Magic Quadrant For Warehouse 2013

This research note is restricted to the personal use of ryan.mahoney@jda.
com
This research note is restricted to the personal use of ryan.mahoney@jda.com
G00251406
Magic Quadrant for Warehouse Management
Systems
Published: 15 May 2013
Analyst(s): C. Dwight Klappich
WMS demand remains resilient and buyer sentiment is concrete. WMS
applications are mature and approaching parity, but vendor innovation
continues.
Market Definition/Description
Gartner defines a warehouse management system (WMS) as a software application that helps
manage the operations of a warehouse or distribution center. WMS applications offer capabilities
such as receiving, put-away, stock locator, inventory management, cycle counting, task
interleaving, wave planning, order allocation, order picking, replenishment, packing, shipping, labor
management and automated material handling equipment interfaces (see "Apply an Architectural
Framework to Stratifying Warehouse Management Systems"). Radio frequency (RF) systems, when
used in conjunction with bar codes and possibly RFID, provide the foundation of a WMS, delivering
accurate information in real time. Gartner includes integrated functionality such as voice picking,
parcel manifesting, value-added services, light manufacturing/kitting and third-party logistics (3PL)
billing as components of a WMS evaluation. This is because many buyers now demand that
these components be included in a large number of WMS engagements.
The WMS market breaks down into four types of vendors, the first three of which are covered in this
research:
Application megasuite vendors: These vendors offer broad portfolios of applications across
most application categories (for example, front office, back office, supply chain management
[SCM], logistics, CRM and product life cycle management). Infor, Oracle and SAP are
considered megasuite vendors.
SCM/logistics suite vendors: These vendors offer a portfolio of applications focused primarily
on SCM or logistics, but not other areas. While these vendors might offer a variety of SCM or
logistics solutions, they do not necessarily offer an integrated platform (although some do).
Vendors in this category include JDA Software and Manhattan Associates.
Specialist WMS: These vendors focus primarily on WMS, although they might offer some
additional capabilities.
WMS component vendors: Not covered in this research, these vendors focus on best-of-
breed components that can be used to supplement a WMS for example, workforce
management, slotting optimization, yard management or dock/appointment scheduling.
Magic Quadrant
Figure 1. Magic Quadrant for Warehouse Management Systems
Source: Gartner (May 2013)
Vendor Strengths and Cautions
@logistics Reply
@logistics Reply is part of the Reply group, a Europe-based company that provides a wide array of
IT services. Reply has revenue of around 400 million, with a primary focus on consulting, system
integration, application management and business process outsourcing services. Reply offers its
services to multiple industries, with more than half of its revenue in product-centric industries such
as manufacturing, telecommunications and high tech.
Page 2 of 40 Gartner, Inc. | G00251406
@logistics Reply has been in business for 15 years, focusing on services and software applications
in the area of supply chain execution (SCE) most notably, WMSs. It offers two WMS solutions:
Click Reply and SideUp Reply. Click Reply is a Web-based solution that can be deployed on-
premises or hosted, while SideUp Reply is a multitenant software as a service (SaaS) WMS.
@logistics Reply claims to have 300 named WMS customers; a high percentage of them are in Italy,
and most are in Europe.
Strengths
@logistics Reply has a notable market presence in Europe, but few customers in other
geographies.
The vendor has broad industry coverage in 3PL, automotive, grocery and food,
pharmaceuticals, chemicals, telcos, and fashion. It is particularly strong in service parts
logistics, with several notable customers.
The vendor offers WMS on-premises or hosted with Click Reply, and offers multitenant SaaS
with its SideUp Reply solution. While several WMS vendors have taken their on-premises
applications and now host them as single instances in the cloud, @logistics Reply offers this
with Click Reply but its SideUp solution was specifically engineered for multitenant SaaS.
Although @logistics Reply is a modest-size WMS provider, it is part of a much larger

organization with strong consulting and system integration capabilities so company viability
and consulting capacity are better when compared with similar-size, stand-alone WMS
providers.
The company has notable customers with complex warehouse environments.
It offers capable, but not differentiated, core WMS capabilities.

Cautions
@logistics Reply is primarily focused in Europe, but has begun expansion into other
geographies.
WMSs and packaged business applications are not the core business of the parent
organization, Reply, which could result in long-term focus and commitment struggles.
The vendor is not as broad or proven in extended WMS capabilities as the Leaders are.
It is not pursuing a comprehensive SCE convergence strategy at this time.

Accellos
Accellos is a small but growing vendor of SCE products covering WMSs, transportation and
electronic data interchange (EDI). It offers two WMS solutions: AccellosOne WMS is focused on, but
not necessarily limited to, the small or midsize business (SMB) WMS market, and AccellosOne
Enterprise 3PL Warehouse Management is focused on midsize to large logistics companies. The
vendor also offers AccellosOne Collect, a bar code data collection solution for Microsoft Dynamics.
Gartner, Inc. | G00251406 Page 3 of 40
The company originally grew through acquisition, but since stabilizing its product portfolio, growth
has largely been organic. Accellos has added 750 new customers across its product lines since
2009, including 75 new WMS customers in 2012. The vendor has approximately $35 million in
annual revenue and 160 employees. It is headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with offices
in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia. Gartner estimates that Accellos has more than 3,000
total customers, with more than 750 WMS customers worldwide and integrations with several ERP
applications. Unlike many vendors that have added some 3PL capabilities to their base WMSs,
AccellosOne Enterprise 3PL Warehouse Management was designed from the beginning to address
the multitenant (customer) needs of 3PL, with specialized capabilities for things like service-level
agreements, customer profitability and billing. Accellos is one of the few vendors innovating
specifically around the needs of SMB warehouse operations, and it has been dedicated to
exploiting the current generation of Microsoft technologies to do so.
Strengths
Accellos focuses on the needs of SMB WMS users, with an emphasis on providing ease of use,
minimized time to value and low total cost of ownership (TCO).
AccellosOne WMS was designed specifically with SMBs in mind it's not a solution designed
for the high end of the market, with just some functionality disabled.
AccellosOne Enterprise 3PL Warehouse Management offers a product designed specifically for
the needs of midsize to large 3PL providers, with significant concentrations in cold-storage and
retail fulfillment.
Accellos has partnerships and integrations with popular SMB ERP solutions with prepackaged
connectors for Acumatica (new cloud ERP), Microsoft, NetSuite (cloud ERP/CRM), Sage and
SAP Business One.
The vendor has one of the lowest TCOs, with price points for software and services starting well
below similar systems.
Accellos has an SCE convergence strategy, providing WMSs and other application areas, such
as transportation management and EDI, on a common technical platform called AccellosOne
Platform.
Accellos is very Microsoft-centric and takes advantage of contemporary Microsoft technologies.

