DALLAS -- Supply chain services consultants Riverwood Solutions has opened a software development center in St. Petersburg, Russia, designed to help tech companies improve their manufacturing, product operations, and supply chain performance. 

The firm said it was attracted to St. Petersburg because of its large pool of software engineers.

"Developing a limited suite of software products for our target markets allows Riverwood Solutions to leverage not only the company's proven, proprietary processes and methodologies, but also its extensive warehouse of data on actual supplier performance collected by our team from factories in more than two dozen countries on five continents," said Ron Keith, executive chairman of Riverwood Solutions.

"Software solutions increasingly have the potential to drive the technology products industry to the next frontier of operational efficiencies and cost reduction in today's global supply chains. There is a significant demand from our customers for software solutions to further accelerate product value chains -- from concept to market, at optimal cost," says Akhil Oltikar, vice president of supply chain solutions at Riverwood Solutions. "St. Petersburg offers a vast pool of software development talent to this effect through its established Universities and software R&D centers."

Riverwood is headed by several former Flextronics executives and is cofunded by Michael Marks, former CEO of Flextronics.