many trading partners. Further, many of these solutions do not provide the flexibility required to efficiently accommodate varied processes for organizations to remain competitive. We believe this presents an opportunity for logistics technology providers to unite this highly fragmented community and help customers improve efficiencies in their operations.

As the market continues to change, we have been evolving to meet our customers’ needs. While the rate of adoption of newer logistics and supply chain management technologies is increasing, a large number of organizations still have manual business processes. We have been educating our prospects and customers on the value of connecting to trading partners through our Global Logistics Network (“GLN”) and automating, as well as standardizing, multi-party business processes. We believe that our target customers are increasingly looking for a single source, neutral, network-based solution provider who can help them manage the end-to-end shipment – from researching global trade information, to the booking of a shipment, to the tracking of that shipment as it moves, to the regulatory compliance filings to be made during the move and, finally, to the settlement and audit of the invoice.

Additionally, regulatory initiatives mandating electronic filing of shipment information with customs authorities require companies to automate aspects of their shipping processes to remain compliant and competitive. Our customs compliance technology helps shippers, transportation providers, freight forwarders and other logistics intermediaries to securely and electronically file shipment and tariff/duty information with customs authorities and self-audit their own efforts. Our technology also helps carriers and freight forwarders efficiently coordinate with customs brokers and agencies to expedite cross-border shipments. While many compliance initiatives started in the US, compliance has now become a global issue with significantly more international shipments crossing several borders on the way to their final destinations.

Increasingly, data and content have become central to supply chain planning and execution. The review of people, goods, services and/or commodities against comprehensive lists of restricted or sanctioned parties published by governments and international organizations has become an essential compliance requirement as the penalties for doing business with sanctioned parties can be far-reaching and severe. Our content and compliance solutions help simplify and automate the screening processes.

Complex international supply chains are also affected by logistics service provider performance, capacity, and productivity, as well as regulatory frameworks such as free trade agreements, and trade and trade sanctions. We believe our global trade data, denied party screening, trade regulations and free-trade agreement and duty rate and calculation solutions help customers improve their sourcing, compliance, landed-cost, and transportation lane and provider selection processes.

Solutions

Descartes’ Logistics Technology Platform unites a growing global community of logistics-focused parties, allowing them to transact business while leveraging a broad array of applications designed to help logistics-intensive businesses thrive.

The Logistics Technology Platform fuses our GLN, an extensive logistics network covering multiple transportation modes, with a broad array of modular, interoperable web and wireless logistics management solutions. Designed to help accelerate time-to-value and increase productivity and performance for businesses of all sizes, the Logistics Technology Platform leverages the GLN’s multimodal logistics community to enable companies to quickly and cost-effectively connect and collaborate.

Descartes’ GLN, the underlying foundation of the Logistics Technology Platform, manages the flow of data and documents that track and control inventory, assets and people in motion. Designed expressly for logistics operations, it is native to the particularities of different transportation modes and country borders. As a state-of-the-art messaging network with wireless capabilities, the GLN helps manage business processes in real-time and in-motion. Its capabilities go beyond logistics, supporting common commercial transactions, regulatory compliance documents, and customer specific needs.

The GLN extends its reach using interconnect agreements with other general and logistics-specific networks, to offer companies access to a wide array of trading partners. With the flexibility to connect and collaborate in unique ways, companies can effectively route or transform data to and from partners and deploy additional Descartes solutions on the GLN. The GLN allows “low tech” partners to act and respond with “high tech” capabilities and connect to the transient partners that exist in many logistics operations. This inherent adaptability creates opportunities to develop logistics business processes that can help customers differentiate themselves from their competitors.

Descartes offers a wide array of modular, cloud-based, interoperable web and wireless supply chain and logistics management applications. These solutions embody Descartes’ deep domain expertise, not merely “check box” functionality. These solutions deliver value for a broad range of logistics intensive organizations, whether they purchase transportation, run their own fleet, operate globally or locally, or work across air, ocean or ground transportation. Descartes’ comprehensive suite of solutions includes:

The Descartes applications forming part of the Logistics Technology Platform are modular and interoperable to allow organizations the flexibility to deploy them quickly within an existing portfolio of solutions. Implementation is streamlined because these solutions use web-native or wireless user interfaces and are pre-integrated with the GLN. With interoperable and multi-party solutions, Descartes’ solutions are designed to deliver functionality that can enhance a logistics operation’s performance and productivity both within the organization and across a complex network of partners.

Descartes’ expanding global trade intelligence offering unites systems and people with trade information to enable organizations to work smarter by making more informed supply chain and logistics decisions. Our content solutions can help customers research and analyze global trade movements, regulations and trends; reduce the risk of transacting with denied parties; increase trade compliance rates; optimize sourcing, procurement, and business development strategies; and minimize duty spend.

Descartes’ GLN community members enjoy extended command of operations and accelerated time-to-value relative to many alternative logistics solutions. Given the inter-enterprise nature of logistics, quickly gaining access to partners is paramount. For this reason, Descartes has focused on growing a community that strategically attracts and retains relevant logistics parties. Upon joining the GLN community, many companies find that a number of their trading partners are already members, with an existing connection to the GLN. This helps to minimize the time required to integrate Descartes’ logistics management applications and to begin realizing results. Descartes is committed to continuing to expand community membership. Companies that join the GLN community or extend their participation find a single place where their entire logistics network can exist regardless of the range of transportation modes, the number of trading partners or the variety of regulatory agencies.

 

Our origins were in providing logistics-focused software designed to optimally plan and manage routes for direct delivery and retail customers with private fleets. Supply chain management has evolved as companies across industry verticals have increasingly sought real-time control over their supply chain. We have established a network-based business model and are consolidating technology to provide our

customers with a shared-services environment that assists our customers in gathering and exchanging source data for logistics. We have also designed value-added services that enable shippers, transportation companies and logistics intermediaries to use that information to make better business decisions and deliver better service to their own customers.

Key developments in our business over the last three fiscal years, described beginning with the most recent, are as follows:

Fiscal 2021 and Part of Fiscal 2022 through to April 7th, 2021

On March 1, 2021, we announced the acquisition of Vitadex Solutoins LLC dba QuestaWeb (“QuestaWeb”) a leading provider of foreign trade zone (“FTZ”) and customs compliance solutions based in New Jersey, USA.   QuestaWeb’s solutions allow logistics service providers and importers to automate processes related to US Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) regulatory requirements for operating an FTZ in the United States and to otherwise comply with other customs filing requirements.  The total purchase price for the acquisition was approximately US$36 million satisfied from cash on-hand.

On November 6, 2020, we acquired ShipTrack Inc. (“ShipTrack”) a leading provider of ecommerce final mile solutions based in Ottawa, Canada.  ShipTrack’s solutions help customers automate dispatch, update shipment status and estimated time of arrival and eliminate paper-based delivery processes. The ShipTrack solutions are particularly well-suited for the ecommerce home delivery, parcel delivery and medical courier markets, providing a platform to manage the processes related to final-mile deliveries.  The total up-front purchase price for the acquisition was approximately US$19 million, which was funded from cash on-hand, plus potential performance-based consideration of up to an additional US$19 million over the next two fiscal years.

On July 8, 2020, we filed a final short-form base shelf prospectus, allowing us to offer and issue the following securities: (i) common shares; (ii) preferred shares; (iii) senior or subordinated unsecured debt securities; (iv) subscription receipts; (v) warrants; and (vi) securities comprised of more than one of the common shares, preferred shares, debt securities, subscription receipts and/ or warrants offered together as a unit. These securities may be offered separately or together, in separate series, in amounts, at prices and on terms to be set forth in one or more shelf prospectus supplements. The aggregate initial offering price of securities that could be sold by us (or certain of our current or future shareholders) pursuant to this base shelf prospectus during the 25-month period that the base shelf prospectus, including any amendments thereto, remains valid is limited to US$1 billion.

On June 10, 2020, we acquired Cracking Logistics Limited dba Kontainers (“Kontainers”) a leading provider of client-facing digital freight execution platforms based in the United Kingdom. Kontainers’ solutions enable a fully digitized solution for carriers, freight-forwarders and third-party logistics providers when quoting and booking freight. The total up-front purchase price for the acquisition was approximately US$5.2 million, net of cash acquired, which was funded from cash on-hand, plus potential performance-based consideration of up to an additional US$6 million over the next two fiscal years.

On May 28, 2020, we announced the election of two new directors to our Board of Directors at our annual meeting of shareholders held that day. Deepak Chopra, former President and CEO of Canada Post Corporation and Chris Muntwyler, a former executive of Swiss Air and DHL Express, were welcomed to our Board of Directors.   David Beatson retired from our Board of Directors at that time.

In May 2020 we announced that we were undertaking a restructuring of our overall global operations to reduce costs and strengthen our financial position in light of uncertainty at that time arising from the emergence of the Pandemic. The restructuring included the reduction of our global workforce by approximately 5% and the closure of several office facilities.  We incurred $2.3 million in restructuring charges in fiscal 2021 related to the restructuring and the restructuring plan was substantially completed within fiscal 2021.

In March of 2020 the global Pandemic was declared by the World Health Organization. Businesses in many countries around the globe were required to close, or materially alter, their day-to-day operations for

various periods of time following this development due to government-ordered or recommended shut-downs and/or “shelter-in-place”, or equivalent, restrictions on individuals and businesses which impacted the manner in which many businesses operated. During the period of March and April 2020 we implemented measures that allowed our employees to work remotely from home locations and for us to continue to operate our business and service our customers during the Pandemic.  In the first few months following the declaration of the Pandemic we observed some declines in the shipment volumes across our network through various modes of transportation and became aware of some customers who reduced or temporarily suspended operations and were otherwise experiencing financial hardship in their business that may have temporarily or permanently impacted their demand for our products and services.   Through the balance of Fiscal 2021, we observed that most of the shipment volumes on our network returned to levels close to historical volumes.

On February 21, 2020, we acquired Peoplevox Limited (“Peoplevox”) a leading provider of cloud-based ecommerce warehouse management solutions (“eWMS”) based in London, England. Peoplevox’s web-based eWMS and ecommerce fulfillment solutions help customers around the world connect to webshop front ends, translate order information into a mobile-device driven pick and pack process within a warehouse and then feed parcel delivery systems for shipment execution. The total purchase price for the acquisition was approximately US$24.1 million, net of cash acquired, satisfied from a combination of cash on-hand and Descartes’ existing acquisition line of credit.

Fiscal 2020

On August 20, 2019, we acquired BestTransport.com Inc. (“BestTransport”), an Ohio-based operator of a cloud-based transportation management system focused on flatbed-intensive manufacturers and distributors. By adding the BestTransport solution to the Descartes GLN, Descartes is better able to offer its additional solutions to the community of customers serviced by BestTransport, including Descartes’ visibility solutions and capacity matching solutions. The total purchase price for the acquisition was approximately US$11.2 million, net of working capital acquired, which was funded from Descartes’ existing acquisition line of credit.

On June 27, 2019, we acquired a group of companies comprising the business of STEPcom (“STEPcom”), a leading European business-to-business (“B2B”) supply chain integration network provider based in Switzerland. STEPcom services a community of more than 600 customers who use the STEPcom B2B platform to automate supply chain processes. The total purchase price for the acquisition was approximately US$19.6 million which was funded from Descartes’ existing acquisition line of credit.

On June 10, 2019, we completed a public offering of common shares in the United States and Canada at a price of $35.50 per common share pursuant to the short-form base shelf prospectus (described below under the “Fiscal 2019” heading) and related prospectus supplement filed in connection with the offering. The total offering of 6,900,000 common shares included the exercise in full by the underwriters of the 15% over-allotment option, for aggregate gross proceeds to Descartes of $244,950,000.

On May 10, 2019, we acquired Core Transport Technologies NZ Limited (“Core”), a New Zealand-based operator of an electronic transportation network that provides global air carriers and ground handlers with shipment scanning and tracking solutions. The Core acquisition adds to the breadth of solutions that Descartes can offer to its global air carrier customers and is complementary to Descartes’ previous acquisition of Velocity Mail. The total up-front purchase price for the acquisition was approximately US$21 million, which was funded from Descartes existing acquisition line of credit, plus potential performance-based consideration of up to an additional US$9 million over the next two fiscal years.

On February 12, 2019, we acquired the businesses run by the Management Systems Resources Inc. group of companies operating under the names “Visual Compliance”, “eCustoms” and “MSR” (collectively, “Visual Compliance”) pursuant to a Purchase and Sale Agreement (the “Purchase Agreement”) entered into on January 27, 2019 with MSR Customs & Commodity Tax Group, Management Systems Resources Inc, MSR International Inc. and MSR Customs Corporation (collectively, the “Sellers”). The Visual Compliance transaction involved a total purchase price of approximately $250 million, which was satisfied in part by way of approximately $9 million in common shares of Descartes and the balance of approximately $240

million paid in cash, primarily drawn from our amended and restated revolving credit facility as referenced below. The Company filed a Material Change Report in respect of the transaction on www.sedar.com on February 7, 2019 and a Business Acquisition Report on April 29, 2019.

Fiscal 2019

On January 28, 2019, we announced that we had amended and increased our existing US $150 million senior secured revolving credit facility to a US $350 million revolving operating credit facility pursuant to the Third Amended and Restated Credit Agreement dated as of January 25, 2019 among inter alia Descartes and certain parties advising Bank of Montreal (“BMO”) as Arranger, Sole Bookrunner and Administrative Agent (the “Credit Facility”), with BMO acting as sole lead and arranger for the increased credit facility. The Credit Facility is available for general corporate purposes, including the financing of ongoing working capital needs and acquisitions, including the Visual Compliance transaction. With the approval of the lenders, the Credit Facility can be further expanded to a total of US $500 million. The Credit Facility has a five-year maturity with no fixed repayment dates prior to the end of the five-year term ending in January 2024. Borrowings under the Credit Facility are secured by a first charge over substantially all of Descartes’ assets.