It is innovating in several areas, such as releasing two Windows 8 tablet solutions.
The vendor has an intriguing cloud strategy wherein the same product can be delivered on-
premises, as private cloud and as multitenant SaaS, which provides customers with
deployment flexibility.
Cautions
Accellos is small and could be an acquisition target; however, it was purchased by Accel-KKR
in 2012, and it is uncommon for vendors to be sold soon after an ownership change occurs.
Although it sells globally, the majority (90%) of its customers and resources are in North
America.
The vendor has limited sales capacity, but it continues to grow rapidly.
While it is growing its new customers rapidly, this could stress service capacity, which typically
scales slower than sales.
Companies outside North America that are considering Accellos should evaluate resource
availability as much as functionality. However, the company has more than 100 international
customers and strategic partners in the U.K., South Africa, Latin America and Australia that are
capable of selling, implementing and supporting customers in those regions.
AccellosOne WMS is aimed at what Gartner refers to as Level 2 or lower warehouses, but it can
support up to Level 3. Users with more sophisticated needs should rigorously test the vendor's
ability to scale up.
AccellosOne WMS focuses principally on core WMS capabilities, with some extended WMS
capabilities like dock scheduling, automation integration, event management and analytics.
AccellosOne Enterprise 3PL Warehouse Management is only sold to 3PL providers, and is
designed with specific capabilities for the 3PL marketplace.
Consafe Logistics
Consafe Logistics is a supply chain IT provider headquartered in Lund, Sweden. It is part of the JCE
Group, a privately owned international and diversified investment company headquartered in
Gothenburg, Sweden. The JCE Group's investment portfolio is divided into strategic and financial
investments. All its long-term core holdings are classified as strategic investments and can be
divided into the following main business areas: industrial, logistics, offshore, renewables and
technology. Consafe is the core logistics holding. The JCE Group employs more than 10,000 people
across 30 countries, with operations in Brazil, Chile, China, Denmark, Germany, Lithuania, Mexico,
the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, the U.K. and the U.S. Consafe Logistics has about 400
employees, and its WMS offering, Astro WMS, represents about 50% of its business. Although it
has implementations in 30 countries, the vendor focuses primarily on Northern Europe (Benelux,
Denmark, Norway, Poland and Sweden), with growing potential in Eastern Europe. The vendor has
broad industry coverage in retail/consumer goods, industrial, wholesale, food and beverage, and
3PL.
Strengths
Consafe Logistics has a local market presence in Northern European markets, with
implementation offices in Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden and the U.K. The
vendor is expanding through acquisitions of distributors and service providers in Eastern
Europe.
Consafe Logistics has shown its dedication to thought leadership with the formation of its
Logistics Innovation Center. This is a structured and collaborative endeavor that involves
Consafe employees, customers, partners and academic institutions in the cycle of innovation.
The vendor offers its own warehouse control software for integrations with material handling
automation.
The vendor's architecture is designed to provide a customization layer to reside outside the
core WMS application layer, which protects upgrades.
The vendor offers a unique adaptive task interleaving capability that self-adjusts work plans
based on changing conditions in the warehouse.
For its size, Consafe Logistics has some impressive customers in terms of company name
recognition, complexity and sophistication of warehouse operations.
The company offers an attractive and intuitive logistics dashboard for managing exceptions and
metrics/key performance indicators.
Consafe has commercialized emerging capabilities for mobility within and outside the
enterprise.
Cautions
Consafe Logistics has limited implementation capabilities outside Northern and Eastern Europe.
This is a regionally focused vendor. Although its parent is large and global, there is minimal
synergy between the two.
The vendor has yet to establish a market presence outside of a few select geographies, and is
not well-known in the marketplace.
The vendor trails in delivering a cloud offering.

eBizNET Solutions
eBizNET Solutions, headquartered in Iselin, New Jersey, is a provider of a portfolio of supply chain
solutions, including WMSs; transportation management; port and cargo management; and reverse
logistics, warranty and aftermarket solutions. Although the vendor sells direct, it is also the most
aggressive in pursuing a partnership model. It is developing an ecosystem of partners, such as with
NetSuite, in which eBizNET is one of the integrated partner solutions available on the NetSuite
platform, catering exclusively to NetSuite's customers. Although paper partnerships are not new in
SCM, eBizNET has a well-formed Partner Enablement Program, in which it shares with partners
things such as a common vision, resources, knowledge on the products through various training
programs, discussion forums and joint ventures. The vendor offers two levels of implementation
services, due to the price sensitivity of SMB customers: It can do implementations remotely, which
is less costly for customers, or on-site. The latter is a higher-price implementation that uses the
vendor's U.S.-based team and partner ecosystem. Customers can choose the delivery option
based on their budgets. The vendor has about 55 WMS customers split about 70% in North
America and 30% internationally.
Strengths
For its size, eBizNET is innovative in its products and go-to-market strategies.
Of the WMS specialists, it has the most robust strategy and track record in establishing and
supporting an ecosystem of partners, such as NetSuite, SPS Commerce and others.
Given its size, it has noteworthy global coverage, with close to one-third of its customers
outside North America and nearly 25% of its customers in Asia.
The vendor offers multiple pricing options, depending on the needs of the customer, or what it
calls "Pay as You Grow." There is a low starting price and very good TCO.
The company is capable at the low end of the market, with solutions such as NetSuite WMS,
and scalable to Level 3 warehouse environments with its principal offering.
eBizNET primarily offers core WMS capabilities with some extended WMS capabilities, such as
yard and order management.
Although it primarily provides SaaS solutions today, the vendor can offer the same solution on-
premises.
It is particularly strong in aftermarket service logistics and has strong WMS capabilities,
combined with its other offerings, such as reverse logistics.
Cautions
The vendor is small, with fewer than 100 people on staff and roughly 60 current customers.
Due, in part, to its ecosystem strategies, eBizNET is growing rapidly, which could stress its
limited resources. However, the vendor is expanding its partner ecosystem to deliver
implementation services.
Although eBizNET has an intriguing implementation model, where upward of 70% of the
implementation can be done remotely, this was identified as somewhat problematic for some
reference customers, with timing and language barriers becoming issues.
Support and consulting trail the software applications in process maturity and customer
satisfaction, although no customers said that this jeopardized their projects.
Although primarily a strength, the vendor's aggressive pricing model could be a financial strain
if it is not managed properly.
HighJump Software
HighJump Software, headquartered in Bloomington, Minnesota, is a midsize vendor employing
more than 300 staff members and servicing more than 4,500 claimed customers worldwide, most of
which are direct store delivery and EDI users. The vendor's other solutions focus on warehousing
and include WMSs (415 customers), data collection and lightweight manufacturing execution. The
vendor is owned by Battery Ventures, a private equity firm. The vendor has a history in SCE, starting
many years ago with automated data collection solutions, and later building a fully functional WMS
in the early 1990s. However, the vendor generates more than 50% of its revenue from its WMS
customer base. Close to 80% of the vendor's business is in North America, with the remainder
nearly equally divided among Europe, Latin America and Asia. HighJump primarily uses third-party
partners for sales and support outside North America. In 2012, the vendor signed a strategic
partnership agreement with BT Global, which was aimed at extending its global reach and scale in
several international markets via BT's supply-chain-focused business unit, BT Global Trace. In
2013, HighJump moves to the Challengers quadrant from the Visionaries quadrant. This was largely
because it offers a solid and proven WMS; however, it trails vendors in the Leaders quadrant in
several areas: It is not a thought leader or innovator, and it does not yet have a compelling strategy
for SCE convergence.
Strengths
HighJump continues to be recognized by customers and Gartner as the most intrinsically

customizable WMS product evaluated in this Magic Quadrant, and customers continue to cite
this as the primary reason why they select the vendor.
While highly customizable, HighJump's architecture allows these changes to be held outside
the base application in what it calls a separate "server," which protects the customer's upgrade
path. So far, we have never spoken to customers that have said they were unable to upgrade
due to their customizations.
There is a strong Microsoft orientation to the product from a technology and a business process
platform (BPP) perspective.
The vendor is pioneering a unique approach to packaging customer- and vendor-developed

