THE DESCARTES SYSTEMS GROUP INC.

LETTER FROM THE CEO
Dear Shareholders,
Fiscal 2011 was a very successful year for Descartes’ customers and, as a result, our business. We continued our
unbridled focus on helping our customers achieve superior results using our leading logistics technology. Our
customers placed their trust in our dedicated and experienced team members to guide them with efficient, profitable
and compliant solutions that help them ship goods and deliver service. As our customers succeeded, our business
achieved similar success.
Our business also grew in fiscal 2011 as we listened to our customers’ suggestions for enhancements to our Global
Logistics Network. Early in the year, we combined with Belgium-based Porthus to expand our market-leading global
trade compliance expertise. We then acquired Canadian company Imanet to add solutions to help our customs broker
customers. Finally, we joined with Belgium-based Routing International to enhance our European mobile resource
management expertise. With these combinations, we find ourselves a bigger, stronger and more experienced business
that has an even broader depth of functionality available for our customers.
In fiscal 2011, our team members were focused on putting TIME on our side, with Thought leadership, Initiatives,
Market making and Excellence in operations. Our fiscal 2012 FOCUS is to Federate Our Customers by Uniting
Systems. What does this mean? We federate our customers by serving as a central coordination point operating a
network of connected networks. This federated network brings people, networks, communities, systems and
ecosystems together to solve complex problems. Our 2012 FOCUS is to expand this federated network by adding
complementary platforms through our “United by Design” partner program and enhanced functionality by acquiring
businesses that share our customer service priorities.
We believe that our federated network is ideal to solve logistics problems. Our customers face complicated delivery
challenges that require cooperation and collaboration between numerous parties, such as carriers (airplanes, trucks,
boats and trains), intermediaries (freight forwarders, third-party logistics providers and customs brokers), government
authorities (customs, census, taxation and security agencies) and the parties receiving or sending the shipment. These
complex problems need solutions that harness the power and participants of the entire logistics network and
community. Our Global Logistics Network has taken the numerous relationships that must exist to move a shipment
from Point A to Point B and made them available in the cloud. We have seen other businesses take collegial
relationships on-line to create an electronic Social Network. We’ve taken business relationships that are needed to
move goods and created the Global Logistics Network.
This technology and network is only as good as the results it helps our customers achieve. By keeping this in mind, we
were able to deliver superior operating results in fiscal 2011 and end the year with an exclamation point. We entered
fiscal 2012 with a strong balance sheet, a proven ability to execute and a landscape of consolidation opportunities that
can help make our customers even more successful. With continued FOCUS, we can continue to execute.
We look forward to continuing to deliver for you and our customers in the coming year.
Arthur Mesher,
Chief Executive Officer
Member of the Board of Directors
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