Supply Chain Solutions
As previously described, Supply Chain solutions are focused on the distribution
and transportation operations of the enterprise. There are three main components
of Manhattan’s Supply Chain Solutions:
Distribution Management - These applications comprise Manhattan’s Warehouse
Management Solutions (WMS) commonly used to manage the complexity of the modern
distribution center. WMS manages the flow of goods and information across the
distribution center. The complete distribution management suite not only includes
capabilities focused on execution within the distribution center, but also on
the management of personnel, performance and the overall distribution center
layout. All of these solutions come together to provide the customer the most
productive workforce with an operation that can scale to meet the highest demands
during peak season, yet can still operate effectively and profitably throughout
the course of the year.
Transportation Management - Organizations today face a complex transportation
environment with ever-changing demands driven by macro-economic trends and governmental
regulations. Manhattan’s Transportation Management Solutions (TMS) are
designed to help shippers navigate their way through these demands while meeting
customer service expectations at the lowest possible freight costs. TMS components
include procurement and modeling tools to setup a network that can be successful,
along with planning, execution and settlement tools to manage day-to-day transportation
requirements. Manhattan Carrier is a suite of solutions built specifically to
help motor carriers optimize load assignments, minimize fuel costs, manage drivers’
hours of service and accommodate demand fluctuations.
Visibility - Crucial to effective supply chain management is visibility into
the movement of goods between locations in the supply chain and outside the
enterprise’s realm of control. Manhattan provides best in class visibility
and event management tools that not only provide alerts to when events occur
in the global supply chain, but also when they don’t occur (such as missing
a vessel overseas) that can have a cascading effect on production lines, freight
and most importantly, customer commitments.
Omnichannel Solutions
As omni-channel retail has placed new demands on organizations, it has also
created new software solution needs. These range from the ability to leverage
inventory across the entire network to meet any demand, to providing store associates
and call center representatives the means to take advantage of the available
inventory.
Omnichannel HQ - There is a wide range of new capabilities that must be leveraged
at a corporate or ‘central’ level in retail today in order to enable
best in class customer service, full inventory visibility, direct to client
distribution and seamless fulfillment operations. The goal is to enable an omnichannel
commerce platform that can be tapped into by any selling system—webstore,
ERP, point-of-sale, call center, mobile app, etc. in order to more cost-effectively
fulfill orders and inventory demand. Manhattan’s Enterprise Inventory
builds out a complete inventory availability picture that can be updated in
near-real time with feeds from the warehouse, the store and the network. Enterprise
Order Management merges this inventory availability data with demand feeds from
across the organization to match supply with demand in a way that satisfies
customer delivery expectations while also striving to maximize profitability.
Lastly, Manhattan offers a unique “customer engagement” solution
that enables telephone or web-based service center employees access to this
inventory picture as well as a complete customer sales and interaction history
to better and more profitably satisfy shopper needs, regardless of whether it
is an exchange, a return or a new order.
Omnichannel Store - As the consumer enters the store with more information
than ever, it is now vital to equip the sales associate with relevant information
and capabilities to satisfy that shopper’s every demand. Store solutions
include Point of Sale, available on mobile and fixed stations, to process purchase
transactions and Clienteling to provide the associate with a complete picture
of the shopper’s purchase history. Manhattan brings all of these solutions
together on a single mobile platform to enable retailers to offer unparalleled
service and convenience for the shopper.
Another important part of Local solutions is Store Inventory and Fulfillment.
Most retailers are now looking to leverage store inventory to fulfill ecommerce
demand (driving greater sales revenue with less inventory). In order to achieve
this, solutions that can accurately maintain inventory integrity and enable
productive, reliable fulfillment are required.
Inventory Solutions
The ability to accurately forecast demand and project inventory needs is heightened
by omnichannel retail requirements that change traditional approaches to inventory
management. Manhattan’s Inventory solutions address which products should
be carried and the quantity that will be needed at each location by date.
Inventory Optimization - This set of applications includes sophisticated demand
forecasting capabilities that can address the particularly challenging slow-moving
and intermittent products that frequently result in excess inventory due to
unpredictability. Also included is the Replenishment module that can evaluate
inventory needs across all locations and channels. This module can even suggest
transferring inventory between locations (warehouses or stores) or ‘protect’
merchandise at a store from online sales in order to save it for walk-in traffic.
Planning - Manhattan’s Planning solutions provide merchants the tools
they need to create channel-, store- or region-specific assortments. These tools
offer channel-specific metrics and methodologies that optimize the planning
process and maximize retailer revenues.
Manhattan SCALETM
SCALE is our portfolio of logistics execution solutions built on Microsoft’s
.NET® platform. Purpose built for rapid development and a value-based total
cost of ownership, it is targeted toward companies with execution-focused supply
chain needs that require speed-to-value, resource-light system configuration
and maintenance, and the ability to quickly scale their logistics operations
up or down in response to market fluctuations or business requirement changes.
SCALE combines the features of Trading Partner Management, Yard Management,
Optimization, Warehouse Management and Transportation Execution.