innovation that it calls App Station. It is analogous to the Apple App Store. Customers only
need to take the features they want or need, and they are not burdened with the traditional
bloated applications of large suites.
HighJump was one of the first mainstream WMS vendors to offer its WMS as a private cloud
service.
Cautions
HighJump has not yet systematically integrated a process/workflow modeling tool with its
business process composition tools, although it does offer disconnected process models in
Visio as documentation. However, adding workflow modeling is on its future product road map.
The vendor's WMS offering is limited to the Microsoft operating system and tool deployments,
but it can use the Oracle Database running Unix or Linux architecture.
The vendor's core WMS is competitive, but it lacks the depth and breadth of extended WMS
capabilities compared with WMS Leaders.
Although Battery Ventures provides HighJump with access to capital to make additional
acquisitions, this also means that a change in ownership is likely in the next few years, either
through an initial public offering or the company being acquired.
The vendor has and plans to continue growing through acquisition, which can divert attention
from core WMS capabilities.
The vendor does not have a compelling SCE convergence vision or strategy.
The vendor's WMS is primarily a North American solution, although it does have some
customers in other geographies.
HighJump uses an indirect sales model for international sales and support.
Infor
Infor has a wide product portfolio composed of multiple ERP products, some stand-alone products
and some domain-focused suite products largely amassed through numerous acquisitions over the
past several years. Infor has a very large customer base across all its products, and it can become a
force in WMS just by selling to its existing customers; however, it is now gaining traction, especially
in emerging markets, by selling WMSs to net new customers. The vendor had made several
acquisitions that included WMS solutions, either directly or as part of broader product offerings. As
a result, it has multiple WMS offerings one that it actively sells, and others that it sells
opportunistically or no longer sells. In this year's Magic Quadrant, we only look at the primary WMS
that Infor actively markets today: Infor Supply Chain Execution (Infor SCE formerly Infor WM 9).
Infor SCE is the next-generation WMS product, built on a contemporary service-oriented
architecture (SOA), that leverages Infor's cross-product technology platform for Web user interface
(UI), business intelligence (BI), mobility, middleware and event management. Infor SCE includes
more than just a WMS for example, transportation, workforce management, mobility, event
management and other SCE components. Infor has been strong selling WMSs within and outside
North America, with 59% of its total WMS deals international 35% in Asia/Pacific and 24% in
EMEA.
Strengths
Infor has a very large customer base across all its product lines, and Infor SCE is a viable
alternative to specialist WMS offerings for many of these users. Infor SCE is an option for most
of the company's ERP customers that are looking for a reasonable WMS provided by a single
vendor with global support capabilities. However, Infor is not limited to its ERP customers
around half of its new customers are stand-alone WMS buyers.
Compared with WMS specialists, Infor has a higher percentage of new deals outside North
America, with a strong global presence of direct and indirect sales and support. It has an edge
in many emerging-market deals, which can be helpful in global rollouts.
The vendor has delivered on a platform strategy for Infor SCE, and is pursuing an SCE
convergence strategy by moving capabilities (such as transportation, management, mobility and
event management) onto a common technical platform.
Infor SCE exploits Infor's significant investment in its technology platform, which includes
mobile applications, in-context BI and out-of-the-box integrations with Infor ERP systems using
its purpose-built middleware called Infor Intelligent Open Network (ION). While not limited to its
installed ERP users, this investment will benefit Infor's ERP users who are looking for a new
WMS.
Infor is well-positioned to exploit growth in emerging markets, and it is taking advantage of this
trend through its own resources as well as partner resources.
Customers report that they are happy with the support and maintenance they receive.
Cautions
Infor primarily sells Infor SCE to its ERP installed base in mature markets, although it is gaining
some traction selling the WMS as a stand-alone offering to non-Infor customers in these
markets. However, Infor is quite successfully selling Infor SCE as a stand-alone offering in
emerging markets, as well as serving its customer base.
Many of the vendor's legacy WMS users, primarily in grocery, are quite complex and
sophisticated and have heavily customized these products. While some Infor legacy WMS
customers have successfully migrated to Infor SCE, these complex customers should consider
a change to Infor SCE to be a new implementation, not a migration. These customers should
scrutinize the basic functionality while developing strategies for how best to address any of the
company's previous customizations that might remain important.
Infor SCE lacks the overall breadth and depth of WMS market Leaders. It is a nondifferentiated
product in complex Level 4 warehouse environments.
While Infor's WMS capabilities have a pedigree in best-of-breed WMSs, Infor's marketing has
yet to establish visibility and a reputation in the WMS market.
Infor has yet to establish a strong global partner ecosystem that is similar in scope and
capability to the other megasuite vendors. However, the vendor does have a large and growing
ecosystem of regional partners that can sell and service Infor SCE customers. For global
deployments, users should thoroughly scrutinize Infor's global deployment capabilities and
methodologies.
The vendor has indicated that it has enabled alternative deployment models, such as private
cloud or managed services, but no customers have yet adopted this approach.
The vendor has yet to deliver consistent and demonstrable strategies for exploiting its global
reach to become a force within the global WMS marketplace, although it is making progress in
doing so.
JDA Software (Dispatcher WMS)
JDA Dispatcher WMS, formerly RedPrairie Warehouse Management Dispatcher, is not the vendor's
strategic go-forward WMS. Future go-to-market strategies for this solution are restricted, compared
with the main WMS offering. Because this solution will be sold to a select few vertical industries and
geographies, it fits the definition of a niche solution, which is largely why its position moved from
the Challengers quadrant to the Niche Players quadrant. As JDA looks to rationalize products, as it
has done in previous acquisitions, this product is also most likely to be moved into legacy status.
However, the vendor has a strong track record of continuing to support products for the long term,
while also allowing customers migration paths to newer offerings.
Strengths
JDA Dispatcher WMS is a functionally solid and stable product for moderately complex
warehouses.
Prior to the merger, the vendor continued to moderately enhance its functional footprint to meet
some of the vertical needs of 3PL providers and the geographic needs of European companies,
most notably U.K. domiciled companies.
JDA Dispatcher WMS has a stable European presence, in addition to sales, implementation and
support, with local product development for Europe.
JDA Dispatcher WMS has a reasonable presence among 3PL providers and logistics service
providers (LSPs) in Europe.
Cautions
JDA Dispatcher WMS is redundant to the vendor's flagship JDA Warehouse Management
product. It's not likely to represent the strategic WMS future for the company.
JDA Dispatcher WMS is primarily sold in Europe notably in the U.K. while JDA Warehouse
Management is more pervasive in other geographies.
Although JDA continues to invest in this product, it will not be positioned as the strategic
foundation for JDA's future. The merger will result in future solution rationalization challenges.
JDA Software (Warehouse Management)
On 1 November 2012, supply chain software and service providers RedPrairie and JDA Software
announced that New Mountain Capital (owner of RedPrairie) had offered to acquire all outstanding
shares of JDA. The merger compiles an expanded product portfolio and increased global scale.
However, the business value that the new entity can deliver to its customers will increasingly come
from how well it can integrate and rationalize the discrete parts of its expansive product portfolio
and multiple architectures, which will affect its strategies. Acquiring numerous companies over the
years has resulted in both companies having broad, minimally integrated portfolios of products that
currently do not fully share a common technology platform within their respective domains. The new
entity will argue that enterprises want application suites (not necessarily a single one, but a few).
However, the time, effort and cost to move toward a common platform across execution and
planning will be sizable, and will take several years. However, some RedPrairie solutions will benefit
from the cloud hosting strategy that JDA has launched.
The combined entity has synergy in its customer base and main target markets, retail and consumer
goods. Significant retail footprints will provide the new entity with an opportunity to eventually
create an integrated planning and execution suite for large retailers and manufacturers.
Multichannel retailing could be a significant opportunity for the new company, assuming an
appropriate platform and supporting strategy is executed.
Prior to the merger, RedPrairie was a long-tenured provider of WMSs and related supply chain and
retail solutions. The company's roots in warehouse management go back more than three decades.
RedPrairie had multiple WMS offerings, several of which are now legacy products. There are two
WMSs actively marketed today, but they overlap somewhat: JDA Dispatcher WMS (formerly
RedPrairie Warehouse Management Dispatcher) and JDA Warehouse Management (formerly
RedPrairie Warehouse Management, which also itself was formerly named WM/D, or Discrete
WMS). Prior to the merger, RedPrairie, in its own right, offered a broad collection of disparate
applications, including WMSs as well as transportation management, workforce management and
retail management. Over the past several years, RedPrairie and JDA have primarily bought
innovation through numerous acquisitions, enhancing their positions in areas such as
transportation, retail workforce management, store operations, multichannel commerce and supply
chain planning (SCP). RedPrairie had previously acquired an early pioneer in cloud-based WMSs,
SmartTurn, but this offering has not been included or considered in this research.
Strengths
JDA Warehouse Management is in the Leaders quadrant because it offers industry-leading

depth and breadth of core WMS and extended WMS capabilities.
RedPrairie had a long track record of delivering WMS solutions for some of the most complex
warehouse operations, combining strong WMS products and services to support the needs of
demanding clients especially in the consumer goods and food manufacturing and
distribution vertical industries.
The vendor offers strong delivery of related products, such as workforce management,
traceability and performance management.
This solution provides some support for lightweight manufacturing execution activities, with
capabilities such as performing complex multiline production scheduling, tracking component-
level inventory attributes in a multilevel bill of materials, streamlining line setup and execution,
and managing raw materials, including backflush and scrap.
The merger potentially expands the vendor's global sales infrastructure.