On August 21, 2018, we acquired PinPoint GPS Solutions, Inc. (“PinPoint”), a Toronto, Ontario based provider of fleet-tracking and mobile-workforce solutions. PinPoint is primarily a reseller of technology solutions that gather real-time location and performance information on trucks and other mobile assets, which information can be used in several other Descartes applications. The total up-front purchase price for the acquisition was approximately CAD $15 million, which was satisfied from a combination of cash on-hand and CAD $2 million in common shares of Descartes, plus potential performance-based consideration of up to an additional CAD $3 million.

On June 22, 2018, we acquired substantially all of the assets of Velocity Mail, LLC (“Velocity Mail”). Velocity Mail is a US-based operator of an electronic transportation network that provides global air carriers with mail and parcel shipment scanning and tracking solutions. The Velocity Mail acquisition added to the breadth of solutions that Descartes can offer to its global air carrier customers and prospects over the Descartes GLN. The total purchase price for the acquisition was approximately $25.5 million, which was satisfied from cash on-hand.

On June 6, 2018, we filed a final short-form base shelf prospectus, allowing us to offer and issue the following securities: (i) common shares; (ii) preferred shares; (iii) senior or subordinated unsecured debt securities; (iv) subscription receipts; (v) warrants; and (vi) securities comprised of more than one of the common shares, preferred shares, debt securities, subscription receipts and/ or warrants offered together as a unit. These securities may be offered separately or together, in separate series, in amounts, at prices and on terms to be set forth in one or more shelf prospectus supplements. The aggregate initial offering price of securities that could be sold by us (or certain of our current or future shareholders) pursuant to this base shelf prospectus during the 25-month period that the base shelf prospectus, including any amendments thereto, remains valid was limited to $750 million, of which $245 million has been used as of the date of this AIF leaving a remaining balance of $505 million.

On February 2, 2018, we acquired Aljex Software, Inc. (“Aljex”), a leading US-based provider of cloud based back-office transportation management solutions for freight brokers and transportation providers. Aljex serves approximately 400 customers in North America and supports the execution of nearly 3 million freight moves per year. The Aljex solution helps customers automate business processes and create electronic documents used in executing freight movements. The solution allows customers to manage the lifecycle of a shipment from order creation through execution. The total purchase price for the acquisition was approximately $32.4 million, net of cash acquired, which was funded from Descartes’ then-existing acquisition line of credit.

Please see our discussion elsewhere in this document related to the current Pandemic and the potential impact of the Pandemic on both short-term and longer-term prospects of our business and industry.

Industry consolidation, rapid technological change and frequent new product introductions and enhancements continue to characterize the software, content and network services industries – particularly for logistics management technology companies. Organizations are increasingly requiring greater levels of functionality, more sophisticated product offerings and access to industry-specific data from their software and services providers.

Increased importance is being placed on leveraging cloud-based technology to better manage logistics processes and to connect and collaborate with trading partners on a global basis, as well as to reuse and share supply chain data in order to accelerate time-to-value. Cloud-based technology also enables business networks to more easily unite and integrate services provided by a broad range of partners and technology alliances to extend functionality and further enhance collaboration between business communities. As a result, we believe there is a trend away from using manual and paper-based supply chain and logistics processes and on-premises solution deployments towards electronic processes powered by the exchange of cloud-based electronic information between logistics and supply chain participants.

Accordingly, we expect that our future success will be dependent upon our ability to enhance current products or develop and introduce new products offering enhanced performance and new functionality at competitive prices. In particular, we believe customers are looking for end-to-end solutions that combine a multi-modal, multi-process network with business document exchange and wireless mobile resource management (“MRM”) applications with end-to-end global trade compliance and collaborative supply chain execution applications. These applications include freight bookings, contract and rate management, content solutions for trade research and classification of goods for tariff and duty purposes, sanctioned party screening, customs filings and electronic shipment manifest processes, transportation management, routing and scheduling, purchase order to dock door processes, ecommerce fulfilment, warehouse management and inventory visibility. Further, customers are increasingly seeking “big data” content and insight solutions for analyzing global logistics trends and activity.

We believe that there continues to be a growing acceptance of subscription pricing and cloud-based business models in the markets we serve that provide lower up-front cost and easier-to-maintain alternatives than may be available through traditional perpetual license pricing models.

On January 1, 2021, the United Kingdom completed its exit from the European Union and agreed to terms on a trade agreement that set out the tariffs and guidelines on imports and exports between the two regions. Despite the trade agreement, both parties agreed that import and export filings would now need to be made on shipments between the United Kingdom and the European Union. In addition, the United Kingdom implemented a system for electronic filings on imports and exports. While they are currently operating under a period of voluntary compliance, the United Kingdom is expected to move into a period of mandatory compliance in the latter half of calendar 2021. As a result, we have been actively engaging with customers and service providers about assisting them with these electronic filing requirements and we anticipate that this may have a positive impact on our revenues in fiscal 2022 if the filing volumes increase.

The ongoing impact of the current Pandemic on global trade both in the short-term and over the longer-term is uncertain at this time.  Through the first half of fiscal 2021 we observed some reduced shipment volumes across various modes of transportation and became aware of some customers who had reduced or temporarily suspended operations or were otherwise experiencing financial hardship as a result of the Pandemic. Although we observed a return to historical shipment volumes on our networks during the balance of fiscal 2021, we can not be certain what impact the Pandemic may continue to have on overall global trade volumes and the use of Descartes’ products and services by its customers and whether any impact will only be temporary or may continue for an extended period of time. It’s also not clear at this time whether, as a result of the Pandemic, countries, companies and/or consumers will alter trading, manufacturing and/or buying patterns from the patterns we have observed in the global economy in the past.

With both global trade and counter-terrorism efforts on the rise over the past several years, the role of many customs agencies around the world has evolved far beyond statistical reporting and collection of import duties and excise taxes to a growing focus on the protection of society through augmented border security and much deeper cargo security. To that end, the World Customs Organization (“WCO”) is playing a leading role in helping member agencies enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations through the development, promotion and implementation of modern customs systems and procedures. One of the WCO’s principal instruments is the SAFE Framework of Standards to Secure and Facilitate Global Trade (“SAFE Framework”) which the WCO adopted in 2005.

The SAFE Framework is a non-binding instrument that contains supply chain security and facilitation standards for goods being traded internationally. Its goal is to enable better visibility, improve capabilities to detect high-risk shipments, and facilitate more integrated supply chain management across all modes of transport through enhanced technology and data transmission practices, networking arrangements between customs administrations, and better cooperation between customs and the business community.

As more countries adopt and enhance SAFE Framework initiatives, importers, exporters and their trading partners must comply with new and stricter security and customs regulations, which often mandate the use of electronic logistics messaging. Descartes’ customs and regulatory compliance solutions connect importers, exporters, logistics providers and regulatory authorities to enable efficient data transmission, cargo security screening, customs declaration filings and compliance across multiple regulatory requirements and industry-sponsored initiatives affecting international transportation. As such, our business may be impacted as regulations affecting domestic and international trade are introduced, modified or repealed.

One such initiative is export manifest that CBP is developing for air, rail, ocean and truck transportation modes. These export manifest functionalities are scheduled to be rolled out as pilot programs pending publication of Federal Regulation Notices (“FRNs”) announcing the pilot programs by transportation modes and allowing for electronic filing of export manifests. CBP’s stated goal of this initiative is to help close the loop between import and export process and bring more modernized standards to labor-intensive export procedures. CBP also hopes that an electronic export manifest will enable it to better identify potential security concerns earlier in the supply chain while speeding the flow of compliant shipments.

On June 12, 2018, the Air Cargo Advance Screening (“ACAS”) program went into effect. It mandates the submission of advanced air cargo information on shipments arriving in the United States from a foreign location. Participating air carriers must submit a subset of required pre-arrival air cargo data to CBP at the earliest point practicable and prior to loading the cargo onto aircraft destined to or transiting through the United States.

On September 28, 2019, CBP opened a pilot testing program from ACE Entry Type 86 declarations. This program is designed to provide enhanced declaration information for shipments that currently fall under the de minimis value threshold of $800 USD, otherwise known as Section 321 shipments. The goal of the program is to capture enhanced information on duty-free eCommerce shipments for security purposes. Descartes is participating in this pilot with customers. The mandatory date for the program is not yet known.

The Advanced Commercial Information (“ACI”) electronic manifest (“e-Manifest”) program was launched by CBSA to provide more effective risk management processes and tools to identify threats to health, safety, and security prior to the arrival of cargo and conveyances in Canada. Compliance requirements extend to air, marine, highway and rail carriers, as well as, freight forwarders and warehouse operators.

Currently, a voluntary compliance period is in effect for ACI e-Manifest for forwarders. Freight forwarders must electronically transmit advance house bill data on consolidated freight to the CBSA, which receives and validates the data within time frames that differ by mode. CBSA is providing quarterly releases for eManifest with incremental enhancements.

The Canadian Export Reporting System (CERS) replaced the Canadian Automated Export Declaration (CAED) with a pilot that began in December 2019. Now fully operational, the CERS portal enables Canadian exporters to electronically submit export declarations, bulk data uploads and Summary Reporting Program monthly reports to the CBSA.

At the end of 2019, CBSA announced the time for the CBSA Assessment and Revenue Management  program. The CBSA Assessment and Revenue Management project is a multi-year trade initiative. Once implemented, it will facilitate compliance and enhance the use of data analytics to streamline business processes between CBSA and importers. The multi-year project will transform how the CBSA assesses, collects, manages and reports on import revenue and trade information.

The UK left the European Union on January 31, 2020 and the temporary Brexit transition period established to allow goods to flow between the EU and the United Kingdom without new customs filings ended on December 31, 2020. While the situation remains fluid, Descartes continues to make the necessary adjustments within our customs applications in the UK and across Europe to support the filing of customs declarations and other requirements. One such requirement will be the filing of safety and security declarations for goods moving into the United Kingdom from the EU beginning January 1, 2022.

Another key trend is the growing importance of global trade data content to minimize duty spend, reduce the risk of transacting with denied parties, and utilize market research to better compete. Trade departments within international shippers and/or their brokers are being required to manage import/export compliance for a growing number of countries, covering everything from import (harmonized tariff) classifications, export classifications, Other government agency information and special trade programs and valuation methodologies going into the destination countries. Importers, exporters, and their logistics providers are using global trade data to better manage supply chain sourcing and risk, track products, monitor competitors, and discover new market opportunities.

Denied party screening (“DPS”) is the review of intellectual property, goods, services, and connectivity prior to an import, export or transaction. Governments and international organizations maintain a variety of lists of people, organizations and countries with whom it is illegal or restricted to transact business. Failure to comply can result in significant fines, loss of export privileges, negative media coverage and reputational damage. As sanctions policies are in constant flux, many businesses engaged in international trade are increasingly seeking access to affordable, flexible and configurable DPS services to remain in compliance while limiting operational disruption.

The mobile resource management (“MRM”) market is also impacted by changing regulatory trends and limited driver availability. Several countries, including the United States, have adopted legislation that requires automated telematics device-based reporting on various information related to the operation of vehicle fleets, including monitoring drivers’ hours of service, distance travelled, speed and equipment inspections. We believe that these types of initiatives will continue to evolve and that customers in this field are increasingly looking for technology service providers to help them manage these complex compliance requirements. With aging driver workforces in North America and Europe, companies are looking for solutions that can improve their existing workforce productivity while complying with the increasing number of regulatory mandates.

The Pandemic has further accelerated the MRM market trend towards adoption of solutions that specialize in enabling home delivery, delivery reservations and delivery route optimization that leverages GPS and other real-time available information about a delivery resource in motion. With firms such as Amazon and Home Depot making home delivery a differentiating feature of the buying experience, more retailers and distributors are focusing on re-engineering their logistics processes to provide customers with cost-effective delivery alternatives, including home/job site delivery and value-added services, with tight delivery time windows. In addition, we believe there is an increased proliferation of real-time information that is available about delivery resources in motion and that customers are seeking delivery resource management solutions that can leverage this information for their customers’ benefit.

Our business may be impacted from time to time by the general cyclical and seasonal nature of particular modes of transportation and the freight market in general, as well as the cyclical and seasonal nature of the industries that such markets serve. Factors which may create cyclical fluctuations in such modes of transportation or the freight market in general include ongoing developments in and changes to legal and regulatory requirements related to both international and domestic trade, timing of contract renewals between our customers and their own customers, seasonal-based tariffs, vacation periods applicable to particular shipping or receiving nations, weather-related, natural disasters or global health-pandemic events that impact shipping or key trade lanes in particular geographies and amendments to international trade agreements. In particular, the uncertainties resulting from the current Pandemic, or another future pandemic event could adversely impact global shipment volumes in all modes of transportation in fiscal 2022 and potentially beyond.  At the initial outset of the Pandemic we did observe a decline in the global shipment volumes in our networks compared to previous periods, particularly in the area of air cargo, however over the course of our fiscal 2021 we have largely seen these global shipment volumes return to our expected historical levels.   Since some of our revenues from particular products and services are tied to the volume of shipments being processed, adverse fluctuations in the volume of global shipments or shipments in any particular mode of transportation may adversely affect our revenues. Declines in shipment volumes in the US or internationally likely would have a material adverse effect on our business.

