The UK subsidiaries of three German companies – Rittal, ePlan and Phoenix Contact – have formed a strategic partnership to offer customers a co-ordinated package of services from planning control panels to producing terminal markings for the cables used in the final design.

The partnership is based on a similar partnership that has operated in Germany for about a decade. To kick off the UK collaboration, the companies are organising a series of workshops and seminars around the UK starting in May. These will cover lean engineering and other issues.

The collaboration will link ePlan’s computer-aided engineering software to Phoenix’s labelling technologies. Customers can email projects to Phoenix which will produce the rails with the appropriate labels.