Cautions
Customer references continue to say that the vendor has some service and support challenges,
and consulting capacity constraints.
This WMS is not a model-driven application that supports user customization. Although the JDA
Warehouse Management technical architecture is acceptable and mature today, given JDA's
number of acquisitions and the breadth of its product portfolio, users must monitor the vendor's
ability to modernize its applications.
JDA's evolving platform vision and strategy are unproven and will take several years to
complete. Prior to the merger, RedPrairie had planned to take as much as five years to mature
its platform strategy, and now the merger will impact the strategy, which will likely change.
Although the vendor sells WMSs into multiple industries, its primary overall business focus and
extended solution strategies are principally targeted at consumer goods and retail. This will
likely be further solidified with the merger, which could impact prospects and customers in
nonstrategic vertical industries.
The vendor's approach to vertical industries has now changed, and users in noncore industries
should monitor JDA's strategies, processes and commitments to serve those industries.
While Gartner recommends that users set a goal for a zero-modification implementation, there
are valid instances in which customization is necessary. RedPrairie had long provided these
services, but under the combined organization, strategies for addressing customization have
changed, so customers and prospects need to monitor them.
The vendor has a very large, although not fully integrated, portfolio of products, and it can
bundle multiple components to sweeten a deal. If users will utilize these components in a
reasonable time frame, then this is acceptable; however, users must be cautious not to
overbuy, thereby making what appears to be a good deal not as favorable because of excessive
shelfware.
LogFire
Based in Atlanta, Georgia, and with staffed operations in Latin America and Asia/Pacific, LogFire is
a vendor of multitenant, cloud-based SaaS WMSs. The founders and team have deep roots in
WMSs, having come from long stints with perennial WMS Leaders. Because of the management
team's past experience, LogFire is strongest in multichannel consumer goods, retail, apparel and
3PL warehouse environments, although it is not limited to these markets. The vendor was initially
founded to offer warehouse and SCM consulting, and this expertise continues to benefit clients
after LogFire brought to market a packaged SaaS WMS. However, the vendor's growth now comes
from its SaaS offerings. The vendor has about 50 customers slightly more than 60% are in North
America, and the rest are international (most being in Latin America).
Strengths
Customer references called out strong customer intimacy, due to the vendor's WMS expertise
and services.
LogFire's experienced leadership has long tenure in the WMS marketplace.
LogFire is one of the few vendors that is strongly committed to Latin America with a direct local
presence in multiple countries, where it has numerous live implementations. It also has
implementations in North America.
The vendor provides a strong offering for multichannel retail, apparel and consumer goods,
which require strong, value-added service capabilities. However, the solution is not limited to
these markets.
The vendor provides a robust, scalable, and adaptable technical architecture and cloud
infrastructure used by companies globally, and in automated facilities.
For its size, LogFire offers its clients a well-defined and comprehensive portfolio of solutions
and professional services.
The vendor is pursuing an SCE convergence strategy, partially through organic development of
its own solutions as well as by partnering with other providers of SaaS solutions (such as
demand planning).
Cautions
LogFire remains one of the smallest WMS vendors included in this year's Magic Quadrant, in
terms of its number of customers and gross annual revenue.
Sales and implementations are predominantly in Latin America and North America, while Asia/
Pacific and Europe are being pursued opportunistically.
Although the vendor's SaaS pricing model offers an advantageous cost of ownership, the
inherently gradual ramp-up of recurring subscription revenue could impact LogFire's valuation,
unless it rapidly grows new customers and top-line revenue.
As LogFire continues to grow, resources could become constrained.
The vendor only offers a cloud WMS, principally multitenant SaaS, and is not viable on-
premises.
Manhattan Associates (SCALE)
Supply Chain Architected for Logistics Execution (SCALE) is a less expensive, as well as an
intentionally less functionally broad and deep, offering compared with Warehouse Management
for Open Systems (WMOS). SCALE focuses on simple to moderately complex facilities and LSP
environments. It is a mature, stable and proven solution the hallmarks of an offering in the
Challengers quadrant, where Ability to Execute is paramount that benefits from the vendor's
broader SCE visions and strategies. Manhattan targets SCALE for independent Level 1 through
Level 3 warehouse environments, where usability, ease of use, implementation and support
combined with lower cost of ownership are critical criteria (see "Apply an Architectural
Framework to Stratifying Warehouse Management Systems").
Strengths
SCALE is focused on the needs of SMBs and emerging geographies, although it is not limited
to either one.
Sales volume for this solution continued to grow in 2012.

The vendor has a robust implementation methodology and consistent implementation support.
This WMS offering leverages Microsoft's technology stack for ease of deployment and ease of
use.
This product offers certified integration with Microsoft Dynamics AX.
SCALE is more broadly sold and implemented across vertical markets.

Cautions
The vendor uses direct and indirect sales channels, and uses partners for sales and
implementations in smaller geographies. Prospective users in these markets must validate
partner capabilities and product considerations during evaluation.
This solution is purpose-built for midsize or smaller warehouse operations. Although the
functionality is solid and can handle moderately complex warehouse operations, the product is
not designed or intended for highly complex facilities.
SCALE is built on the Microsoft .NET platform and focused on logistics execution. Companies
interested in broad SCE convergence should look to the company's WMOS solution, which is
part of the Manhattan SCOPE application portfolio.
This product is well-suited for SMB-type logistics operations, while many of the vendor's other
offerings are targeted at sophisticated and complex environments.
Manhattan Associates (Warehouse Management for IBM i)
Strengths
Manhattan Associates' Warehouse Management for IBM i is a very mature, stable and proven
product, with more than 20 years on the market.
Warehouse Management for IBM i is a functionally robust and proven WMS application, with a
notable group of long-tenured and quite complex WMS customers.
Although the product is mature, the vendor continues to invest dedicated R&D in this version.
Manhattan has built integrations to its other SCE offerings, such as labor management, slotting,
transportation management and SCP.
Customer references note the stability and scalability of the solution.
It's the most robust and well-supported RPG/IBM i WMS available. It's primarily sold to retail,
with a particular strength in apparel.
There is a very loyal IBM i community, and Manhattan is one of the few vendors still committed
to supporting robust offerings in the space, which helps these users extend their IBM i
investments.
Cautions
Manhattan Associates' Warehouse Management for IBM i offering is developed in RPG/IBM i,

and RPG expertise is becoming increasingly difficult to secure.
For intraproduct integration (for example, WMS to transportation management system [TMS]),
the vendor leverages a variety of data communication methods that are chosen based on a
specific client's needs for a given size of data payload or functionality, which is then enabled by
Manhattan's integration layer.
Warehouse Management for IBM i lacks the strategic emphasis of Manhattan's WMOS.
The traditional green-screen UI is becoming less acceptable to users who are used to Windows
and Web-based UIs.
This is not the strategic direction for the vendor.

Manhattan Associates (WMOS)
Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Manhattan Associates offers a broad suite of SCM solutions that
includes WMSs, transportation, distributed order management, SCP, supplier enablement and
others. The vendor has very deep roots in WMS that go back almost 25 years. It offers three distinct
WMS offerings, each targeted at different markets: Warehouse Management for IBM i, which caters
to customers that prefer the reliability and ease of operation of the IBM i platform; SCALE
(previously Manhattan's WM for Windows), which is based on a Microsoft technical platform, and
caters to the SMB and LSP WMS markets in emerging geographies; and WMOS, which caters to
sophisticated warehouse environments. WMOS is the vendor's flagship WMS offering and is built
on the SCOPE technical platform, which includes Manhattan's other supply chain solutions, such as
transportation, distributed order management, replenishment and planning. Although the company
has global operations, the majority of its business continues to come from North America and
Western Europe. SCALE, however, continues to gain traction in emerging markets.
Manhattan is inclined to drive innovation in-house, unlike many other WMS vendors that innovate
and grow through acquisition. Manhattan is not an acquisitive company that tends to focus on
organic innovation. It has made few acquisitions the most recent being more than seven years
ago but they tend to be early-stage offerings that are more easily redeveloped and integrated
within Manhattan's solution portfolio.
So far, the company is the only one that has staked its future on providing a single, common
technical platform SCOPE which seamlessly integrates multiple SCM components, such as
WMS, TMS, SCP, supplier enablement and distributed order management. In the Magic Quadrant
evaluation model, weightings for certain characteristics, such as innovation, market understanding
and vision, relate primarily to a vendor, not just a product. For vendors with multiple WMS offerings,
like Manhattan, we weight some Completeness of Vision characteristics heaviest for the vendor's
strategic WMS. However, this does not mean that these characteristics are any less meaningful for
the vendor's other products.
Strengths
The SCOPE technical platform seamlessly integrates WMOS with all the other newer SCM
solutions that the vendor offers, such as transportation, SCP, returns management, flow and
distributed order management. Going forward, this provides the vendor with the best platform
in the market to address SCE convergence.
WMOS offers industry-leading depth and breadth of core WMS and extended WMS
capabilities.
Manhattan has demonstrated a continued ability to bring innovation to its core WMS solutions.
This augments the WMSs and extends SCE processes, such as adding returns management,
distributed order management, mobile warehouse management and landed cost management.
Manhattan's WMOS is broadly used in WMS environments, from moderately complex to

