Manhattan Associates’ CEO Eddie Capel Reveals Essential Elements for Commerce-Ready Supply Chains

HOLLYWOOD, FL - May 6, 2014 - In the keynote presentation at today’s Momentum 2014 conference, Manhattan Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ: MANH) President and CEO Eddie Capel revealed two key essentials for how companies can get commerce-ready and maximize the profitability and scalability of their supply chains for today’s dynamic market.

The two key essentials, ready to sell and ready to execute, build on the theme for Momentum 2014 - Get Commerce-Ready - and complement Manhattan’s vision of Supply Chain Commerce. Supply Chain Commerce is the new role that supply chains play in the evolving world of digital commerce.

“Commerce-ready supply chains are ready to sell and ready to execute any way, anytime, anywhere – all the time,” said Capel. “In a market where peaks have become more extreme and cycle times have accelerated, you simply can’t build a distribution center that can handle maximum conditions year round. To be operationally and financially viable, networks need to dynamically flex in response to today’s changeable demand.”

Ready to Sell
To be “ready to sell,” enterprises must evolve from just fulfilling products across multiple channels to offering the right products to the right customer at the best margin even before the sale is made.

“When you consider all of the possible points of fulfillment today, the rules for what makes inventory ready to sell have mushroomed,” said Capel. “The challenge in today’s market is how to differentiate between inventory visibility and inventory availability. If companies wait until after an order is captured to figure out what merchandise makes sense to offer, it’s too late.”

To help companies optimize decisions on what inventory to sell prior to taking an order, Capel outlined Manhattan’s Available-to-Commerce™ vision, new ways to view and adjust the availability of inventory across channels and more efficiently leverage store fulfillment, which can contribute to higher operating margins and better execute omni-channel strategies.

Ready to Execute
“Ready to execute” supply chains must be scalable, dynamic and incorporate Flexible Fulfillment in order to adapt to market dynamics. Flexible Fulfillment is an approach that helps companies quickly respond to fluctuations in demand and strategically fulfill customer orders from the optimal source – such as a specific distribution center or within the store’s existing inventory. This establishes a scalable infrastructure to help supply chains respond to the highly seasonal, highly variable nature of demand; and ultimately get the customer whatever they need, whenever they need it — in a profitable manner.

In the keynote, Capel also demonstrated new tools to help companies create labor productivity gains and retain experienced employees. See today’s related release: “Manhattan Associates Showcases Mobile Innovations at Momentum 2014.”

Receive up-to-date product, customer and partner news directly from Manhattan Associates on Twitter and Facebook.

About Manhattan Associates
Manhattan Associates brings companies closer to their customers. We design, build and deliver market-leading Supply Chain Commerce solutions that drive top line growth by converging front-end sales with back-end supply chain execution and efficiency. Our software, platform technology and unmatched experience help our customers around the world adapt to the challenges of the omni-channel marketplace. For more information, please visit www.manh.com.