Push Possible
Manhattan Associates organises an annual event in Europe for EMEA customers. This was held Oct 8-10 in Amsterdam, 2018. Delegates included some of the top European (and quite a few global) retail names. The event is heavy on supply chain and logistics but targets the eCommerce sector.
Eddie Capel, CEO, Manhattan Associates kicked off the event in style.
We were treated to a press briefing by the CEO, SVP Product Management and the European MD.
In the evening prior to the press briefing we had the opportunity to talk to Brian Kinsella, SVP Product Management and Adam Kline, Sr Director Product Management over a dinner organised in the awesome Senses restaurant in central Amsterdam (recommended!).
The industry is buzzing with references to Automation & Robotics (see our Goods to Person Robotics 2018 report). In combination will all the various permutations possible in warehouse execution, the company has now invested heavily in R&Dover the last two years to create an overarching WMS system which can work with any other system in the sector. Skechers referred to Manhattan Associates as their "warehouse conductor" [paraphrased slightly]. At Skechers they have implemented a number of different systems and automated solutions which in themselves have min WMS's and robot operating systems in 'black boxes'. In using Manhattan Associates, Skechers feel they have the glue that ties all these solutions together. Neatly put!
Goods to Person Robotics by Exotec
Exotec Solutions (France, raised $17.7m in 2018) presented a use case together with CDiscount which was interesting. Exotec is a fast growing startup forecasting revenue of Euro 35m in 2019, up from Euro 0.7m in 2017.
Exotec Solutions presenting at #MAExchange
Note that we were invited to visit Exotec's facilities and will be supplying a special report on this in a few months time.
Manhattan Associates is a leader in the WMS and OMS space. However, its CCaaS system may need a bit of work as we have seen other players in the space with some pretty neat solutions. But... again... Manhattan has the advantage of selling its OMS with an integrated add-on CCaaS. Apparently there are currently 50 customers with the CCaaS, representing about 50% of all OMS customers.
## More to come shortly