extremely complex, sophisticated and high-volume warehouse operations.
The vendor is stable, and has conservative financial operations with reasonable earnings and
cash reserves.
It has a distinctively high win ratio in complex WMS deals in which it competes.
Manhattan is focused on organic, self-directed innovation. It continues to bring to market self-

developed and complementary components, such as returns, flow, cost to serve, distributed
order management and Store Commerce Activation.
The company has a compelling vision for a next-generation SCE platform. Furthermore, the
vendor has a team of math and science experts that is investigating innovative ways to exploit
emerging technologies and decision-making enhancements through the use of embedded
analytics across the SCE platform.
Manhattan has established strategic relationships with select customers that have committed to
its SCOPE platform. This is atypical of best-of-breed software vendors that lack the C-level-
executive clout of large-scale suite vendors.
The vendor is gaining customer traction with its platform strategy, with more than 50 customers
now committing to the platform.
Manhattan is one of the few vendors that can address multichannel commerce on a single
platform, with competitive offerings in logistics and distributed order management, where many
other vendors are strong in one area or weak in others or have solutions on different platforms.
Cautions
Few existing WMOS customers that were live prior to the release of the 2010 version have
migrated to this version, so most references are new customers with less long-term experience
with the solution. Prospective customers should talk to older and newer customers.
The vendor continues to be heavily dependent on service revenue, and the amount and cost of
customization continue to be disproportionately high.
Manhattan originally developed SCOPE tools for customers to use to make changes, but the
vendor now advises customers to work with it to ensure that changes are done safely and
responsibly.
Manhattan lacks a broad or compelling vertical industry strategy beyond its historical strengths
in retail, apparel, consumer goods, wholesale distribution and 3PL.
The majority of its revenue (currently more than 75%) comes from North America.
So far, the vendor has not strategically committed to offering alternative deployment models,
such as cloud or SaaS.
The vendor lacks an established ecosystem of implementation, system integration and service
partners. Warehouse management remains Manhattan's predominant business. Compared with
the number of WMS users, the adoption of other SCOPE-based applications remains low,
although user demand and implementation are growing. Furthermore, outside North America,
there is inconsistent support for non-WMS, SCOPE-based applications, such as SCP or
transportation.
Oracle
Oracle provides an expansive portfolio of business applications in addition to its deep roots in
operating technologies, such as database management systems. The company offers WMS
capabilities in several of its solutions, such as Oracle's JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and Oracle Retail
(formerly Retek). Oracle also offers a fully functional WMS as part of the Oracle E-Business Suite
(EBS). Oracle EBS WMS is the solution evaluated herein. Oracle Warehouse Management is a
mature yet continually evolving offering with well over 1,000 WMS customers worldwide, Gartner
estimates. Oracle EBS WMS is deployed across multiple vertical industries, and is also extensively
sold and deployed globally (Gartner estimates that more than one-third of its customers are
international). The solution now offers a choice in deployment approach. It can be provided as a
seamlessly integrated extension to Oracle's EBS for customers seeking an integrated ERP and
WMS, or it can be deployed stand-alone in a distributed WMS environment. Although not part of
this research, Oracle's other WMS offerings might be viable alternatives for customers seeking
reasonable WMS capabilities integrated with a strong midmarket ERP system or a suite of retail
applications.
Strengths
The company's WMS offering can be deployed and seamlessly integrated with EBS, or it can be
deployed as a stand-alone WMS. This tight integration provides notable examples of SCE
convergence, in which processes can span from one area of EBS into warehouse management
processes.
Oracle is one of the faster-growing WMS providers. Gartner estimates that it has added several
hundred new WMS customers in the past 12 months.
The vendor's WMS is installed in a wide variety of industries. It is particularly well-represented