Because SCALE leverages a common platform, solutions share common data elements
and each user can access all applications through a single sign-on. Users also
can set up “dashboards” that enable easy access to real-time information
most relevant to their jobs. SCALE’s ease of deployment, operation and
support make it a popular choice for organizations operating in countries with
emerging and developing economies, and where technical support resources are
limited.
Technology Platform
Our solutions can be deployed on Linux, IBM System i, Microsoft’s .NET
computing platforms, as well as on all of the major public cloud infrastructures.
Because omnichannel and supply chain solutions necessarily interact with other
business operation systems, our solutions are designed to interoperate with
software from other providers as well as with a company’s existing legacy
systems. This interfacing and open system capability enables customers to continue
using existing computer resources and to choose among a wide variety of existing
and emerging computer hardware and peripheral technologies. We provide a framework
to facilitate rapid and reliable integration to any Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP) or host business system (including certified integration to both SAP and
Microsoft Dynamics AX). We also offer certain solutions in either on-premise
software or cloud computing models so that customers can select the option that
best meets their requirements for control, flexibility, cost of ownership, and
time-to-deployment.
Manhattan Active™ Solutions
As market conditions have evolved toward software-as-a-service models, Manhattan
has introduced its “Manhattan Active” solution suite. Manhattan
Active products are designed specifically to deliver seamlessly connected, always
current experiences. Like all Manhattan software, the solutions can be run on
any type of device – mobile, tablet, or desktop. Manhattan Active solutions
are sold directly in multi-year cloud subscription arrangements, typically for
a period of three to more years, providing clients with regular software updates
during the contract period to ensure access to the latest product features and
benefiting Manhattan with a highly predictable and regular revenue stream.
Maintenance
We offer a comprehensive program that provides our customers with software
upgrades for additional or improved functionality and technological advances
incorporating emerging supply chain and industry advances. Over the past three
years, our annual renewal rate of customers subscribing to comprehensive support
and enhancements has been greater than 90%. We are able to remotely access customer
systems to perform diagnostics, provide online assistance, and facilitate software
upgrades. We offer 24-hour customer support 365 days in the year, plus software
upgrades for an annual fee that is paid in advance and is based on the solutions
the customer has and the service level required. Software upgrades are provided
under this program on a when-and-if- available basis.
Professional Services
We advise and assist our customers in planning and implementing our solutions
through our global Professional Services Organization. To ensure successful
long-term customer relationships, consultants assist customers with the initial
deployment of our systems, the conversion and transfer of the customer’s
historical data onto our systems, and ongoing training, education, and system
upgrades. We believe our Professional Services teams enable customers to implement
our solutions knowledgeably and in the appropriate amount of time, help customers
achieve expected results from system investments, continuously identify new
opportunities for supply chain advancements and meaningfully add to our industry-specific
knowledge base to improve future implementations and product innovations.
Substantially all of our customers utilize some portion of our Professional
Services to implement and support our software solutions. Professional Services
typically are rendered under time and materials contracts, with services billed
by the hour. Professional Services sometimes are rendered under fixed-fee contracts,
with payments due on specific dates or milestones. We believe that increased
sales of our solutions will drive higher demand for our Professional Services.
Our Professional Services team delivers deep supply chain and enterprise commerce
domain expertise to our customers through industry-specific “best-practices”
protocols and processes developed through the collective knowledge we have gained
from 28 years of implementing our supply chain solutions worldwide. We also
extensively train our consulting personnel on enterprise commerce operations
and on our solutions.
Business consultants, systems analysts, and technical personnel assist customers
in all phases of implementing our systems, including planning and design, customer-specific
module configuration, on-site implementation or conversion from existing systems,
and integration with customer systems such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP),
web- and mobile-based commerce platforms, and Material Handling Equipment (MHE)
systems. At times, third-party consultants, such as those from major systems
integrators, assist our customers with certain implementations.
Training and Change Management Services
We offer training and change management services for new and existing users,
enabling our customers to align systems, people and processes. Services provided
by Manhattan training experts cover a wide range of support from the intended
design to the front-line of the customer’s business, including critical
end-user adoption with hands-on, live training in a virtualized Manhattan software
environment. These programs are provided at fixed fees per-person, per-class.
In addition, computer-based training programs can be purchased for a fixed fee
for use at client sites. Customers can also pursue certification at the Associate
or Professional level through our certification programs for Omni-channel, Supply
Chain or Inventory.
Manhattan Training and Change Management Services are offered under six categories:
Role-Based Training Paths, Comprehensive Training Programs, Change Management
Services, Individual Product Training Courses, End-User Enablement and Knowledge
Resources.
Hardware Sales
As a convenience for our customers, we resell a variety of hardware developed
and manufactured by others, including (but are not limited to) computer hardware,
radio frequency terminal networks, RFID chip readers, bar code printers and
scanners, and other peripherals. We resell all third-party hardware products
and related maintenance pursuant to agreements with manufacturers or through
distributor-authorized reseller agreements pursuant to which we are entitled
to purchase hardware products and services at discount prices and to receive
technical support in connection with product installations and any subsequent
product malfunctions. We do not maintain hardware inventory as we generally
purchase hardware from vendors only after receiving related customer orders.