ITEM 4

NARRATIVE DESCRIPTION OF THE BUSINESS

 

 

We are a global provider of cloud, device, and data content-based solutions focused on improving the productivity, performance and security of logistics-intensive businesses. Customers use our modular, cloud-based and data content solutions to route, schedule, track and measure delivery resources; plan, allocate and execute shipments; rate, audit and pay transportation invoices; access global trade data; file customs and security documents for imports and exports; and complete numerous other logistics processes by participating in a large, collaborative multi-modal logistics community.

Our pricing models provide our customers with flexibility in purchasing our solutions either on subscription, transactional or perpetual license basis. Our solutions help transportation providers (air, ocean, rail and truck modes), logistics service providers (including third-party logistics providers, freight forwarders and

customs brokers) and logistics-intensive manufacturers, retailers, distributors and mobile service providers reduce costs, improve operational performance, save time, comply with regulatory requirements and enhance the service that they deliver to their own customers.

We believe that our customers prefer a technology provider that understands the unique requirements of logistics organizations and can provide a comprehensive set of solutions. Our customers are looking for collaborative solutions that help connect their enterprise to the multiple trading partners, logistics services providers and carriers that work with them. The Logistics Technology Platform helps our customers address those needs and provide a base for continuous innovation.

Descartes’ Logistics Technology Platform digitally combines the world’s most expansive logistics network with the industry’s broadest array of logistics management applications and most comprehensive offering of global trade related intelligence. It helps get inventory, information, assets and people where they’re needed, when they’re needed.

Network

The Descartes Global Logistics Network™ manages the real-time flow of commercial, logistics, customs and product information. It spans more than 160 countries and connects hundreds of thousands of organizations in logistics and transportation, manufacturing, distribution, retail, government, ecommerce and business services.

Intelligence

Descartes’ global trade intelligence solutions offer comprehensive access to market leading data and tools to research, analyze and act on import/export movements, trade regulations and market trends; reduce the risk of transacting with denied or sanctioned parties; increase trade compliance rates; optimize sourcing, procurement, and business development strategies; and minimize duty spend.

Innovation

We are focused on transforming new ideas and feedback from our customers and in-house domain experts into real-world innovations. New developments in the areas of the internet-of-things, machine learning, AI and analytics are enhancing the ability of our solutions to solve problems and process more information in new and complex ways.

Applications

With the GLN as the connectivity foundation, we have been expanding our logistics application functional footprint to offer a broad array of modular, interoperable web-based and wireless logistics management solutions.

We provide applications that help companies better manage their logistics book-to-bill process and purchase order-to-dock process, track inventory, meet regulatory requirements, optimize fleet performance, manage deliveries, and effectively communicate and collaborate with their logistics partners. These applications can be principally categorized as: (i) Routing, Mobile & Telematics; (ii) Transportation Management; (iii) Ecommerce Shipping and Fulfillment (iv) Customs & Regulatory Compliance; iv) GLN Services; (vi) Broker & Forwarder Enterprise Systems, and (vii) Global Trade Intelligence Solutions.

Descartes’ Routing, Mobile & Telematics suite supports the closed-loop process associated with planning, tracking, measuring, delegating and optimizing the use of assets and people that are involved in the movement of goods. These solutions can improve productivity and reduce fuel, vehicle and labor costs. The suite helps address business challenges including the following: (1) strategic planning; (2) daily planning; (3) pickup/delivery reservations; (4) dispatch and vertical specific mobile solutions; (5) commercial fleet navigation; (6) reporting and measuring; (7) sales and merchandiser management; and (8) telematics and compliance.

(1)        Strategic Planning:  Descartes Sales & Territory Planner™ and Descartes Area Planner™

For strategic planning of recurring pickups or deliveries, Descartes Sales & Territory Planner performs complex service scheduling that simultaneously considers daily, weekly and multi-week deliveries, as well as holidays and other non-working days. It also evaluates geographic distribution and sales potential for each customer to help establish optimal territories and routes. Factors considered include minimizing travel time and related costs, and balancing opportunities across members of the sales team. Additional parameters such as stops, distance and sales volume can also be used to help determine routes and route schedules for sales, delivery or both.

For strategic planning of highly variable pickups and deliveries, Descartes Area Planner utilizes historical demand with algorithms to create models of demand density patterns.  Those patterns are used to create territory and route plans.  Descartes Area Planner takes into account service levels and delivery product types and is able to test the territory and route plan’s resilience to change. Descartes Area Planner typically is used to generate multiple plans to fit daily, seasonal or business cycle driven demand variability.

Descartes provides a number of daily planning solutions to address the range of customer requirements from the most complex to simple needs. Descartes Route Planner^TM takes in new orders as they are placed, optimizes them in real-time, allocating resources to help maximize operating efficiencies, deliver priority service to the most profitable accounts and routes, and maintain overall customer service objectives. Our other daily planning solutions optimize orders in groups, balancing service with costs and operational constraints. Our daily planning solutions are designed to integrate with existing order management or transportation planning systems and can help companies reduce costs as a result of shorter routes, reduce fuel consumption and enhance fleet utilization. Descartes’ comprehensive offering addresses a broad range of operational environments that can vary across different industries.

(3)       Pickup/Delivery Reservations:  Descartes Reservations™

Descartes Reservations facilitates on-line scheduling of deliveries or service — either for self-service or as a decision support tool for customer service agents. It helps companies to effectively tailor service to the demands of key customers while helping to achieve internal profitability goals. Descartes Reservations also confirms that requests can be met and schedules in the appointment, making Descartes Reservations an effective capable-to-promise tool.

(4)        Descartes Execution and Mobile Solutions:  Descartes Route Planner Dispatch™, Descartes Route Planner OnDemand Dispatch, Descartes MobileLink™, Descartes Food Perform™, Descartes Distribution Perform™, Descartes Transport Perform™ and Descartes ShipTrack™

Descartes Execution solutions (Descartes Route Planner OnDemand Dispatch, Descartes Route Planner Automated Vehicle Locator™, Descartes Route Planner OnDemand AVL™) manage routes in progress, tracking their performance, addressing route exceptions as they occur and capturing delivery and pickup status updates. Descartes Execution Solutions facilitate the assignment and execution of pre-planned and same-day pick-ups and deliveries. Descartes Mobile solutions (Descartes MobileLink™, Descartes Food Perform™, Descartes Distribution Perform™, and Descartes Transport Perform™) provide integrated two-way wireless communication and supports active and passive monitoring capabilities for enhanced logistics execution. By combining route planning and a free flow of information between dispatchers and the field, Descartes Mobile solutions extend the traditional route planning process and provide real-time visibility into the execution of the plan. The combination of Descartes’ Daily Planning solutions with Descartes Execution and Descartes Mobile solutions form the core of plan versus actual performance evaluation and continuous logistics improvement.

Descartes Food Perform, Distribution Perform, and Transport Perform are cloud-based mobile solutions that automate traditional paper-based processes and help streamline complex ‘last mile’ logistics processes. These solutions have been tailored to support ‘last mile’ commercial processes unique to each industry. They provide configurable, feature-rich mobile technology and advanced electronic proof of delivery operating on a hand-held device carried by drivers and other field personnel.

Descartes ShipTrack provides cloud-based mobile resource management and shipment tracking solutions to help customers automate dispatch, updates on shipment status and estimated time of arrival and eliminate paper-based delivery processes. This highly-configurable and scalable platform is particularly well-suited for the ecommerce home delivery, parcel and medical courier markets, helping these companies efficiently manage final-mile deliveries.

Descartes Analytics helps companies create and distribute reports within an organization or to suppliers, vendors, sub-contractors or carriers. It provides a simple, secure way to create customized delivery statistics and metrics. It can help simplify the creation and management of supply chain scorecards and, as a byproduct, can help identify best practices.

Descartes Sales and Merchandiser Management enables resource planning, route building and optimization, and tracking across delivery operations and mobile workforces, including sales representatives, territory managers and merchandisers. Descartes Sales and Merchandiser Management facilitates weekly activity planning, delivery status visibility for merchandisers and sales representatives, actual distance driven, in-store time calculation and work data collection, and consolidated performance reporting. Performance data can be uploaded to corporate payroll and expense reporting systems to ensure appropriate payments are being made for resource performance. Descartes Sales and Merchandiser Management helps our customers improve sales and merchandising productivity, cut costs and improve customer service.

Descartes’ Telematics and Compliance solutions offer next generation mobile handheld devices that can continuously monitor performance of vehicles and drivers. Robust functionality for tracking vehicles, monitoring and scoring driving behavior and automation of driver logs and

reporting on driver hours for “hours of service” regulatory compliance helps increase workforce productivity and safety, prevents “hours of service” violations and reduces or eliminates excess paperwork and processing times. Descartes’ 2018 acquisition of PinPoint adds depth, breadth and domain expertise to our offering by enhancing Descartes’ ability to implement, collect and leverage real-time vehicle and trailer information through reseller relationships with Geotab (for telematics devices) and SkyBitz (for trailer tracking devices).

In Europe, Descartes’ Smartanalysis product is a leading tachograph analysis and compliance management solution. It is used by road transport operators of all sizes to meet legal obligations and comply with Europe’s complex driver working time regulations. Descartes SmartLicence is a comprehensive online tool for fleet operators in the UK for electronically managing driving licenses and verifying license details with the UK’s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.

Descartes’ Driver Vehicle Inspection Reports (DVIR) is a configurable, cloud-based, enterprise-class solution for assuring compliance with routine driver vehicle safety checks required or recommended by the United States Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Canadian Provincial Ministries of Transportation, and the United Kingdom Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency.

Descartes’ Transportation Management solutions provide robust, network-based, modular, end-to-end multimodal functionality that spans the entire shipment lifecycle. We streamline and support our customers’ ability to turn purchase or sales order fulfillment into transport orders, manage carrier contracts, optimize and execute transportation plans, execute cross-docked and pooled shipments, connect to trading partners, control the flow of prepaid freight, track shipments and inventory, audit freight and manage supplier/carrier performance. The suite of products addresses unique requirements across truck, air, ocean and parcel modes.

Descartes Transportation Manager™

Descartes Transportation Manager facilitates efficient planning and execution of shipping across air, ocean, truck and parcel modes at multiple touch-points in the distribution process. It helps logistics managers, shippers and third parties simultaneously evaluate shipment alternatives to find efficient shipping methods. It is a solution that scales from the loading dock to the enterprise, providing up-to-date rates that allow the customer to both make efficient shipment decisions and comply with carrier communications, manifesting and labeling requirements. The pick, pack and ship capability helps our customers manage small parcel shipments with postal services, a variety of small-package delivery carriers and over 150 less-than-truckload carriers. It evaluates and optimizes transportation purchases across modes for both operational effectiveness and cost efficiency, and helps answer tough questions such as: “How can I effectively use all of my carrier contracts?”; “Who is the most suitable carrier in this mode to handle my shipment?”; “What shipments can I combine to lower my costs?”; and, “What shipment consolidation should I use - aggregation, multi-stop routes or pooling to reduce costs while meeting service requirements?”.

Descartes Dock Appointment Scheduling™

Descartes Dock Appointment Scheduling is a collaborative solution that enables shippers, carriers and consignees to schedule dock door appointments. It streamlines the dock appointment process by distributing the responsibility for scheduling from the warehouse to carriers and suppliers. By ensuring all supply chain partners are involved in the process and have visibility into requested, scheduled and rescheduled dock orders and appointments, this solution is designed to optimize shipping and receiving operations at a warehouse.

Descartes Yard Management™

A module of Descartes Transportation Manager, Descartes Yard Management enables shipping and receiving staff, gate guards and yard jockeys to more effectively manage the movement of trailers and identify inventory in the yard. Designed to work seamlessly with Descartes

Transportation Manager, Descartes Yard Management provides command and control of yards of all sizes.

Descartes Rate Builder™

Descartes Rate Builder is a solution that helps carriers and non-vessel owning common carriers (“NVOCCs”) manage global rates, contracts and rate agreements more efficiently and meet regulatory obligations. Descartes Rate Builder enables companies to create, revise, store and distribute rates via the Internet. Once they are generated, Descartes Rate Builder stores all rates in a central database with controlled access privileges. Carriers can designate a “contract owner” who can allow multiple users to contribute during the drafting of a new contract or amendment. NVOCCs can effectively manage a global rate network and help enable logistics service providers (“LSPs”) to create and manage both buy-side and sell-side rates digitally, enforce a standardized global pricing policy and implement a global rate request process.   Descartes Rate Builder also supports the audit of ocean bills of lading.

 

Descartes Retail Distribution™

The Descartes Retail Distribution portfolio provides visibility, reduces cost and removes bottlenecks as a retailer’s products move from a shipper’s Distribution Center (“DC”), consolidation point, or DC bypass facility through third-party transportation provider networks and ultimately to its stores.

Descartes’ Kontainers is a digital freight booking platform that facilitates a fully digitized customer experience across quoting, booking, tracking and dashboard analytics. It enables LSPs to rapidly create branded state-of-the-art digital experiences for their end customers using advanced API’s to integrate to existing rate management and back-office systems.

Descartes MacroPoint is a multimodal freight visibility platform for shippers, brokers and 3PLs to get real-time visibility and predictive analytics for in-transit freight. Our industry-leading visibility network is connected to over 100,000 carriers and millions of assets and drivers through integrations with on-board electronic logging devices, GPS telematics devices, carrier transportation management systems (“TMS”) and GPS-enabled smartphone applications.