in sectors not targeted aggressively by WMS leaders, such as aerospace and defense,
industrial manufacturing, high tech, communications, and life sciences, which, Gartner
estimates, compose more than 50% of Oracle's customer base.
Oracle continues to increase the breadth and depth of WMS functionality. There were
consistent references from moderately complex warehouse environments, with the vendor now
servicing an increasing number of Level-4-complexity warehouses.
Oracle also offers a mobility solution it calls Oracle Mobile Supply Chain Applications (MSCA),
which provides simplified RF/mobile-device-based transaction capabilities, such as receiving or
picking. MSCA is not a full-blown WMS, but it can automate key functions in areas where a
holistic WMS is not needed (for example, Level 1 warehouse environments).
There is a strong use of current-generation Oracle technology, such as rule engines and
flexfields, to simplify use. The combination of the Oracle Warehouse Management workflow and
its rule engine makes the solution user-customizable and tailorable, thus approaching Gartner's
definition of a model-driven and zero-customization WMS.
Oracle has a global reach, and its WMS is more deployable around the world than comparable
specialist WMSs.
The vendor has compelling visions for SCE convergence with process integration, and for
orchestration with transportation, manufacturing and product aftermarket service, such as
depot repair.
Oracle has a growing ecosystem of implementation partners.
Oracle Business Accelerators are available; they guide Q&A and expedite implementations.
Cautions
Oracle is developing a next-generation product line, Oracle Fusion Applications, but it is unclear
how this will impact the future direction of Oracle EBS, including Oracle Warehouse
Management. However, any impact on the WMS from Oracle Fusion Applications' evolution will
happen several years in the future.
The vendor is not yet a market Leader in WMS functional depth or breadth, but it continues to
add functionality to its WMS.
Although Oracle's core WMS capabilities are nearing those of WMS market Leaders, the
vendor's value-added, extended WMS components are not yet extensive or mature. It
continues to add and enhance core functionality, as well as deliver some extended WMS
capabilities. This product was not a common alternative for non-Oracle EBS users, since a key
benefit of Oracle Warehouse Management was its seamless integration with ERP. However, the
vendor can now offer WMS stand-alone on a separate instance from Oracle EBS.
SAP
SAP continues to offer two distinct WMS solutions, but its principle focus going forward is on SCM
Extended Warehouse Management (EWM), its latest WMS offering and the solution evaluated here.
SAP ERP Warehouse Management (ERP WM) is a very mature and extensively implemented WMS
Gartner estimates it has more than 5,000 customers but it is not the vendor's strategic WMS
platform. ERP WM was covered in previous Magic Quadrants, but because SAP now focuses new
customer engagements primarily on SCM EWM, it is no longer covered.
From its inception on SAP NetWeaver, SCM EWM was built to take advantage of SOA and a model-
driven architecture common to many of SAP's newest solutions. SCM EWM broadens and deepens
the vendor's WMS functionality. Furthermore, SCM EWM is not a new application, since it has been
commercially available for more than seven years now. Initially, demand and live implementations
were limited, but for the past four years, SAP has been more aggressive in selling and implementing
SCM EWM, as well as in growing its ecosystem of partners. SAP has strong momentum in the WMS
marketplace, annually adding more new and live customers than most other WMS specialist
vendors. It now has more than 600 total customers, 350 named live customers, 450 productive
deployments and more than 200 implementations in progress. We estimate that the vendor
currently has more than 60% of SCM EWM implementations in geographies other than North
America, with just under 20% of its customers in Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Strengths
SCM EWM represents the strategic direction of SAP's WMS vision and functionality.
SAP has a compelling platform strategy for addressing SCE convergence. This product offers
strong integration with SAP Business Suite and other components, such as transportation
management, trade compliance, and environmental, health and safety.
SAP has noteworthy market momentum with growth in new sales and implementations (more
than 600 total customers and 350 live customers), and notable numbers of new customers
added year over year. This momentum has largely come during the past four years as it focused
more attention on SCM EWM.
SAP has a substantial global presence, as well as go-to-market and deployment capabilities.
Currently, it has customers in 20 different countries, and 60% of its business is outside North
America.
The vendor offers a native material handling control system (MHCS) called Material Flow
System (MFS) that allows SCM EWM to directly connect to programmable logic controllers.
SAP has a large and growing ecosystem of implementation and consulting partners across the
globe.
The offering was designed to provide functionality for complex warehouses and increasingly
broad capabilities, such as yard management, slotting and rearrangement, material flow
solutions, and engineered labor standards.
SAP has been addressing implementation and TCO issues by delivering three EWM Rapid
Deployment Solutions (RDSs) over the past three years. It has one for installing and getting
EWM ready; one for migrating from SAP ERP WM to EWM; and one specifically for deploying
EWM in retail industry warehouses.
SAP has enhanced EWM customization by having several hundred enhancement spots (that is,
user exits) where users can create modifications outside the base code to protect support and
upgrades.
Cautions
For complex deployments, the TCO is higher than equivalent best-of-breed WMSs, largely due
to implementation costs. For less complex deployments, the vendor addresses this through
RDSs, which are fixed-price, fixed-scope and fixed-timeline service offerings. However, these
are not typically appropriate for complex implementations where TCO remains high.
Although the product's core WMS capabilities are nearing those of the market Leaders, the
vendor continues to trail in functional depth, experience and implementation of extended WMS
capabilities.
SCM EWM was originally oriented toward finished goods distribution, not manufacturing
warehouses; however, the company has added capabilities to address this to bring SCM EWM
in line with what SAP ERP WM offered.
While SAP has a very large installed base for ERP WM, SCM EWM is a completely different
product, and companies that are considering moving to it should consider this to be a possible
reimplementation. However, the vendor and several partners now offer RDSs for migration from
ERP WM to SCM EWM.
There have been many improvements in design over ERP WM, but SCM EWM is still a complex
product. Although customization is enhanced by having several hundred enhancement spots
(that is, user exits), they need to be used judiciously.
Softeon
In business for just over 10 years, Softeon, which is headquartered in Reston, Virginia, is a small,
privately owned vendor of SCE solutions. It has a compelling value proposition that combines
leading-edge SOA technology with rich WMS functionality. It also has a rapid development
environment that allows the company to add new capabilities at a faster pace than many of its
larger competitors. While its roots are in WMSs, the vendor has a compelling SCE convergence
vision and portfolio today. Softeon is one of the more innovative, partner-oriented vendors in this
market, as evidenced by the work it did to adapt warehouse management concepts and its WMS to
the unique needs of digital media (for example, music, video) distribution for one of its customers.
The vendor has around 40 customers, some of which have very large WMS implementations.
Strengths
Softeon offers a broad and deep suite of SCE capabilities centered on its strength in WMSs,
including core WMS and extended WMS capabilities, as well as functional areas like distributed
order management, returns management, SCP and direct store delivery.
The vendor's WMS is built on a strong and flexible SOA that has allowed it to rapidly introduce
new capabilities.
Although the product is not yet a truly zero-modification environment, the company offers tools,
such as a strong rule engine, that allow for user tailoring without modification.
For its size, Softeon has some impressive customers in complex warehouse environments.
The vendor has strong offshore development organizations with more than 350 engineers.
It continues to exhibit agility as it pursues some unique opportunities in digital SCM (that is, the
delivery of digital products).
Softeon has taken a unique approach to cloud by having a unified data model/foundation for its
WMS cloud offering for SMBs and its Enterprise version. This unified data model/foundation
eliminates expensive data migration and facilitates the incorporation of additional complex
functionality as business growth demands.
Softeon is one of only a few vendors that offers an SCM platform that spans planning and
execution on a common technology stack. It is pursuing a somewhat unique SCE convergence
strategy, moving areas such as vendor-managed inventory, distributed order management and
SCP onto the same platform as WMS.
Customers were complimentary of the vendor and its solutions and services.
For its size, it has a strong and well-documented solution delivery methodology, which it calls
Iterative Solution Realization.
Cautions
Since the vendor is small, and considering the strength of its product, it could be a takeover
candidate.
Softeon's strength is in engineering and product development, and it has yet to establish itself
as a prominent contender in WMSs and SCE, which constrain its growth.
Softeon is focused primarily on North America from a sales and marketing perspective,
although it is expanding into other geographies. Its large clients, however, are taking its
solutions international. As a result, it has several international implementations live or in
progress.
The vendor has limited sales and marketing resources, which could tax its growth.
Softeon's sales and marketing investment had been low, thereby limiting its market presence.
However, the company recognizes that this will be an important area of investment over the
next several years.
Synergy Logistics
Snapfulfil is a recent offering in the U.S. from established U.K. WMS vendor Synergy Logistics.
Formed in 1972, Synergy Logistics is a software company with a North American office, Synergy
North America, which is based in Charleston, South Carolina. Synergy focuses on WMSs, with
clients ranging from global organizations to SMBs. Synergy took more than 30 years of WMS
experience and, in 2006, rebuilt its WMS offering, Snapfulfil, from the ground up, using the latest in
Web-native technologies and deployment methodologies. Snapfulfil has been implemented by more
than 30 customers in less than three years, and was launched in North America in early 2010.
Synergy's Snapfulfil has the most unique business model of the vendors in this year's Magic
Quadrant. While it would be considered an on-demand WMS, although not multitenant SaaS, the
delivery model is more of a comprehensive managed service, and not simply a software
deployment. Synergy's staff actually performs the complete turnkey implementation for its
customers, and includes the RF hardware and implementation costs in the subscription fees. The
customer doesn't pay anything until the software goes live (today, the average time across
customers is eight business weeks). Synergy wants the customer to get the system to value
realization as quickly as possible, and is committed to a no-capital-expenditure delivery. Synergy
strives for satisfied customers that are eager to renew, since the annual renewable contract value is
at the core of the vendor's business value proposition.
Strengths
Unlike other pure multitenant SaaS WMSs, Synergy is a mature WMS provider that specifically
architected its newest offering, Snapfulfil, to support the SaaS business model.
Snapfulfil offers an adaptable architecture with a robust rule engine and high levels of
configurability to support customers' specific requirements, and to enable the vendor's unique
rapid implementation methodology. Currently, the vendor does all the rule configuration for the
customer as part of the subscription.
The managed service and turnkey delivery model reduces implementation risk.
Synergy is a mature WMS provider in the U.K. and Europe with a long tenure. It has a small but
growing presence in North America.
Hardware and implementation services are built into the subscription price.
Synergy offers rapid implementation.

Cautions
Customers are dependent on the vendor for configuration and rule changes. This places a
premium on consulting and support resources, which could be taxed if the vendor grows too
rapidly. However, this is not currently an issue expressed by customer references.
There are a small number of employees around 40.
The vendor is just now establishing a presence in North America, and remains strongest in the
U.K. and Europe. It currently has no intention to expand into other geographies.
Resources are potentially scarcest in North America until this business expands.
Snapfulfil is not a true multitenant SaaS WMS. It offers an on-demand, single-instance-per-

