Ritchie Bros. signed a multi-year agreement with Thoughtworks, a global technology consultancy, to accelerate its modernization and digitization journey.

“The industrial equipment industry is changing rapidly and Ritchie Bros, as a global market leader, is embarking on an accelerated journey to transform the company’s business through technology,” Baron Concors, chief information officer at Ritchie Bros., said. “I’m very excited about partnering with Thoughtworks to deliver our vision of a modern, digital marketplace that is seamless for our customers, employees and partners.”

Ritchie Bros. plans to implement a modern architecture to help drive business growth and scale and is embarking on a test-driven development approach to support its future development and new business models. Together, the Thoughtworks and Ritchie Bros. engineering teams will design and build the capabilities that will speed development of Ritchie Bros.’ digital marketplace ecosystem using software development lifecycle best practices, methodologies, processes, CI/CD tools and documentation.

“In today’s digital era, it is crucial for businesses to adapt to customers’ evolving preferences and needs. For Ritchie Bros., this means offering a seamless experience when transitioning between digital channels and auctions to make it as simple and easy as possible for customers,” Chris Murphy, CEO of Thoughtworks North America, said. “We’re extremely pleased to bring Thoughtworks’ 28-plus years of experience in applying lean and agile design thinking, technology and business strategy to Ritchie Bros.’ digital marketplace, powered by a human-centered customer experience.”