Descartes MacroPoint™ for Capacity Matching

Descartes MacroPoint™ for Capacity Matching provides freight brokers with greater visibility to the transportation capacity available within their network of carriers and cooperating brokers. By accessing previously unused freight capacity using advanced visualization and analytical capabilities, freight brokers can cover more loads, build stronger carrier relationships and reduce costs.

The Descartes Aljex solution provides back-office transportation management for freight brokers and transportation providers. These solutions help customers automate business processes and create electronic documents critical for executing transportation moves. In addition, customers can manage the lifecycle of a shipment from order creation through execution, including real-time tracking with connectivity to the Descartes MacroPoint network.

Descartes BestTransport is a cloud-based TMS tailored for flatbed-intensive manufacturers and distributors. It provides capabilities that address requirements from contract rate management through to load building, shipment execution and freight payment for flatbed transportation moves.

Descartes’ Ecommerce Shipping and Fulfillment. Solutions help customers seamlessly integrate and connect to ecommerce marketplaces, shopping carts, and other systems; digitally transform warehouse operations through intelligent, mobile-based solutions; and leverage parcel shipment optimization and execution to reduce costs and improve service.

Descartes OzLink is a platform for integrating and extending ERP, accounting, ecommerce, and WMS systems to streamline order management, inventory control, and shipping. The solution functions as a complement to core business systems where gaps exist in the flow of data and/or system automation. Descartes OzLink’s standard integration modules and business process extensions can help seamlessly move data between systems and automate tasks to eliminate labor-intensive clerical work, error-prone data entry, lead time delays, and compromised customer service. The solution can flexibly connect systems that run in the cloud, operate on premise or within a hosted environment to address an extensive range of ecommerce, warehousing, and shipping processes.

Descartes pixi eCommerce Fulfillment/ Warehouse Management

Descartes pixi eCommerce Fulfillment/Warehouse Management helps customers automate ecommerce processes originating from online orders. Integrated with hundreds of ecommerce sites in Europe, the solution enables small-to-medium sized businesses and large retailers looking to enhance their online presence to support the growing consumer demand for omnichannel deliveries. The solution collects order information from ecommerce websites, translates it into a scanner-driven pick and pack process within the warehouse, initiates the shipment to the customer, and synchronizes all of this information with the customer’s financial system for invoicing and shipment tracking.

 

Descartes Peoplevox is a cloud-based warehouse management and ecommerce fulfillment solution that helps online retailers connect to webshop front ends, translate order information into a mobile-driven pick and pack process, and then feed parcel delivery systems for shipment execution. With sales and implementation services that can be provided completely remotely, it’s rapid to deploy.

 

Descartes ShipRush helps customers ship efficiently and cost-effectively by integrating with front-end commerce systems and parcel shipping providers for seamless package labelling, rating, tracking and postage processing. With integrations to over 70 business systems, including leading ERP, ecommerce and supply chain platforms, the ShipRush platform helps customers to streamline their supply chain and reduce transportation costs. Using the solution, companies can automatically import orders; compare carrier rates in real-time to get the best options every time; print shipping labels for FedEx, UPS, USPS, and other major U.S. and global carriers; and track shipments through to final delivery.

Our Customs & Regulatory Compliance solutions help companies meet regulatory requirements for international shipments and the necessary customs declarations and security initiatives. We offer different methods to transmit shipment information directly to customs authorities or to the carriers who may be compiling data for security filing, which helps to ensure the smooth delivery of cargo as it moves through ports and airports, and ultimately to the end customer.

Descartes Global Cargo Security ™

For carriers, freight forwarders, NVOCCs and shippers, Descartes Global Cargo Security Suite offers solutions which help customers comply with electronic manifest filing initiatives across a broad number of countries that have adopted various advance security filing requirements spanning different modes of transportation. To accommodate customers’ varying technical

capabilities, we offer options that range from user-friendly web portals that permit manual entry of cargo manifest information through to tightly integrated system-to-system electronic data interchange (“EDI”) connections. Descartes’ offerings in this area include the Descartes Importer Security Filing™, Descartes ACI eManifest™, Descartes Advance Electronic Information (AEI)™, Descartes ACAS Solution™ and others.

Descartes Export Compliance™

Descartes Export Compliance suite offers denied party screening, license validation and audit for all international trading partners.  Screening parties for acceptability for receipt of product and the proper use of export licenses is essential to support compliance with the US and EU requirements for export.

Descartes Border Compliance™

Descartes Border Compliance provides customs compliance services to assist transportation providers and LSPs with imports and/or exports to Canada, the US, India and the Netherlands. Through our Viatrade Service, the GLN offers an enhanced range of services to help carriers and LSPs negotiate increasingly complex document exchange requirements brought about by international security initiatives and tightened borders. In addition, Descartes Border Compliance services enable customs brokers to receive electronic manifests and invoices from transportation carriers so that the manifest can be mapped to the Canadian and US customs release systems.

Descartes Ocean Tariff Compliance™

Descartes Ocean Tariff Compliance helps ocean carriers comply with US Federal Maritime Commission requirements, and also helps manage the rate information for cargo that moves according to the terms of a privately-negotiated service contract or NVOCC Service Arrangement rather than the public rates of a tariff.

Descartes Electronic In-Bond™

Specifically designed for transportation carriers, Descartes Electronic In-Bond helps transmit the necessary advance electronic cargo information to CBP regarding inbound shipments prior to their arrival in the US. Using approved EDI protocols for the transmission of advance cargo information, we help carriers complete the requirements for filing, and receive in-bond movement authorization within minutes instead of hours or even days.

Descartes Customs Warehouse Management™

Descartes Customs Warehouse Management solution can play an integral role in simplifying procedures associated with customs warehousing, while taking advantage of the maximum available benefits. This on-demand solution is specifically designed to allow users to manage goods stored under the customs warehouse procedure, by storing information on imported goods and accounts, tracking all movement and activity, and enabling more accurate and timely electronic declaration processing. Customs warehousing is used by many organizations as a means to suspend/defer import duties and/or value-added tax on goods entering the EU. It is an effective and efficient means of enabling importers to choose an optimum time to clear goods and pay duties or re-export them outside of the EU.

Descartes Global Customs & Transport™

Descartes’ Global Customs & Transport (“GCT”) suite provides its customers with European-centric customs declaration, security filing, transportation management and freight forwarding technology solutions on both a cloud-based basis and a deployed model. The GCT platform supports fiscal customs filings in 18 countries and security filings in all 28 EU member states.

Descartes Pentant™

Descartes Pentant™ is a Community System Provider (“CSP”) in the UK providing manufacturers, retailers, distributors and logistics service provider customers with a reliable and secure connection to both CDS (the UK’s central system for customs declarations) and the EU’s ICS to streamline declaration, cargo security and clearance processes. Pentant also helps

customers meet UK Revenue & Customs requirements for imports and exports to be managed through a fully approved inventory control system for the ports of Dover, Portland, Poole, Plymouth, Teignmouth, Bideford, Scrabster, as well as London City and Warton airports.

Descartes e-customs™

Descartes e-customs™ is a modular, cloud-based solution offering that helps manufacturers, retailers, distributors and logistics service providers to cost-effectively comply with UK and fiscal security filing requirements. It is designed to reduce complexity, increase automation, and facilitate the end-to-end customs declaration process. Importers and exporters can leverage default and client-specific standing data, declaration templates, historical filings, on-screen tips and system validations to increase speed and accuracy in the filing process.

GLN services simplify cargo and freight management by providing electronic services to the cargo industry and to companies who engage in international and domestic transportation activities. GLN provides a secure and reliable transaction exchange plus connectivity services that include trading partner on-boarding programs, data standards and protocol conversion, transportation-specific document compliance, audit and error checking, and archiving. We offer several document management, connectivity and community services, including:

Descartes CargoAssist™

Freight forwarders use Descartes CargoAssist to improve freight booking, send electronic waybills and ensure that consignments are handled quickly and efficiently at freight terminals around the world. We provide freight forwarders with access that connects them with their customers and logistics partners.

Descartes e-Pouch™

As part of the Descartes air cargo solution suite, Descartes e-Pouch integrates with applications for bookings, shipment monitoring, quality performance reporting and customs filing to provide a central repository that enhances electronic document exchange connections between back-office system and trading partners. Descartes e-Pouch provides users with the functionality to facilitate the sharing of information with approved parties, automate routine interactions, help flag problems at an early stage and provide a repository for retrieval of completed deliveries.

Descartes webDocs™

Freight forwarders use Descartes webDocs web forms to help improve air freight booking processes, send electronic waybills and distribute freight messages with the required information directly to the air carriers. Descartes webDocs gives forwarders access to electronic web forms that enables quick and easy creation of the various documents and electronic messages that are dictated by the industry, such as the International Air Transport Association’s (“IATA”) e-freight requirements. The solution also provides forwarders with the ability to easily create messaging documents such as master airway bill, house airway bill and labels and transmit these documents electronically to the air carrier.

Descartes Data Integrity Services™

Descartes Data Integrity Services continuously monitors messages and their delivery to trading partners to identify and report errors. Once an error is identified, we contact trading partners and coordinate the correction of inaccuracies and re-submission of corrected data. The service also provides periodic summary reports by trading partner, message type and error type.

Descartes Cargo iQ™ (formerly Cargo 2000™)

Descartes Cargo iQ allows customers to monitor shipments at a master air waybill level from airport to airport, assisting customers in complying with IATA Cargo 2000 certification process. Information provided by the system includes quality report compilation, shipment status, exception alerts, route map creation, and departure time reporting. This information enables better decision-making for fulfilling customer expectations and ensures standardized processes for improved service levels.

Descartes Carrier Portal™

Descartes Carrier Portal is a cost-effective and efficient solution designed to help carriers without EDI capabilities, shippers, and freight payment agencies (“FPAs”) realize all the benefits of EDI capabilities without the complexity of in-house solutions. The solution is a web-based information service that facilitates the collaboration and automation of load tendering and freight payment between highway carriers and shippers (or FPAs representing them). The carrier portal bridges the gap between EDI-enabled back office systems of shippers and FPAs and less automated carriers.

Descartes Supplier Portal™

Descartes Supplier Portal enables suppliers without EDI capabilities to electronically communicate and collaborate with EDI enabled carriers, logistics service providers and shippers by providing capabilities to schedule pick-ups, automate tendering, and track the status of shipments.

Descartes GLN eArchiving™

Descartes GLN eArchiving enables customers to store and archive electronic documents in an “electronic safe”. This electronic safe is accessible from the GLN via which relevant documents can be forwarded to customer’s data warehouse to comply with standards and document retention policies.

Descartes Port Community Services™

Descartes Port Community Services assist in improving cargo clearance and management operations for local port communities and their trading partners by connecting and streamlining information exchange between ocean carriers, inland carriers, forwarders, shippers, terminal operators, and port and customs authorities.

Descartes Global Data Catalog Connect™

Descartes’ Global Data Catalog Connect provides retail/supplier collaboration, product catalog management and electronic business-to-business messaging. It is a web-based application that helps in the upload, management and exchange of data. It offers the ability to integrate with industry standard data pools like GS1DAS for automation of electronic product catalogue functionality.

Descartes B2B Integration™

Descartes B2B Integration™ solution provides cloud-based supply chain connectivity capabilities to a wide range of systems and platforms using most any protocol or method. Our advanced solutions automate supply chain processes, enhance collaboration and add visibility among global trading partners. Users can benefit from cost-effective transaction management, automated purchase to pay capabilities, connectivity to multiple ERP systems and more.

Descartes STEPCom™

Descartes STEPcom connects B2B trading partners to enable the collaboration and exchange of electronic data, automation of supply chain processes and management of a wide array of complex, mission-critical documents used in procure-to-pay and order-to-cash processes.

Descartes Velocity Mail™

Descartes Velocity Mail is an air mail and parcel management and tracking solution that leverages mobile devices to automate the entire air mail process from route generation to accounting reconciliation with real-time tracking and delivery visibility.

Descartes COREInsight™

Descartes COREInsight is a suite of supply chain applications that provides transportation management and tracking capabilities for air cargo shipments and assets.

Descartes’ Broker & Forwarder Enterprise Systems are designed to help brokers and forwarders more efficiently run complex international operations. Our on-demand solutions enable large and small organizations to take advantage of robust capabilities for bookings, security filings and customs entries, shipment and financial management. They automate the collection of shared data and multi-party shipment processes as well as help brokers and forwarders extend the command of operations with their logistics partners to help meet their delivery performance objectives.

Descartes ITMR4™ Canadian Customs Brokerage Suite

Descartes ITMR4 Canadian Customs Brokerage Suite is an on-demand, enterprise level software solution that handles functions that a customs broker, freight forwarder or self-filing importer typically uses to manage its operations. Those operations include documentation filing, accounting, financial reports, imaging, e-billing and web tools for tracking and tracing, reporting and data entry related to Canadian customs declarations.

Descartes EDItrade™ Customs Link

Descartes EDItrade Customs Link allows custom brokers and self-filing importers to collect data and prepare it for US customs ACE entries, including cargo release, remote location filing and post-entry compliance and supportive modules and the range of PGA documentation and data requirements to streamline the customs process and create accurate declarations.

Descartes European Brokerage and Declaration

Descartes European Brokerage & Declaration helps simplify the complexities of customs clearance in the European market. Descartes’ solution is Authorized Economic Operator compliant. It has a variety of modules to handle export management, import management, creation of the Single Administrative Document for normal or simplified procedures, incoming and outgoing transit declarations, connectivity to the New Computerized Transit System and facilitates compliance with different member state customs authorities’ requirements.