tenant cloud delivery model.
Synergy is strongest for core WMS capabilities, with some extended WMS capabilities.
The vendor has not articulated an SCE convergence vision or strategy, or an inclination to move
in this direction.
Tecsys
Headquartered in Montreal, Tecsys is a modest-size vendor of WMSs and related SCE capabilities.
It offers a broad portfolio of SCE capabilities. It has been in business for 30 years and has a large
number of clients. For most of its history, it focused on selling modest deals to Canadian SMBs.
Over the past several years, however, it adapted and formalized its strategy to pursue more
strategic initiatives with larger and more complex customers. The vendor has targeted several areas
of extreme verticalization (see "Consider 10 Criteria When Evaluating WMSs"). Tecsys now offers
highly differentiated solutions for healthcare and hospital integrated delivery networks, as well as
industrial and equipment dealers, and it is increasingly focused on government and education. The
vendor is also growing its business more rapidly in terms of the number of new deals and the sizes
of the customers it works with and their WMS deals. Although a Canada-based company, Tecsys'
revenue is split about 50% Canada and 50% U.S., with U.S. revenue growth accelerating. The
vendor also has a mix of SMB customers and large customers, with 49% categorized as midsize to
large organizations.
Strengths
Tecsys has a very broad suite of SCE capabilities, including core WMS and extended WMS
capabilities, as well as many complementary capabilities.
The vendor offers very differentiated capabilities, domain expertise and customer experience in
healthcare provider SCM.
It has differentiated capabilities for equipment dealers, including capabilities beyond WMSs,
such as support for point-of-sale capabilities to handle customer walk-up orders.
The vendor is an innovator and does a commendable job of commercializing its innovations
intrinsically across its products as well as specifically to its target vertical industries.
Tecsys has a differentiated vision, architecture and solution; these allow users to exploit visual
information to improve process execution. The vendor's Visual Logistics solution goes well
beyond just adding pictures to textual data it allows users to control, through rules, where
visual information will add value, what visual information will improve the process, and for
whom and when visual information is needed to make processes work more effectively.
The vendor has a unique and flexible approach to visibility, iTopia, which allows users to pull
data from multiple sources within Tecsys' applications as well as from outside data sources.
Users can then assemble this data to create real-time personalized views, filtering and
organizing the data as needed.
The company has a stable and mature consulting staff that offers specialized domain expertise
in the markets where Tecsys is strongest. The vendor goes beyond standard WMS
implementation, providing business consulting on how to exploit its offerings in the emerging
healthcare supply chain.
For its size, Tecsys has developed a very well thought out and documented implementation
methodology using its Supply Chain Modeling and Reference Tools (SMART), which are not
only a methodology, but also best-practice blueprints for its major vertical industries, and also a
knowledgebase for learning.
Cautions
Although Tecsys has a large number of clients, the bulk of them are small Canadian distributors.
However, during the past several years, the vendor has begun to successfully pursue larger,
more strategic deals.
Tecsys is a small public company, which makes it a candidate for change of ownership.
However, with the Brereton family's ownership of more than 48% of the outstanding common
shares, this makes a hostile takeover unlikely.
The vendor historically sold exclusively in North America; however, it is expanding

internationally mostly through partnerships.
The vendor lacks international deployment resources, so users considering large, complex
global deployments should pay particular attention to the implementation strategy.
The company is growing, and, given its size, it could have resource constraints in consulting
and R&D.
The vendor has not articulated a compelling cloud deployment strategy.

Vendors Added or Dropped
We review and adjust our inclusion criteria for Magic Quadrants and MarketScopes as markets
change. As a result of these adjustments, the mix of vendors in any Magic Quadrant or
MarketScope may change over time. A vendor appearing in a Magic Quadrant or MarketScope one
year and not the next does not necessarily indicate that we have changed our opinion of that
vendor. This may be a reflection of a change in the market and, therefore, changed evaluation
criteria, or a change of focus by a vendor.
Added
Notable Mentions
Several vendors with reasonably capable and, in some cases, strong WMSs did not qualify for this
Magic Quadrant, but this does not mean that these solutions might not be viable alternatives for
some customers. To ensure that this research is consumable and understandable by our clients, we
limit participation in this Magic Quadrant to vendors that demonstrate current strength in the market
in several dimensions, including market momentum, geographical coverage, and product breadth
and depth. If Gartner were to include all vendors that offered a reasonable WMS, but had limitations
in certain areas, then the Niche Players quadrant would be overpopulated, which would make it
difficult for our clients to exploit this research.
There are several reasons why a vendor might not have qualified. As stated in the qualification
criteria outlined below, a vendor might not have the sales momentum, growth in revenue or
international coverage necessary to qualify for this research. While this might affect viability, this
reason alone should not prohibit users from considering these vendors if, for example, they are
strong in principally one geography and if that criterion fits the needs of a given user.
Furthermore, one of these vendors may have characteristics that makes it more appealing than
other vendors in the Magic Quadrant because of its strengths regardless of the characteristics
that might have excluded it from this research. For example, companies in Germany seeking a very
strong presence in Germany, as well as company maturity, might favor Ehrhardt + Partner, while a
U.S.-based company seeking a strong SaaS WMS might favor Deposco.
Apptricity: Based in Irving, Texas, Apptricity was founded in 1999, intending to exploit
expertise in SOA to build a suite of solutions across procurement, financial management, asset
management and SCM. A WMS is part of its suite of offerings, but it is differentiated in that it is
well-positioned in asset management, defense and related government logistics environments
(although it is not limited to these). Apptricity's WMS covers core WMS capabilities with some
extended WMS capabilities. The vendor has notable customers in the military, government and
large enterprise markets. It has a rapid implementation approach, and can be deployed on-
premises or as a cloud offering. Apptricity is a suite provider; the WMS is not its sole focus, but
it sells primarily in the U.S.
Apriso: This vendor is a manufacturing software provider that offers a suite of capabilities called
FlexNet. Its primary focus is on manufacturing execution systems, but it has added warehouse
management capabilities to address the unique challenges of manufacturing warehouses. While
most WMSs focus primarily on customer order fulfillment, and manufacturing is an afterthought,
Apriso focuses on synchronizing its WMS with the inbound and outbound material flows
required in manufacturing. Fulfillment-centric WMSs have often struggled with how to best
manage the flow of materials from the receiving dock to the plant floor, with the back-and-forth
movements from storage and the plant floor, and with the change in state as materials are
converted from raw materials to intermediates to finished goods. While Apriso's WMS
capabilities are not as broad or deep as WMS Leaders, its focus is on addressing the above
challenges. Apriso serves around 200 customers, not all of which use the WMS, in more than 45
countries across the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia.
Deposco: Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Deposco is a provider of cloud-based SaaS SCM

solutions, with WMSs as its flagship offering. Deposco is a small, innovative vendor with a
moderate, but growing, number of North American WMS customers. It works with retailers,
distributors and 3PL providers, and has some intriguing implementations in direct-to-consumer
and omnichannel environments. It offers low TCO due to its cloud deployment tools, which aid
implementation, and its adaptable architecture. Deposco's core WMS capabilities best suit
minimally complex warehouse environments (that is, Level 2). They're also well-suited for e-
commerce and omnichannel fulfillment centers. Deposco did not qualify for this year's Magic
Quadrant because all its customers today are in North America only.
Ehrhardt + Partner (E+P): Based in Germany, E+P is a well-established WMS provider that
was founded as a family company in 1987. It has about 200 employees operating in six
locations, with most of its business historically in Europe (principally Germany), but more
recently, it has expanded internationally into areas like Dubai and Latin America. The vendor has
about 400 customers, more than 300 of which are in Europe (and most in Germany). E+P offers
a strong, deep and mature WMS, with most implementations to date on the IBM i platform. The
vendor's WMS covers core and extended capabilities, with some differentiated capabilities in
resource planning, and it has a native material handling control capability. The vendor also has
the intriguing Institute for Applied Warehouse Logistics, which is a fully equipped mockup
warehouse where it trains, demonstrates and tests all facets of a warehouse operation, from
software to hardware to business processes. E+P lacks the visibility and momentum of leading
WMS solutions outside its core market.
Generix Group: Headquartered in France, Generix provides a portfolio of SCM solutions, such
as transportation management and replenishment management, in addition to WMSs the
only offering covered in this research. It has several hundred WMS customers, the majority of
which are in Europe (and mostly in France). However, despite its strong European presence,
Generix is not well-positioned internationally notably in North America, which remains a
major WMS marketplace.
Dropped
Several vendors were not included in the main research this year because they did not meet our
inclusion criteria notably, in sales and new customer growth, or selling internationally. This does
not mean that there was a notable change in the vendors' offerings year over year:
Deposco: We did not include Deposco because it did not meet our criteria for international
sales and deployments.
Generix: We did not include Generix because it did not meet our criteria for international sales
and deployments.
Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria
To be included in this Magic Quadrant, an offering must have a credible WMS product that
fundamentally supports core WMS capabilities, and also supports some extended capabilities. The
vendor must also exhibit a WMS vision in at least moderately complex warehouse environments.
Additionally, vendors must show strategies and capabilities to sell and deploy their WMSs
internationally, as well as have a strong focus specifically on WMSs. Solutions must meet at least
one or more of the following criteria for inclusion:
Significant WMS market presence: The vendor must have WMS-only license revenue of at
least $20 million, or at least $10 million per year in SaaS WMS subscription revenue, with a
combined WMS license and service revenue of greater than $30 million, or subscription and
service revenue of greater than $15 million for the previous fiscal year (only license/subscription
and services associated with packaged WMS implementations).
Current WMS market momentum: In the previous 12 months, the vendor must have sold and
implemented at least 10 "new named" customers on the WMS version evaluated in this
research.
Live customers: The vendor must have at least 10 live customer references holistically using
the version of the WMS solution that's being evaluated.
Global presence: The vendor must have operations and WMS customer references in at least
two of the following geographic regions: North America, Latin America, Western Europe,
Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Asia/Pacific and Japan.
Cross-industry presence: The vendor must have new and existing WMS customers in at least
three industries (for example, consumer goods and retail, wholesale distribution, high tech, oil
and gas, aerospace and defense, automotive, chemicals, life sciences/medical devices,
healthcare, industrial products, 3PL and so on).
We have not included stand-alone specialist component providers of yard management, slotting,
labor management, parcel manifesting, RF, voice, RFID or warehouse automation (see "Supply
Chain Management Market and Vendor Guide, 2011"). We also do not cover material handling and
engineering firms that focus primarily on building complex, customized and automated warehouses
regardless of whether they offer a packaged WMS application because these firms do not
typically offer their WMSs to the market independent of their material handling solutions.
Furthermore, we do not evaluate specialized warehouse control systems or MHCSs that are the
middleware between the WMS business application and the material handling equipment (however,
we do consider a WMS vendor if it offers a native warehouse control system as part of its WMS
offering). In addition, because they are not relevant as stand-alone WMSs, we also do not evaluate
every ERP or suite vendor's WMS capabilities, even though these might be well-suited to a
particular customer's WMS needs (see "Apply an Architectural Framework to Stratifying Warehouse
Management Systems").
Evaluation Criteria
Ability to Execute
The WMS market is mature and remains highly competitive. Because of the intense transactional
nature of warehousing systems, Gartner places high value on an offering's depth and breadth of
functionality. We evaluate the WMS products across a range of criteria, including technical
architecture and product functionality. We consider functionality such as receiving, put-away,
picking, shipping, replenishment, quality assurance (including value-added services and light
manufacturing), workforce management, reporting, automation interfaces and voice technology,
labeling and retail compliance, multitenant and multisite functionality, and returns management. For
technical architecture, we consider many factors related to usability, adaptability and flexibility (see
"10 Technology Best Practices When Evaluating Warehouse Management Systems").
Although customer service and operations were important in previous Magic Quadrants for
Warehouse Management Systems, they played an even stronger role this year. In talking with
customers, Gartner found that a vendor's ability to provide the services and support necessary to
effectively implement and exploit the WMS is not only increasingly important, but also a notable
differentiator between various WMS providers. Service and support contribute to implementation
success and impact TCO. While WMS vendors have historically provided the majority of
implementation services, certain (but not all) vendors are developing an ecosystem of
implementation partners that can supplement or replace the WMS vendors' service capabilities.
There is considerable disparity in vendor size and ability to deliver solutions on an ongoing basis.
For this reason, Gartner places high importance on the overall viability of the business and the
product. Considering the complex nature of a WMS, we give a high rating to customer experience.
Because the most demanding users typically have extreme levels of process complexity, elevated
processing volumes and a need for high throughput to enable peak productivity, Gartner places
importance on a vendor's ability and experience in supporting complex warehouse environments.
We don't fully believe that a vendor has functionality and it is usable until it is demonstrated to
Gartner and until users can verify that the functionality is usable in the real world and of high
design quality. Market responsiveness and track record also serves as a good indicator of the
vendor's ability to deliver value to users.
Sales execution/pricing, although important to a company's performance, doesn't represent the
same indicator of the Ability to Execute as it might in other markets. Therefore, this factor has been
given a modest weighting. Vendor pricing in the WMS market is inconsistent across deals and, to a
large degree, arbitrary, based on the specific circumstances of an individual initiative. This situation
has been exacerbated with the growth of SaaS-based WMSs, where subscription-based pricing
models dominate. Even though vendors might have inconsistent pricing methodologies, and initial
prices may vary significantly across deals, we do find some consistency across offerings in final
negotiated prices.
Marketing execution has a modest weighting because of the relatively marginal effect it has on
vendor performance. Customer experience, which includes client satisfaction, vendor experience in
complex environments and vendor customer growth, is critical and, thus, has been given a high
weighting. Operations are important and differentiated across offerings in the WMS market, so it
has been given a high rating (see Table 1).
Table 1. Ability to Execute Evaluation Criteria
Evaluation Criteria Weighting
Product/Service High
Overall Viability (Business Unit, Financial, Strategy, Organization) High
Sales Execution/Pricing Standard
Market Responsiveness and Track Record Standard
Marketing Execution Standard
Customer Experience High
Operations High
Completeness of Vision
Although the WMS market is mature, we anticipate considerable changes related to the technology,
usability, breadth of functionality and enhanced decision support capabilities in areas such as
performance management, event management, and work planning and optimization. The dramatic
changes embodied in these market shifts will require considerable skills from vendors. Therefore, in
the market evaluation, we place our highest emphasis on the vendors' understanding of these
market dynamics, and on their product strategies to support these offerings. Exhibiting and
articulating a vision for where WMSs will be in the future, and exhibiting an innovative culture,
remain distinguishing characteristics between vendors. Furthermore, since WMSs are just one
important part of integrated logistics, or what Gartner refers to as "SCE convergence," vendors are
also evaluated on how well they understand this emerging concept, and on what strategies they
have to move in this direction.
Vertical/industry strategy remains a relevant factor in determining how well an offering is aligned
with where the market is going, and how well-suited a solution is for particular industry
requirements. This is because the industry is moving toward requiring more vertical-specific
functionality, such as capabilities for apparel distribution for hung goods, expanded multitenant
capabilities for 3PL providers, and forward and reverse logistics that are particular to retail, high-
tech and service parts supply chains. Geographic strategy is also increasingly important for
maintaining a strong presence throughout the global market, especially since market growth is
expected to be greater in emerging international markets.
Innovation is a critically important factor in the WMS industry, even though core warehousing best
practices have been well-established. Innovation and thought leadership continue to play strong
role in this year's evaluations. Leading vendors continue to enhance core WMS capabilities with
more investment in extended WMS capabilities, where a greater emphasis is placed on improving
warehouse performance through decision support, analytics and optimization. Gartner continues to
evaluate innovations in these practices. However, we also evaluate how a vendor is innovating with
respect to SCE convergence, especially regarding the expanded roles of integration and process
orchestration with yard management, dock scheduling, TMSs and mobile assets, as well as vendor
extensions into other SCE or SCP functional areas. Innovation is not exclusive to product
functionality, and go-to-market and delivery originality are also notable sources of solution
differentiation.
Historically, most WMS vendors had similar direct sales strategies. However, how vendors intend to
address international expansion and pursue growth in the lower end of the WMS market is an
important consideration. New deployment models, indirect sales strategies, and unique delivery and
pricing approaches are now more important considerations. Therefore, we have rated sales strategy
as standard, although there are strategic differences (see Table 2).
Table 2. Completeness of Vision Evaluation Criteria
Evaluation Criteria Weighting
Market Understanding High
Marketing Strategy Standard
Sales Strategy Standard
Offering (Product) Strategy High
Business Model Standard
Vertical/Industry Strategy Standard
Innovation High
Geographic Strategy High
Quadrant Descriptions
Leaders
Leaders combine the uppermost characteristics of vision and thought leadership with a sound
Ability to Execute. Leaders in the WMS market are present in almost all major WMS deals, and they
win a significant number of them. They have the broadest and deepest WMS offerings, with
particular strengths beyond core WMS capabilities, and proven solutions in emerging, extended
WMS areas, such as labor management, work planning and optimization, slotting, returns
management, yard management and dock scheduling, and value-added services. