Manhattan Associates looks to its partner relationships for new capabilities

For supply chain tech vendor Manhattan Associates, disparate software systems work best when they can all access the same sources of real-time data, so the company says it is increasingly applying that same philosophy to products outside of its product catalog.

In sessions delivered at its annual user conference held in Phoenix this week, Manhattan Associates said it can extend that supply chain “unification” concept beyond its own software to additional platforms and devices from partner companies like Google, Adyen, and Zebra. 

The approach spans the full range of steps in the e-commerce buying process, according to keynote session remarks from Manhattan’s SVP for product strategy, Brian Kinsella.

Through its partnership with web services provider Google, Manhattan says that it can drive more online sales for its retailer customers by generating instant shipping times for the delivery of a potential purchase. As an online shopper searches for a certain product across a number of websites, Google can quickly estimate the date it could hit their front doorstep, creating a more accurate estimate than the generic figure of 7-10 days often displayed on web browsers since it is related to a specific shopper. 

Through its partnership with financial tech platform Adyen, Manhattan says it gains the ability to handle new methods of enterprise payment methods for its clients, such as e-commerce retailer Alibaba Group’s Alipay, Chinese digital wallet provider WeChat’s WeChat Pay, and the buy-now-pay-later service Affirm.

And though its partnership with the logistics tech firm Zebra, Manhattan is expanding the use of the handheld computers and scanning guns commonly used in DCs to workers in-store retail applications, enabling new workflows. Since Zebra provides out-of-the-box support for scanning radio frequency identification (RFID) tags on certain of its mobile devices, Manhattan’s software systems can enable more accurate handling of inventory on the retail show floor.

In a demo at the user conference, Manhattan showed applications like: scanning a stack of newly delivered boxes on a cart to count the number of items without opening each box, scanning a shelf of t-shirts to perform an instant cycle count, activating a “find mode” function to search for missing items on the shop floor through audible prompts, and automatically ringing up the items in a shopping basket placed on the checkout counter at a point of sale (POS) station. 

Finally, in another step toward tighter relationships between Manhattan and its partners, the solutions integrator 4SiGHT Supply Chain Group today said it was “going all-in” to align its services exclusively with Manhattan, citing the company’s business growth and technology development. 

4SiGHT will launch a suite of services called 4ACTiVE that is designed to empower Manhattan Associates clients in optimizing the value of their Active solutions. “With a keen focus on the new Manhattan Active platform of solutions, we are consolidating our cumulative expertise gained from working with various supply chain software providers throughout our careers and directing it towards one exceptional software partner: Manhattan Associates,” Frank Camean, President and CEO of 4SiGHT, said in a release. “This strategic alignment allows us to deliver unparalleled value and support to our mutual clients as they embark on their journey with the cutting-edge Manhattan Active solutions.”