Descartes OneView™ Forwarder Enterprise & Customs House Brokerage Solution

Descartes OneView Forwarder Enterprise & Customs House Brokerage Solution allows freight forwarders, NVOCCs and third-party logistics service providers to effectively coordinate air, truck and ocean import/export shipments. It supports end-to-end planning and execution of international shipments, including leveraging system data to prepare and submit customs entries and cargo security filings to CBP.

Descartes ForwarderLogic™

Descartes ForwarderLogic is a cloud-based solution that provides comprehensive back-office functionality and real-time information exchange for LSPs handling all modes (air, ocean and land), inland/international import and export shipments from purchase orders all the way through to final delivery.

Descartes Foreign Trade Zone Management ™

The Descartes Foreign Trade Zone Management™ solution unifies import, export, logistics, compliance and financial processes including filing with regulatory agencies (e.g. CBP), Harmonized Tariff Schedule classifications, export licensing, denied party screening, comprehensive product catalog, tracking, event management and international document repository. To further reduce data redundancy, the solution incorporates information-sharing capabilities with import, export, customs house brokers and freight forwarding components. Electronic connectivity to regulatory agencies enables seamless electronic customs document

filing and clearance. The Descartes Foreign Trade Zone Management solution can be used with existing warehouse management solutions or one provided by Descartes.

Descartes Shipment Portal™

Descartes Shipment Portal™ is a web-based portal that helps forwarders and shippers collaborate for shipment creation and status tracking throughout the shipment’s lifecycle. Powered by the Descartes GLN with extensive existing EDI connectivity, the solution aggregates information from these parties and enables forwarders and their customers to build dashboard views of their transportation portfolio for up-to-the minute information on a wide range of data points. The solution also features purchase order management tools that support extensive collaboration between shippers, suppliers and transportation providers, and centralizes transportation request processes so forwarders can offer their customers a single point for up-to-date information on their global shipments.

Descartes’ global trade intelligence solutions help customers research and make informed supply chain decisions; monitor and evaluate potential growth opportunities, logistics partners, and competitors; classify goods appropriately to ensure compliance while minimizing duties and tariffs; and reduce the risk of transacting business with denied parties while establishing an audit trail of reasonable care practices. Global trade content from Descartes can also be used on a service basis, to directly populate ERP and global trade management systems to enhance automation and compliance processes.

Descartes Customs Info™

Descartes Customs Info helps customers research and make better classification decisions while providing a record of the process to support classification determinations. This robust global trade content offering provides various levels of access to millions of reference documents, including cross-referenced and searchable duty rates, customs rulings, regulations, WCO Explanatory Notes, WCO Opinions, Commodity Export Codes, Other Government Agency information, Customs Directives, Export Control Classification Number locators and more.

Descartes Datamyne™

With a comprehensive database of accurate, up-to-date import-export information, Descartes Datamyne delivers actionable intelligence for market research, sales insight, supply chain management, enhanced security and competitive strategy. The Descartes Datamyne solution includes one of the largest searchable resources of trade activity. Manufacturers, shippers, wholesalers, transport and logistics service providers, management consultants, legal practitioners, industry analysts and others use this data and the analysis tools to evaluate growth strategies, explore new markets, benchmark performance, monitor commodity volumes and values, simplify trade data research, discover buyer-seller relationships and refine sourcing strategies.

Descartes MK Denied Party Screening™

Descartes MK Denied Party Screening provides easy-to-use options to quickly and efficiently screen customers, suppliers and trading partners against a comprehensive database of international restricted and denied party lists. Customers can tailor screening processes to fit their unique risk parameters and flag potential compliance issues for resolution.

Descartes Visual Compliance™

Descartes Visual Compliance offers more robust solutions for restricted and denied party screening, classification, automation, and export license management. These intuitive solutions to enhance compliance and mitigate risk include capabilities for integrated screening, visually-driven compliance workflow management, and robust export control and documentation.

Our consulting team provide a variety of professional services to customers. These services include project management and consulting services to assist in configuration, implementation and deployment of our solutions. We offer a variety of site-specific technical and consulting services to assist in all phases of the implementation process. We also provide assistance in integrating our products with the customer's existing software. In addition, we offer training services that provide customers with a formalized program to ensure that applications are implemented and utilized in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

We provide worldwide support to our customers through our central support system. Our customer support program is conducted via telephone, online customer portal and/or email and with our extended support options can be available 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-per-week.

We generate our revenues from sales of each of the services and products identified in the previous section, which are sometimes sold on a stand-alone basis and sometimes sold as bundles of services and products. As such, we do not measure our revenues by the particular services or products referenced above. Instead, we measure our revenue performance based on whether the customer is buying a license to our technology or is buying technology services or other services from us. Based on this, our revenues are measured in three categories: license revenues; services revenues; and professional services and other revenues. Services revenues are comprised of ongoing transactional and/or subscription fees for use of our services and products by our customers and maintenance fees, which include revenues associated with our provision of maintenance and support for our services and products. Professional services and other revenues are comprised of professional services revenues from consulting, implementation and training services related to our services and products, hardware revenues and other revenues.

We review our operating results, assess our performance, make decisions about resources, and generate discrete financial information at the single enterprise level. Accordingly, we have determined that we operate in one business segment providing logistics technology solutions. The following table provides revenue information by revenue source for fiscal 2021 and 2020:

Our customers are globally diverse, located in the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa (“EMEA”) and Asia Pacific regions. Our customers range from small- and medium-sized enterprises to established “blue-chip” leaders across a variety of industry verticals. We have a large customer base of transportation carriers, third-party logistics providers, freight forwarders, NVOCCs and customs brokers. Other customers include government customs and census agencies, manufacturers, retailers, consumer products suppliers, wholesale distributors, and companies in industries such as healthcare, recycling/waste management, pharmaceuticals and oil and gas.

The following table provides revenue information by geographic region based on the location of our customers:

 

Our sales force is expected to sell across our solutions, targeting specific industry verticals and geographies. At present, we sell most of our products and services through a direct sales team that is focused primarily on the North American and EMEA markets. We have a limited direct sales presence in Asia Pacific with resources in Australia, China, Hong Kong and Japan. As at January 31, 2021, we employed a total of 202 individuals in sales and marketing roles and had active relationships with approximately 82 distributors and resellers.

We are headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, with additional representative offices in Canada in Ottawa, Ontario; Toronto, Ontario; Windsor, Ontario; and Montreal, Quebec. Our primary representative offices in the United States are in Irvine, California; Denver, Colorado; Miami, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; Silver Spring, Maryland; Westborough, Massachusetts; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Midland Park, New Jersey; Cleveland, Ohio; Columbus, Ohio; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Trevose, Pennsylvania; and Seattle, Washington. In Europe, our primary representative offices are in Ghent, Belgium; Lier, Belgium; Glostrup, Denmark; Munich, Germany;  Leipzig, Germany; Dublin, Ireland; Amersfoort, Netherlands; Woerden, Netherlands; Oslo, Norway; Fredrikstaad, Norway; Zilina, Slovakia; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Madrid, Spain; Malmo, Sweden; Gotenborg, Sweden; Murten, Switzerland; Rheinfelden, Switzerland; Chippenham, UK; and Totton, UK. In South America, our primary representative offices are in Montevideo, Uruguay; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Sao Paulo, Brazil. In Asia Pacific, our primary representative offices are in Nelson, New Zealand; Makati City, Philippines; Hong Kong; Tokyo, Japan; Suzhou, China; and Shanghai, China.

Through our United by Design alliance program, we also form strategic partnerships with various companies in different geographic markets, in different industries and for different products with the goal of expanding our market base. Typically, an alliance participant will market our products in certain geographic and vertical markets and refer customers to us, in exchange for a fee in respect of new customers generated by the alliance participant. Additionally, we have established several working relationships with telecommunication companies, management consulting firms, and complementary hardware and software firms.

Our various channel partners, including a variety of distributors and value-added resellers, play a central role in our strategy to address global customers, particularly in the Asia Pacific region and in Latin America with our delivery management solutions.

 

We believe that our future success depends in large part on our ability to maintain and continually enhance our current product lines and form tight integrations with our applications on our Logistics Technology Platform. Accordingly, we invest in product development to ensure that sufficient resources are focused on developing new products or enhancing our existing products. We also believe that it is important that our technology keeps pace with evolutions in hardware, applications and services that enable us to operate and deliver our own services at lower cost. In 2021, we incurred research and development expenses of approximately $54.1 million, or approximately 16% of our annual consolidated revenues for 2021.

We continue to make substantial investments in research and development based on our belief that our ability to enhance existing applications, develop and introduce new applications that keep pace with technological advances, meet changing customer requirements, respond to competitive products and achieve market acceptance is important to our growth and future financial performance.

Our research and development program requires in-depth knowledge of logistics, supply chain and customer know-how from business analysis, network operations and design, technical design, and quality assurance. Particular expertise in solving operations research or logistics problems is a benefit to us, as is practical experience in dealing with the day-to-day challenges that our customers face in dealing with logistics providers and deliveries in general. We believe that we are well positioned to address our customers’ requirements with our existing complement of resources; however, we evaluate our staffing levels on an ongoing basis particularly in those areas where we see ways we might expand or expedite our development processes as necessary to meet market opportunities or changes.

To build applications, we have implemented an application development process based on size, deployment mode and complexity. For our smaller, less complex applications as well as for our network services and SaaS solutions, we have adopted an approach centered on frequent, smaller application updates. With the applications and solutions being deployed in our own, known environment and technology infrastructure, we are able to minimize development time otherwise needed to accommodate the myriad of platforms that an application may be used over. Using this approach, the majority of these applications, network services and SaaS solutions were updated in fiscal 2021.  By leveraging public cloud infrastructure and public cloud services we have been able to reduce development and deployment lead times and at the same time expand our geographical presence.

For our larger more complex applications and solutions, we have adopted a four- to twelve-month release cycle. While we generally use the same underlying development methodology, building in smaller incremental blocks, we apply a more traditional process for review and quality assurance testing as well as bundling of several of these incremental blocks into each generally available release. Using this four- to twelve-month release schedule, most of our larger and more complex generally available applications and solutions were enhanced in fiscal 2021.

Enhancements not yet generally commercially available are typically subject to internal testing and, where applicable, additional testing may be conducted with select customers, following which we release the enhancements for general commercial use.

We continue to build and develop our network infrastructure to enhance our delivery of services to our customers. We continue to execute on our internal ‘One Networked Enterprise’ initiative whereby we are consolidating legacy network infrastructure acquired as part of previous acquisition activities. We anticipate continuing this initiative through fiscal 2022, including the advancement of additional integration activities resulting from new acquisitions. To facilitate these advancements in integration activities, we continue to invest in our integration platform with a specific focus on decoupling business logic from the presentation layer.

We estimate that the costs for our planned research and development activities in fiscal 2022 will not result in any significant increase relative to our historical expenditures on research and development activities.

 

Although we have experienced limited competition to-date from companies with broad application suites with comparable capabilities, the market for our applications is nevertheless highly competitive and subject to rapid technological change. As such, we expect competition to increase in the future. On an application-by-application basis, especially in markets where similar technology has been available for some time, such as routing software and value-added networks, we do experience competition from established vendors. However, we have found that our particular expertise in solving complex logistics problems on a network basis has enabled us to remain competitive. On a geographic basis, we experience competition from both multinational companies and local competitors. We face some disadvantage in entering new markets where competitors may have existing solutions with user interfaces that are advanced in local language presentation. To maintain and improve our competitive position on a global basis, we continue to develop and introduce new applications with the functionality to be easily adapted to local user interface needs (either by Descartes or its distributors in a particular region).

We compete or may compete, directly or indirectly, with the following: (i) application software vendors, including supply chain planning and execution software vendors, that may broaden their product offerings by internally developing, or by acquiring or partnering with, independent developers of supply chain network solutions, particularly on the execution (rather than planning) side, such as Manhattan Associates, Blue Yonder, Omnitracs, Verizon (formerly, Telogis) and Ortec; (ii) enterprise resource planning software vendors who may expand their current offerings into supply chain network service offerings, some of whom may from time to time jointly market our products as a complement to their own systems, such as SAP AG, Oracle and Infor Global Solutions; (iii) internal development efforts by corporate information technology departments; (iv) middleware software and service vendors that provide integration software, such as Software AG and SPS Commerce; (v) telematics solution providers, such as Verizon (formerly, Fleetmatics), Omnitracs and Trimble Navigation; (vi) other value-added messaging and visibility networks, such as those offered by Kleinschmidt, OpenText GXS, CHAMP Cargosystems, FourKites and Project 44; (vii) other cargo booking portals, such as Cargo Portal Services operated by Unisys Corporation and E2open (formerly, INTTRA); (viii) other customs compliance and forwarder back-office solution providers, such as Blu-Jay Solutions (formerly, Kewill) and WiseTech; (ix) other customs and security declaration providers, often specialized in particular domestic markets, such as AEB GmbH and MIC Datenverabeitung GmbH; (x) other trade data providers who may either bundle their data with a global trade management system, such as E2open (formerly Amber Road), provide trade intelligence platforms such as IHS Markets and S&P Global or sell trade data content on a standalone basis, such as Thomson Reuters; and (xi) eCommerce shipping and fulfillment providers such as ShipStation, Stamps.com, ShipHawk, Finale and RF Smart. We also expect to face additional competition as other established and emerging companies enter the market for logistics technology solutions and new products and technologies are introduced and as we expand to new businesses. In addition, current and potential competitors may make strategic acquisitions or establish co-operative relationships among themselves or with third parties, thereby increasing the ability of their products to address the needs of our prospective customers.

We believe the principal competitive factors affecting the market for our solutions include vendor and product reputation; expertise and experience in implementing products in the customer's industry sector; product architecture, functionality and features; cost of ownership; ease and speed of implementation; customer support; product quality, price and performance; and product attributes such as flexibility, scalability, compatibility, functionality and ease of use. To be successful in the future, we believe we must continue to respond promptly and effectively to technological change and competitors' innovations.

 

We believe our success depends significantly on our proprietary technology. Through our internal research and development and our acquisitions we have continued to enhance the breadth of our intellectual property portfolio. We continue to rely primarily on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws, license agreements, non-disclosure agreements and other contractual provisions to establish, maintain and protect our proprietary rights in our products and technology. Some registered forms of protection, such as patents, copyright and trademark registrations, have a limited period of

protection determined by the applicable law governing the registration. Other contractual forms of protection, such as license and non-disclosure agreements, have a limited contractual period of protection. The source codes and routing algorithms for our applications and technology are protected both as trade secrets and as unregistered copyrighted works with indefinite periods of protection. We have an extensive portfolio of patents, both over technologies we have developed internally and patents that have been acquired through our various acquisitions where patents were already held by the acquired companies or were pending. We continue to invest in the ongoing expansion of our patent portfolio.   Each of these patents offer a limited period of protection determined by the applicable laws governing the patents. We have registered or applied for registration of certain trademarks and service marks with limited periods of protection and will continue to evaluate the registration of additional trademarks and service marks as appropriate.

We also utilize certain other software technologies, such as geographic data, shipping rate data, shipping mile data, sailing schedule data and global tariff and duty data, translation applications and business intelligence applications that we license from third parties, generally on a non-exclusive basis, including software that is integrated with internally developed software and used in our products to perform key functions. These third-party licenses generally require the payment of royalties based on sales of the product in which the technology is used.

Our network customers may use electronic logistics information generated by the customer, or by third parties on behalf of the customer, in connection with the customer’s use of our network services. Our customers are responsible for procuring and paying for the generation of such electronic logistics information and the right to use such electronic logistics information in connection with our network services.

Many of our data content solutions rely on data being available to us from various public sources. This data is available on a non-exclusive basis and generally available without the payment of fees except in certain cases where we may choose to obtain the data through third party data providers who may have pre-processed or aggregated the data in a manner that is more efficient or effective for our purposes. This data is similarly available to other parties and may allow other parties to develop competitive offerings. Our ability to maintain our market position is dependent upon our continued innovation in the ability to organize the data and provision of tools that facilitate the use of the data while continuing to expand and enhance the data.

 

We provide our GLN services and access to our data content services to our customers primarily by way of written subscription agreement. The subscription agreement sets out the applicable terms and restrictions on use of the service, the length of time the customer can use the service, and the applicable fees to be paid by the customer. Typically, these subscription agreements renew at a customer’s option and, in some cases, are subject to earlier termination by the customer on appropriate notice.

We license our software products to our customers primarily by way of written license agreements. The license agreements specify the applicable terms and restrictions on use of the software, the terms and conditions of any enrolment by the customer in our software maintenance program, and the applicable fees to be paid by the customer.

We depend on our installed customer base for a significant portion of our revenues. We have significant contracts with our license customers for ongoing support and maintenance, as well as significant service contracts that provide recurring services revenues to us. In addition, our installed customer base has historically generated additional new license and services revenues for us. Service contracts are generally renewable at a customer’s option, and there are generally no mandatory payment obligations or obligations to license additional software or subscribe for additional services.

If our customers terminate their subscription agreements, fail to renew their service contracts, fail to purchase or license additional services or products, or consolidate contracts with acquired companies, then our revenues could decrease and our operating results could be materially adversely affected. Factors influencing such contract terminations and non-renewals could include changes in the financial circumstances of our customers, dissatisfaction with our products or services, our retirement or lack of support for our legacy products and services, our customers selecting or building alternate technologies to replace ours, changes in our customers’ business or in regulation impacting our customers’ business that may no longer necessitate the use of our products or services, general economic or market conditions, or other reasons. Further, our customers could delay or terminate implementations or use of our services and products or be reluctant to migrate to new products. Such customers will not generate the revenues we may have anticipated within the timelines anticipated, if at all, and may be less likely to invest in additional services or products from us in the future. We may not be able to adjust our expense levels quickly enough to account for any such revenues losses. Our business may also be materially adversely affected by market trends impacting our customer base, such as consolidation activity.

We deliver some of our GLN services over our proprietary networks, which are hosted by commercial public cloud and co-location providers such as, Microsoft, Amazon, Equinix, InterXion and CenturyLink. These hosting and co-location contracts, on which we are substantially dependent as they relate to the delivery of our network services, typically contemplate services to be provided for a term at a defined service level, with applicable rights of termination and renewal. We typically pay monthly fees under these contracts, some of which are based on the volume of network activity flowing through the hosting provider. If any of these contracts were terminated without our consent, we could incur substantial costs in migrating to an alternate hosting provider. In such an event, the costs and related management effort could materially adversely affect our operating results and the services that we provide to our customers.

As at January 31, 2021, the Company employed 1,610 employees including 1,581 full-time staff. Of the 1,581 full-time staff, 438 of the individuals were engaged in customer service roles (which includes customer support, activations and implementation services), 539 were in research and development roles, 202 were engaged in sales and marketing roles, 258 in network and product support roles and 144 were in general administration roles. Geographically, 929 employees were located in North America, 515 were located in Europe, 71 were located in the Asia Pacific region and 66 were located in South America.

In fiscal 2021, sales outside of the Americas accounted for approximately 31% of our total revenues. Our international revenues are subject to risks associated with foreign sales, including longer collection times from foreign customers, difficulty in repatriating cash from foreign jurisdictions, unexpected changes in legal and regulatory requirements, export restrictions, changes in tariffs, exchange rates and other trade barriers, political and economic instability, difficulties in accounts receivable collection, difficulties in management of distributors or representatives, difficulties in staffing and managing foreign operations, difficulties in protecting our intellectual property, seasonality of sales, language issues and potentially adverse tax consequences. There can be no assurance that any of these factors will not have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

During fiscal 2021, 68% of our revenues were denominated in US dollars, and historically the majority of our revenues have been denominated in US dollars. However, a significant portion of our expenses, including the wages of our non-US employees and obligations under certain key supply agreements, have been denominated in Canadian dollars, euros and other foreign currencies. Therefore, changes in the value of the US dollar as compared to the Canadian dollar, the euro, British pound sterling and other foreign currencies may materially affect our operating results. We generally have not implemented hedging programs to mitigate our exposure to currency fluctuations affecting international accounts receivable, cash balances and inter-company accounts. We also have not hedged our exposure to currency fluctuations affecting future international revenues and expenses and other commitments. Accordingly, currency exchange rate fluctuations have caused, and may continue to cause, variability in our foreign

currency denominated revenue streams, expenses, and our cost to settle foreign currency denominated liabilities.

Our business may be impacted from time to time by the general cyclical and seasonal nature of particular modes of transportation and the freight market in general, as well as the cyclical and seasonal nature of the industries that such markets serve. Factors which may create cyclical fluctuations in such modes of transportation or the freight market in general include legal and regulatory requirements, timing of contract renewals between our customers and their own customers, seasonal-based tariffs, vacation periods applicable to particular shipping or receiving nations, weather-related and global health-pandemic events that impact shipping in particular geographies and amendments to international trade agreements.  In particular, the uncertainties arising from the Pandemic could adversely impact global shipment volumes in all modes of transportation in fiscal 2022 and potentially beyond. Since some of our revenues from particular products and services are tied to the volume of shipments being processed, adverse fluctuations in the volume of global shipments or shipments in any particular mode of transportation may adversely affect our revenues. Declines in shipment volumes in the US or internationally likely would have a material adverse effect on our business.

 

In 2021, 2020 and 2019, we completed various integration and reorganization activities in connection with our acquisitions of ShipTrack, Kontainers, Peoplevox, StepCom, BestTransport, Core, Visual Compliance, PinPoint, VelocityMail and Aljex including merging or consolidating various legal entities and operations, eliminating redundant management positions and canceling certain ongoing operating contracts.

In May 2020, we announced that we were undertaking a restructuring of our overall global operations to reduce costs and strengthen our financial position in light of uncertainty at that time arising from the emergence of the Pandemic. The restructuring included the reduction of our global workforce by approximately 5% and the closure of several office facilities. We incurred $2.3 million in restructuring charges in fiscal 2021 related to the restructuring and the restructuring plan was substantially completed within fiscal 2021.

 

 

The Company previously determined that the amended and expanded credit facility agreement of the Company announced on January 28, 2019 would constitute a “material contract” of the Company and filed a copy of the agreement on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Particulars of such contract are disclosed in “Item 3 - General Developments of the Business” of this AIF. Other than such agreement, as of January 31, 2021, the Company had not otherwise entered into any material contracts, other than contracts entered into in the ordinary course of business, within the past year, or entered into before the most recently completed fiscal year that are still in effect.

 

 

Our Board of Directors has adopted our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics (“the Code”) applicable to our directors, officers and employees. The Code is reviewed on a regular basis by our Board of Directors and may be updated from time to time. The most recent version of the Code is available on our website at http://www.descartes.com and has been filed on and is accessible through the SEDAR website at http://www.sedar.com. The Code sets out in detail the core values and principles by which the Company is governed and addresses a number of topics in areas of environmental, social and corporate governance such as: honest and ethical conduct; conflicts of interest; compliance with applicable laws and our policies and procedures; public disclosure and books and records; use of corporate assets and opportunities; confidentiality of corporate information; reporting responsibilities and procedures; health and safety; anti-corruption; and non-retaliation.

ITEM 5

RISK FACTORS

Reference is made to the section entitled “Certain Factors That May Affect Future Results” in the “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” contained in our 2021 Annual Report for the year ended January 31, 2021, made available to all of our shareholders and filed with various securities regulators, which section is incorporated herein by reference. This information is available through the EDGAR website at http://www.sec.gov or through the SEDAR website at http://www.sedar.com.

COVID-19 Global Pandemic

As of the date of this AIF, the world continues to experience the impact of the Pandemic. Businesses in many countries around the globe, including Canada, the United States and other countries in which we operate, have gone through a series of periods during which they have been required to close, or materially alter, their day-to-day operations due to government-ordered or recommended shut-downs and/or “shelter-in-place”, or equivalent, restrictions on individuals and businesses which may impact the operations of those businesses. In our own case, over the past twelve (12) months we have implemented measures that allow our employees to work remotely from home locations and for us to continue to operate our business and service our customers. The expected future impact of the Pandemic and various public health protection measures, including travel restrictions, on the business of our customers, and the ongoing demand of those customers for our products and services, is still uncertain at this time, in part due to the uncertainty of the duration and scope of such restrictions on a geography-by-geography basis. As of the date of this AIF, and consistent with the comments we have made in our MD&A from recent quarters, we continue to observe some customers with reduced shipment volumes across various modes of transportation and we are aware of some customers who have reduced or temporarily suspended operations or are otherwise experiencing financial hardship in their business that may temporarily or permanently impact their demand for our products and services.  However, at the same time we have seen several other areas of our business where shipment and order volumes have remained stable or, in some cases, have seen increased volumes as a result of the Pandemic.

We believe we remain well positioned to adjust to market conditions to assist our customers as they work to manage their transportation, logistics and supply chain processes during the Pandemic. As noted above, we have been able to transition our workforce such that the majority of our workforce can work remotely and continue to service and support our customers and ensure the uninterrupted availability of our various solutions, most of which are delivered by way of a software-as-a-service or cloud-based delivery model. In addition, the nature of the products and services that we provide to the transportation and logistics community have been classified as an “essential service” in the majority of the markets in which we have personnel located which allows us, to the extent necessary, to have requisite personnel safely attend at our various data-centers and hosting facilities to ensure the continuity of our services under state-of-emergency and shelter-in-place orders that may be in place in various jurisdictions globally.

We expect the significance of the Pandemic, including the extent of its effect on our financial condition and results of operations, to be dictated by, among other things, its duration, the success of efforts to contain it and the impact of actions taken in response. While we are not able at this time to estimate the impact of the Pandemic, an extended period of global supply chain and economic disruption could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, access to sources of liquidity and financial condition. In addition, an extended global recession caused by the Pandemic could have a further adverse impact on our financial condition and operations.

Catastrophic Events, Natural Disasters, Severe Weather and Disease

Our business may be negatively impacted to varying degrees by a number of events which are beyond our control, including energy blackouts, pandemics (or other public health crises), terrorist attacks, acts of war, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, fires, floods, ice storms or other natural or manmade catastrophes. While we engage in emergency preparedness, including business continuity planning, to mitigate risks, such events can evolve very rapidly, and their impacts can be difficult to predict. As such,

there can be no assurance that in the event of such a catastrophe that our operations and ability to carry on business will not be disrupted. The occurrence of such events may not release us from performing our obligations to third parties. A catastrophic event, including an outbreak of infectious disease, a pandemic or a similar health threat, including or in addition to the current Pandemic, or fear of any of the foregoing, could adversely impact us and our investments. In addition, liquidity and volatility, credit availability and market and financial conditions generally could change at any time as a result. Any of these events in isolation or in combination, could have a material negative impact on our performance, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

ITEM 6

MARKET FOR SECURITIES AND RELATED SECURITYHOLDER MATTERS

 

We are authorized to issue an unlimited number of common shares for unlimited consideration. The common shares are not redeemable or convertible. Each common share carries the right to receive notice of and one vote at a meeting of shareholders; the right to participate in any distribution of our assets on liquidation, dissolution or winding up; and the right to receive dividends if, as and when declared by the Board of Directors. As at April 7, 2021, there were 84,504,168 common shares outstanding. The common shares are listed on the TSX under the symbol “DSG” and listed on NASDAQ under the symbol “DSGX”.

 

 

The register of transfers of common shares is located in the offices of our stock transfer agent: Computershare Investor Services Inc., 100 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5J 2Y1.

 

 

We have not paid any dividends on our common shares to date. We may consider paying dividends on our common shares in the future when operational circumstances permit, having regard to, among other things, our earnings, cash flow and financial requirements as well as relevant legal and business considerations. We are prohibited by the Credit Facility from making a distribution (which includes a dividend) when there is an uncured event of default pursuant to the Credit Facility. At present there is no such event of default.

 

Please see the following table that identifies the marketplaces on which our common shares trade, as well as the fiscal 2021 monthly price ranges and volume traded on each exchange:

As of the date of this AIF, the most recent closing price for trading of our common shares was CAD$ 78.62 on the TSX and US$ 62.54 on the NASDAQ.

 

 

On November 29, 2004, our Board of Directors approved a shareholder rights plan (the “Rights Plan”) which was approved by the TSX and was approved by our shareholders on May 18, 2005. The primary objectives of the Rights Plan are to ensure that to the extent possible, in the context of an unsolicited take-over bid for of the common shares of our Company, that all shareholders of the Company are treated fairly and to ensure that the Board of Directors is provided with sufficient time to evaluate any such bid and to assess alternatives to maximize shareholder value that may include, without limitation, the continued implementation of the Company’s long-term strategic plans, as those may be modified by the Company from time to time. The Rights Plan is specifically designed to ensure that the following occurs following an unsolicited take-over bid: (i) there is adequate time for competing bids to emerge; (ii) shareholders have an equal opportunity to participate in such a bid; (iii) shareholders are provided with adequate time to properly assess the bid; and (iv) a reduction in the pressure to tender which may be encountered by a shareholder in the course of a bid. The Rights Plan creates a right that attaches to each present and subsequently issued common share. Until the separation time, which typically occurs at the time of an unsolicited take-over bid, whereby an offeror (including persons acting jointly or in concert with the offeror) acquires or attempts to acquire 20% or more of our common shares, the rights are not separable from the common shares, are not exercisable and no separate rights certificates are issued. Each right entitles the holder, other than the 20% offeror, from and after the separation time and before

the expiration time, to acquire one of our common shares at 50% of the market price at the time of exercise. The continuation of the Rights Plan must be approved by shareholders every three years. On each of June 2, 2011, May 29, 2014, June 1, 2017 and May 28, 2020, our shareholders approved certain amendments to the Rights Plan and approved the continued effectiveness of the Rights Plan. The Rights Plan will expire at the termination of our annual meeting of the shareholders to be held in the 2023 calendar year, unless its continued existence is approved by the shareholders before such expiration.

ITEM 7

DIRECTORS AND EXECUTIVE OFFICERS

 

 

The following table sets forth the name, location of residence and office held by each of our executive officers and directors as at April 7, 2021. Each director is elected at the annual meeting of shareholders or appointed pursuant to the provisions of our by-laws and applicable laws to serve until the next annual meeting or until a successor is elected or appointed, subject to earlier resignation by the director.

Notes:

Information about each of our directors and executive officers, including his or her respective principal occupation during at least the five years preceding January 31, 2021, is as follows:

childhood education schools across the United States. Between January 2014 and August 2019, Mr. Maple was the President of First Student, Inc., a subsidiary of United Kingdom based publicly-traded First Group plc. First Group plc is the leading transport operator in the United Kingdom and North America, providing solutions encompassing student bus transportation and public rail. Mr. Maple’s portfolio at First Student included 57,000 employees focused on providing more than 5.5 million passenger journeys daily across the US and Canada. Prior to serving as President of First Group, from 2006 to January 2014, Mr. Maple was President of Aramark Education where he had responsibility for more than 15,000 employees serving more than 4,500 US schools with food preparation, facilities management and related services. Prior to his role as President of Aramark Education, from 2003 to 2006, Mr. Maple held senior executive management positions at Aramark. Prior to serving in an executive role at Aramark, from 1994 to 2003, Mr. Maple served as an Area Vice President at Coors Brewing and in several other management roles. Prior to 1994, Mr. Maple held roles at Kraft-General Foods, PepsiCola and The Quaker Oats Company. Mr. Maple has a Bachelor of Science, Business Administration, Accounting from the University of Tennessee. Mr. Maple has served on numerous charitable and community-based boards and has been an active participant in organizations supporting primary and secondary schools and communities across North America.

 

York Stock Exchange-listed provider of services to help companies produce and manage their shareholder, investor and marketing & business communications, from 2006 until its acquisition by R.R. Donnelley & Sons in 2010. Prior to Bowne & Company, from 1988 to 2006, Mr. Walker was an executive with Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corporation a motion picture theatre exhibition chain, including sixteen years as Chief Financial Officer. Prior thereto, Mr. Walker served for six years as Controller and Principal Accounting Officer of Corporate Property Investors, then one of the largest real estate investment trusts in the United States. Mr. Walker also served for six years as Treasurer and Assistant Corporate Controller of Princess Hotels International a company involved in the ownership and operation of luxury resort hotels, real estate and timesharing developments. Mr. Walker started his career in the New York office of then-Price Waterhouse. Mr. Walker is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the New York State Society of CPAs.

To our knowledge, as at April 7, 2021, our directors and executive officers as a group beneficially owned, or controlled or directed, directly or indirectly, 273,584 of our common shares, representing approximately 0.32% of the common shares then outstanding.

 

 

Our Board of Directors currently has four committees: the Audit Committee; the Compensation Committee; the Corporate Governance Committee; and the Nominating Committee. The committees, their mandates and membership are discussed below.

 

Audit Committee

The primary functions of the Audit Committee are to oversee the accounting and financial reporting practices of the Company and the audits of the Company's financial statements, including assisting the Board in fulfilling its responsibilities in reviewing: financial disclosures and internal controls over financial reporting; monitoring the system of internal control and overall enterprise risk management; monitoring the Company's compliance with Applicable Requirements (as defined in Descartes’ Audit Committee charter); overseeing internal audit functions; selecting the auditors for shareholder approval; reviewing the qualifications, independence and performance of the auditors; reviewing the qualifications, independence and performance of the Company's financial management; reviewing related party transactions involving the Company and its Board or executive management.

The Board of Directors has adopted an amended Audit Committee charter setting out the scope of the Audit Committee’s functions, responsibilities and membership requirements. A copy of that charter is attached as Appendix “A” to this AIF.

The Audit Committee is currently composed of three independent directors: Mr. John J. Walker (Chair), Ms. Deborah Close and Mr. Eric Demirian. The Board of Directors has resolved that Mr. Walker and Mr. Demirian are each an “audit committee financial expert” as defined in paragraph 8(b) of General Instruction B to Form 40-F promulgated by the Securities and Exchange Commission and that each is financially sophisticated for the purposes of NASDAQ Rule 5605(c)(2)(A).

The following sets out the education and experience of the members of the Audit Committee, each of whom is independent and financially literate:

 

The Audit Committee has adopted specific policies and procedures for the engagement of non-audit services from our independent auditor. Those procedures are attached at Appendix “B” to this AIF.

 

Compensation Committee

The Compensation Committee is appointed by the Board of Directors to discharge the Board's duties and responsibilities relating to the compensation of the Company's Chief Executive Officer and senior management, as well as to review the human resource policies and practices that cover the Company's employees. The Compensation Committee is currently composed of three independent directors: Ms. Deborah Close (Chair), Mr. Dennis Maple and Ms. Jane O’Hagan.

Corporate Governance Committee

The Corporate Governance Committee is primarily responsible for overseeing Descartes' corporate governance policies and activities. The Corporate Governance Committee reviews and maintains the Board of Directors governing documents in compliance with the Code of Business Conduct and Ethics. The Corporate Governance Committee is currently composed of three independent directors: Ms. Jane O’Hagan (Chair), Mr. Eric Demirian, and Mr. John Walker.

Nominating Committee

The primary function of the Nominating Committee is to assist the Board of Directors in identifying, recruiting and nominating suitable candidates to serve on the Board of Directors. The Nominating Committee is currently composed of three independent directors: Mr. Dennis Maple (Chair), Ms. Jane

O’Hagan and Mr. John Walker.

ITEM 8

EXTERNAL AUDITORS

For the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021, our external auditors were KPMG LLP, Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm. KPMG LLP has been our external auditors since April 16, 2015. KPMG LLP have confirmed that they are independent with respect to the Company with the meaning of the relevant rules and related interpretations prescribed by the relevant professional bodies in Canada and any applicable legislation or regulations and also that they are independent accountants with respect to the Company under all relevant US professional and regulatory standards.

The following table sets forth the fees we have incurred in using the services of KPMG LLP in respect of the applicable fiscal years noted (all amounts in the table are in US dollars – amounts that were billed in Canadian dollars are converted to US dollars at the applicable exchange rate on the last day of the applicable fiscal period):

“Audit Fees” consist of fees and related disbursements for professional services rendered for the audit of the Company’s annual consolidated financial statements, reviews of the Company’s interim consolidated financial statements, services provided in connection with regulatory filings and statutory audits of certain of the Company’s foreign subsidiaries.

“Audit-Related Fees” consist of fees for assurance and related services that are reasonably related to the performance of the audit or review of the Company’s financial statements and are not reported as “Audit Fees”.

The above amounts are exclusive of any related taxes but are inclusive of disbursements charged to the Company.

ITEM 9

LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

1.

The primary functions of the Audit Committee are to oversee the accounting and financial reporting practices of The Descartes Systems Group Inc. (the “Company”) and the audits of the Company’s financial statements and to exercise the responsibilities and duties set forth below, including, but not limited to, assisting the Board of Directors (the “Board”) in fulfilling its responsibilities in respect of the following: reviewing financial disclosures and internal controls over financial reporting; monitoring the system of internal control and compliance with Applicable Requirements (as defined below); selecting the auditors for shareholder approval; reviewing the qualifications, independence and performance of the auditors and the qualifications and performance of the Company’s financial management; oversight of overall risk management within the Company; oversight of the Company’s internal audit function; and reviewing related party transactions.

1.

Composition - The Audit Committee shall consist of not less than three independent members of the Board. At the invitation of the Audit Committee, members of the Company’s management and others may attend Audit Committee meetings as the Audit Committee considers necessary or desirable.

2.

Appointment and Removal of Audit Committee Members - Each member of the Audit Committee shall be appointed by the Board on an annual basis and shall serve at the pleasure of the Board, or until the earlier of (a) the close of the next annual meeting of the Company’s shareholders at which the member's term of office expires, (b) the death of the member, or (c) the resignation, disqualification or removal of the member from the Audit Committee or from the Board. The Board may fill a vacancy in the membership of the Audit Committee.

3.

Chair - At the time of the annual appointment of the members of the Audit Committee, the Board shall appoint a Chair of the Audit Committee. The Chair

shall: be a member of the Audit Committee, preside over all Audit Committee meetings that he or she attends, coordinate the Audit Committee's compliance with this mandate, work with management to develop the Audit Committee's annual work-plan and provide reports of the Audit Committee to the Board.

4.

Independence - Each member of the Audit Committee shall meet the requirements of applicable law and any applicable requirements promulgated by any exchange upon which securities of the Company are traded, or any governmental or regulatory body exercising authority over the Company, as are in effect from time to time (collectively, the “Applicable Requirements”) related to independence and audit committee composition.

5.

Financial Expertise - At the time of his or her appointment to the Audit Committee, each member of the Audit Committee shall be able to read and understand fundamental financial statements, including a balance sheet, cash flow statement and income statement, be “financially literate” as defined under Applicable Requirements, and shall not have participated in the preparation of the financial statements of the Company or any current subsidiary of the Company at any time during the preceding three years.  At least one member of the Audit Committee shall have past employment experience in financing or accounting, requisite professional certification in accounting, or other comparable experience or background which results in the individual’s financial sophistication, including being or having been a Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer or other senior officer with financial oversight responsibilities.  Further, at least one member of the Audit Committee shall qualify as an “audit committee financial expert” (as such term is defined under the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rules).

1.

Meetings - The members of the Audit Committee shall hold meetings as are required to carry out this mandate, and in any case no less than four meetings annually. The external auditors are entitled to attend and be heard at each quarterly Audit Committee meeting scheduled to consider the Company’s financial statements. The Chair, any member of the Audit Committee, the external auditors, the Chair of the Board, the Lead Director, the Chief Executive Officer or the Chief Financial Officer may call a meeting of the Audit Committee by

notifying the Company’s Corporate Secretary who will notify the members of the Audit Committee. The Chair shall chair all Audit Committee meetings that he or she attends, and in the absence of the Chair, the members of the Audit Committee present may appoint a chair from their number for a meeting.

2.

Secretary and Minutes - The Corporate Secretary, his or her designate or any other person the Audit Committee requests, shall act as secretary at Audit Committee meetings. Minutes of Audit Committee meetings shall be recorded and maintained by the Corporate Secretary and subsequently presented to the Audit Committee for approval.

3.

Quorum - A majority of the members of the Audit Committee shall constitute a quorum.

4.

Access to Management and Outside Advisors - The Audit Committee shall have unrestricted access to the Company’s management and employees and the books and records of the Company, and, from time to time may hold unscheduled or regularly scheduled meetings or portions of regularly scheduled meetings with the auditor, the Chief Financial Officer, the Chief Operating Officer, President or the Chief Executive Officer. The Audit Committee shall have the authority to conduct investigations into any matters within its scope of responsibilities, retain external legal counsel, consultants or other advisors to assist it in fulfilling its responsibilities and to set and pay the respective compensation for these advisors without consulting or obtaining the approval of the Board or any Company officer. The Company shall provide appropriate funding, as determined by the Audit Committee, for the services of these advisors.

5.

Meetings Without Management - The Audit Committee shall hold unscheduled or regularly scheduled meetings, or portions of regularly scheduled meetings, at which management is not present.

1.

Financial Reports

a.

General - The Audit Committee is responsible for overseeing the Company’s accounting and financial reporting practices and the audits of the Company’s financial statements. Management is responsible for the preparation, presentation and integrity of the Company’s financial statements and financial disclosures and for the appropriateness of the accounting principles and the reporting policies used by the Company. The auditors are responsible for auditing the Company’s annual consolidated financial statements and for reviewing the Company’s unaudited interim financial statements.

b.

Review of Annual Financial Reports - The Audit Committee shall review the annual consolidated audited financial statements of the Company prepared by management, the auditors' report thereon and the related management's discussion and analysis of the Company’s financial condition and results of operation (“MD&A”). After completing its review, if advisable, the Audit Committee shall approve and recommend for Board approval the annual financial statements and the related MD&A.

c.

Review of Interim Financial Reports - The Audit Committee shall review the interim consolidated financial statements of the Company prepared by management, the auditors’ review report thereon and the related MD&A. After completing its review, if advisable, the Audit Committee shall approve and recommend for Board approval the interim financial statements and the related MD&A.

d.

Review Considerations - In conducting its review of the annual financial statements or the interim financial statements, the Audit Committee shall:

i.

meet with management and the auditors to discuss the financial statements and MD&A;

ii.

review the disclosures in the financial statements;

iii.

review the audit report or review report prepared by the auditors;

iv.

review the qualitative judgments of the auditors about the appropriateness, not just the acceptability, of accounting principles and financial disclosure practices used or proposed to be adopted by the Company;

v.

discuss with management, the auditors and internal legal counsel, as requested, any litigation claim or other contingency that could have a material effect on the financial statements;

vi.

review the accounting policies followed and critical accounting and other significant estimates and judgments underlying the financial statements as presented by management;

vii.

review any material effects of regulatory accounting initiatives or off-balance sheet structures on the financial statements as presented by management;

viii.

review any material changes in accounting policies and any significant changes in accounting practices and their impact on the financial statements as presented by management;

ix.

review the methods used to account for significant unusual transactions;

x.

review the effect of significant accounting policies in controversial or emerging areas for which there is a lack of authoritative guidance or consensus;

xi.

review significant recorded and unrecorded audit adjustments;

xii.

review any  material   accounting   issues   among  management   and the auditors;

xiii.

review management's report on the effectiveness of internal controls over financial reporting;

xiv.

review the factors identified by management as factors that may affect future financial results;

xv.

review results of the Company’s audit committee hotline program; and

xvi.

review any other matters, related to the financial statements, that are brought forward by the auditors, management or which are required to be communicated to the Audit Committee under accounting policies, auditing standards or Applicable Requirements.

e.

Approval of Other Financial Disclosures - The Audit Committee shall review and, if advisable, approve and recommend for Board approval financial disclosure in a prospectus or other securities offering document of the Company, press releases disclosing financial results of the Company and any other material financial disclosure, including financial guidance provided to analysts, rating agencies or otherwise publicly disseminated.

2.

Independent Auditors

a.

General -The Audit Committee shall be responsible for oversight of the work of the auditors, including the auditors’ work in preparing or issuing an audit report, performing other audit, review or attest services or any other related work.

b.

Appointment and Compensation - The Audit Committee shall review and, if advisable, select and recommend for Board and shareholder approval the appointment of the auditors. The Audit Committee shall have ultimate authority to approve all audit engagement terms and fees, including the auditors’ audit plan.

c.

Resolution of Disagreements – Review all reportable events, including any disagreements, unresolved issues and consultations (as those terms are defined by Applicable Requirements), with the Company’s auditors, whether or not there is to be a change of auditors.

d.

Change of Auditors – When the Audit Committee determines to recommend a change of auditors or the auditors are otherwise terminated or resign, the Audit Committee shall review all issues related to the change of auditors, including the information required to be disclosed by applicable legal requirements and the planned steps for an orderly transition.

e.

Discussions with Auditors – At least annually, the Audit Committee shall discuss with the auditors such matters as are required by applicable auditing standards to be discussed by the auditors with the audit committee, including the matters required to be discussed by applicable auditing standards.

f.

Audit Plan - At least annually, the Audit Committee shall review a

summary of the auditors' annual audit plan. The Audit Committee shall consider and review with the auditors any material changes to the scope of the plan.

g.

Quarterly Review Report - The Audit Committee shall review a report prepared by the auditors in respect of each of the interim financial statements of the Company.

h.

Independence of Auditors - At least annually, and before the auditors issue their report on the annual financial statements, the Audit Committee shall: obtain from the auditors a formal written statement describing all relationships between the auditors and the Company; discuss with the auditors any disclosed relationships or services that may impact the objectivity and independence of the auditors; and obtain written confirmation from the auditors that they are objective and independent within the meaning of the applicable Rules of Professional Conduct/Code of Ethics adopted by the provincial institute or order of chartered accountants to which it belongs and other Applicable Requirements. The Audit Committee shall take appropriate action to oversee the independence of the auditors.

i.

Evaluation and Rotation of Lead Partner - At least annually, the Audit Committee shall review the qualifications and performance of the lead partner(s) of the auditors. The Audit Committee shall obtain a report from the auditors annually verifying that the lead partner of the auditors has served in that capacity for no more than five fiscal years of the Company and that the engagement team collectively possesses the experience and competence to perform an appropriate audit.

j.

Evaluation of performance and audit quality –  the Audit Committee shall review and evaluate the performance of the external auditor to assess the quality of the audit and the services performed by the external auditor.

k.

Requirement for Pre-Approval of Non-Audit Services - The Audit Committee shall approve in advance any retainer of the auditors to perform any non-audit service to the Company that it deems advisable in accordance with Applicable Requirements, and Board approved policies and procedures. The Audit Committee may delegate pre-approval

authority to a member of the Audit Committee. The decisions of any member of the Audit Committee to whom this authority has been delegated must be presented to the full Audit Committee at its next scheduled Audit Committee meeting.

l.

Review of Professional Services - The Audit Committee shall review reports from management at each quarterly Audit Committee meeting scheduled to consider the Company’s financial statements concerning expenses incurred in the quarter for the services of any accounting firm (other than the appointed auditor) engaged to provide services to the Company, in each case to the extent that the amount of such expenses in respect of any such firm exceeds $100,000.

m.

Approval of Hiring Policies - The Audit Committee shall review and approve the Company’s hiring policies regarding partners, employees and former partners and employees of the present and former external auditors of the Company.

3.

Internal Controls

a.

General - The Audit Committee shall review reports from management on the nature, establishment, monitoring and effectiveness of the Company’s system of internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures (as those terms are defined in the Applicable Requirements).

b.

Establishment, Review and Approval - The Audit Committee shall require management to establish and maintain appropriate systems of internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures in accordance with Applicable Requirements and guidance and to review, evaluate and approve these controls and procedures. At least annually, the Audit Committee shall consider and review with management and the auditors:

i.

the effectiveness of, or weaknesses or deficiencies in the design or operation of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures, and the impact of any identified weaknesses in these controls and procedures on management's conclusions;

ii.

any significant changes in internal control over financial reporting that are disclosed, or considered for disclosure, including those in the Company’s periodic regulatory filings;

iii.

the auditors’ report on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting;

iv.

any material issues raised by any inquiry or investigation by the Company’s regulators;

v.

the Company’s fraud prevention and detection program, including deficiencies in internal controls that may impact the integrity of financial information, or may expose the Company to other significant internal or external fraud losses and the extent of those losses and any disciplinary action in respect of fraud taken against management or other employees who have a significant role in financial reporting; and

vi.

any related significant issues and recommendations of the auditors together with management's responses thereto, including the timetable for implementation of recommendations to correct weaknesses in internal controls over financial reporting and disclosure controls.

c.

General – In addition to being responsible for overseeing risks related to the Company’s accounting, financial statements, financial reporting process and internal controls related to financial reporting, the Audit Committee is also responsible for overseeing management’s implementation and operation of the enterprise risk management program, as documented in the Risk Management Policy established by the Board of Directors.   The risk oversight process is the means by which the Board of Directors determines that the Company has in place an effective process for identifying, assessing, managing and monitoring key risks in the business on a continuous basis as the business evolves.

d.

Management Responsibilities - Management is responsible for:

i.

ensuring the development and implementation of the Risk Management process.  Risk Management is the framework required to identify, assess and develop strategies to manage and monitor control risks;

ii.

the design and implementation of the actions, measures and/or processes to mitigate to an appropriate level all material risks in the business (the “Risk Controls”) including the design and implementation of appropriate crisis preparedness, business continuity and disaster recovery plans; and

iii.

monitoring overall compliance with and adherence to the Risk Management Policy as established by the Board of Directors.

e.

Audit Committee Responsibilities - The Audit Committee is responsible for:

i.

at least annually, reviewing the effectiveness of the Risk Management program that is in place.  As part of its review, the Audit Committee will review reports prepared by management that assess the risks in the business, identifies the Risk Controls that are in place to mitigate and manage these risks to an appropriate level, and evaluate the residual risk in the business (the risk that remains after implementation of the Risk Controls);

ii.

periodically monitor risk and risk management capabilities within the Company including crisis preparedness, business continuity and disaster recovery plans; and

iii.

reporting to the Board of Directors on its oversight of the Company’s Risk Management program,  including an assessment of whether the program is being followed and is effective.

f.

Computerized Information Systems - The Audit Committee shall review reports from the Company’s management containing its assessment of the adequacy of the Company’s computerized information system controls and security and related risks, including cybersecurity risk.

4.

Internal Audit – the Audit Committee may choose to establish and maintain an

Internal Audit function from time to time.   If so established, the internal audit function will report directly to the Chair of the Audit Committee and administratively to the Chief Financial Officer.  In relation to the internal audit function, if so established and maintained, the Audit Committee shall:

a.

Establish an internal audit charter and review and approve any necessary revisions to such charter on an annual basis;

b.

review and evaluate the effectiveness of the internal audit function;

c.

review the  operating budget for the internal audit function including staffing levels and resources; and

d.

On a regular basis, meet with the head of the internal audit function without other members of management present.

5.

Compliance with Legal and Regulatory Requirements - The Audit Committee shall review reports from the Company’s Corporate Secretary and other management members on: legal or compliance matters that may have a material impact on the Company; the effectiveness of the Company’s compliance policies; and any material communications received from regulators. The Audit Committee shall review management's evaluation of and representations relating to compliance with specific Applicable Requirements, and management's plans to remediate any deficiencies identified.

6.

Audit Committee Hotline Procedures - The Audit Committee shall establish procedures for (a) the receipt, retention, and treatment of complaints received by the Company regarding accounting, internal accounting controls, or auditing matters; and (b) the confidential, anonymous submission by employees of the Company of concerns regarding questionable accounting or auditing matters.  Any such complaints or concerns that are received shall be reviewed by the Audit Committee and, if the Audit Committee determines that the matter requires further investigation, it will direct the Chair of the Audit Committee to engage outside advisors, as it deems necessary or appropriate, to investigate the matter and will work with management and the Company’s general counsel to reach a satisfactory conclusion.

7.

Audit Committee Disclosure - The Audit Committee shall prepare, review and approve any audit committee disclosures required by Applicable Requirements in the Company’s disclosure documents.

8.

Related Party Transactions - The Audit Committee shall review the Company’s policies relating to any transactions between the Company and the executive officers of the Company or members of the Board. The Audit Committee will review and approve all payments to be made pursuant to any significant transactions concerning the Company (or any subsidiary of the Company) and involving any executive officer of the Company or member of the Board outside of the scope of approved compensation arrangements and customary expense reimbursement, recognizing the Audit Committee continues to review all expense reimbursement to the CEO.   For the purposes of the above, a “significant transaction” shall be deemed to include any transaction involving a payment or other consideration in excess of $10,000 in a single transaction or any combination of transactions within the same fiscal year of the Company.

9.

Requirement for Review and Approval of the CEO Business Expenses - The Chair of the Audit Committee shall review and approve the reimbursable business expenses incurred by the Chief Executive Officer of the Company in connection with the performance of his duties.  Such approval may be provided subsequent to reimbursement of such expenses.

10.

Review of Audit Committee Charter - On at least an annual basis, the Audit Committee shall, in conjunction with the Corporate Governance Committee, review and reassess the adequacy of this Audit Committee Charter.

11.

Delegation - The Audit Committee may, to the extent permissible by Applicable Requirements, designate a sub-committee to review any matter within this mandate as the Audit Committee deems appropriate.

1.

The Chair shall report to the Board, as required by Applicable Requirements or as deemed necessary by the Audit Committee or as requested by the Board, on matters arising at Audit Committee meetings and, where applicable, shall present the Audit Committee's recommendation to the Board for its approval.

1.

The Audit Committee shall, to the extent permissible by Applicable Requirements, have such additional authority as may be reasonably necessary or desirable, in the Audit Committee’s discretion, to exercise its powers and fulfill the duties under this mandate.

1.

This charter was last approved by the Audit Committee and Board on March 30, 2021.