July/Aug 2003

New branding is on the way for Manhattan Associates, the leading supply-chain execution and warehouse management specialist. Out will go familiar names such as PkMS for warehouse management and SmartInfo for visibility products; instead there will be a range of "solution sets" built round three key application areas - warehouse management, transport management and trading partner management.

Reflecting this more integrated approach to its product portfolio, the company has announced what it terms an integrated, modularised application suite, which includes all three of the components in its rationalised product structure. They can be implemented individually or as a complete package, it says, to provide an end-to-end supply chain execution solution.

Highlights of the enhanced system include an "executive dashboard" (a single sign-on point for all components of the application); slotting optimisation enhancements in the warehouse module; a dynamic enquiry builder; and new global trading compliance enhancements.

The company admits there was some internal debate about dropping established its brand names, but decided there was more to be gained than lost by being able to promote simplified groups of products. The change should also help the company move its market image further away from pure warehouse management and towards all-round supply-chain management. The full European relaunch is due in October.

As previewed in our last issue, Manhattan has now announced a new product called RFID in a Box, a "bundled" solution for retailers which has been developed jointly with RFID specialist Alien Technology Corporation. This harnesses the use of low-cost radio frequency identification tags and hardware to offer a ready-made solution including features such as live product tracking and real-time inventory control.

Finally, Manhattan says it has completed work on a new system under which it will synchronise future product updates across multiple computing platforms.