Velotic Launches as Independent Industrial Software Company: What Proficy-Kepware-ThingWorx Integration Means for Warehouse OT/IT Convergence
The gap between operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) in warehouse and logistics environments has been one of the most persistent — and most expensive — problems in supply chain operations. Conveyor sensors speak one language. Warehouse management systems speak another. ERP platforms sit in a third silo entirely. The result: blind spots, latency in decision-making, and millions in lost productivity.
On March 16, 2026, a new company called Velotic officially launched with a direct mandate to close that gap. Backed by TPG, Velotic brings together three of the most widely deployed industrial software platforms in the world — GE Vernova's Proficy (manufacturing execution and automation), PTC's Kepware (industrial device connectivity), and PTC's ThingWorx (industrial IoT data and analytics) — into a single, independent company with more than $300 million in revenue and a customer base spanning manufacturing, oil and gas, utilities, and increasingly, logistics and warehousing.
This is not a startup with a pitch deck. It is a restructuring of established industrial software into a unified platform purpose-built for the AI era — and the implications for warehouse operations are significant.
Why OT/IT Convergence Is the Warehouse's Biggest Unsolved Problem
Walk into most modern warehouses and you will find two parallel technology worlds operating in near-total isolation.
On the OT side, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), conveyor systems, sortation equipment, robotic arms, and sensor networks run the physical operation. These systems generate enormous volumes of real-time data — vibration readings, throughput counts, temperature logs, motor load curves — but that data typically stays locked inside proprietary protocols and local controllers.
On the IT side, warehouse management systems (WMS), enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms, transportation management systems (TMS), and demand planning tools manage the business logic. They decide what gets shipped, when, and to whom — but they operate with limited visibility into what is actually happening on the warehouse floor in real time.
The disconnect is not theoretical. According to a 2026 analysis published in Telecom Review Asia, integrated OT/IT systems in industrial environments have demonstrated an 18% reduction in energy consumption, a 22% reduction in machine downtime, and a 15% improvement in overall resource utilization compared to facilities running disconnected technology stacks. Those are not marginal gains — they are transformational.
Yet most warehouse operators still cobble together point-to-point integrations, custom middleware, and manual workarounds to bridge the OT/IT divide. The result is fragile, expensive, and fundamentally unable to support the real-time, AI-driven decision-making that modern logistics demands.
What Velotic Actually Brings Together
Velotic's value proposition is not just corporate consolidation — it is architectural. Each of its three component platforms solves a different layer of the OT/IT convergence stack:
Proficy (Manufacturing Execution System — MES): Originally developed within GE's industrial software portfolio, Proficy handles production management, automation, and quality control at the operations level. In warehouse contexts, MES-class systems manage work orders, track production-to-shipment workflows, and enforce process compliance. Proficy provides the execution layer that connects physical operations to business rules.
Kepware (Industrial Connectivity): Kepware is the de facto standard for industrial device connectivity, supporting more than 150 device drivers and protocols. It acts as the universal translator between PLCs, sensors, SCADA systems, and higher-level software platforms. For warehouses running equipment from multiple vendors — which is nearly all of them — Kepware eliminates the integration nightmare of proprietary protocols.
ThingWorx (Industrial IoT Applications and Analytics): ThingWorx provides the application layer for building industrial IoT solutions — real-time dashboards, predictive maintenance models, asset monitoring, and analytics. It transforms raw OT data into actionable intelligence that IT systems can consume and act on.
As Craig Resnick, Vice President at ARC Advisory Group, noted at the launch: the formation of Velotic "signals a shift in how industrial data, analytics, and operations technology can be delivered at scale."
Under previous ownership structures, these three platforms lived in separate corporate houses with separate roadmaps. Velotic's independence, led by CEO Brian Shepherd (a 25-year manufacturing software veteran formerly at Rockwell Automation and PTC) and Executive Chairman James Heppelmann (former PTC CEO), creates the conditions for genuine architectural integration rather than loose partnerships.
The Industrial IoT Market Context
Velotic's timing aligns with explosive growth in the industrial IoT market. The global industrial IoT sector is valued at approximately $514 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $2.4 trillion by 2035, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 16.8%, according to Precedence Research. Warehousing and logistics represent one of the fastest-growing segments within that market, driven by the proliferation of automated material handling systems, autonomous mobile robots, and sensor-dense fulfillment environments.
MHI's Top Supply Chain Trends for 2026 reinforces this trajectory. The industry group identified AI, automation, and real-time data as the second most impactful trend for the year, with MHI CEO John Paxton noting that "2026 marks a turning point where supply chains are not just reacting to disruption — they're anticipating it." But anticipation requires data, and data requires connectivity between OT and IT systems. That is precisely the problem Velotic is positioned to solve.
What This Means for Warehouse Operators
For logistics and warehousing leaders, Velotic's launch signals three important shifts:
1. The end of DIY integration. Most warehouse operators have spent years building custom middleware to connect their equipment to their business systems. A purpose-built, hardware-agnostic platform that handles device connectivity (Kepware), execution management (Proficy), and analytics (ThingWorx) in a unified stack replaces brittle custom integrations with a supported, scalable architecture.
2. AI readiness requires OT data. The industry's rush toward AI-driven warehouse optimization — predictive maintenance, dynamic slotting, autonomous routing — depends entirely on having clean, real-time OT data flowing into AI models. Without OT/IT convergence, AI initiatives in warehousing remain stuck analyzing IT-layer data (orders, inventory counts) without understanding the physical reality of the operation.
3. Vendor consolidation simplifies the technology stack. Running separate connectivity, MES, and IoT analytics platforms from different vendors creates version conflicts, support gaps, and integration debt. Velotic's unified approach reduces the number of vendor relationships, support contracts, and integration projects warehouse operators must manage.
How CXTMS Bridges OT/IT Convergence in Transportation Management
While Velotic addresses the convergence challenge inside the four walls of the warehouse, the same OT/IT divide exists across the broader supply chain — particularly in transportation management, where sensor data from trailers, GPS systems, and IoT-enabled cargo monitoring must flow seamlessly into TMS platforms for real-time decision-making.
CXTMS is designed from the ground up to ingest and act on both operational and business data streams. Whether it is integrating real-time trailer sensor data into load planning, connecting warehouse execution signals to carrier dispatch, or feeding IoT-generated shipment condition data into customer-facing visibility tools, CXTMS eliminates the gap between what is physically happening in the supply chain and what the business systems know about it.
The era of disconnected logistics technology stacks is ending. Companies like Velotic are accelerating that transition inside the warehouse. CXTMS is accelerating it across the entire transportation network.
Ready to unify your logistics technology stack? Request a CXTMS demo and see how integrated, real-time data transforms transportation management from reactive to predictive.
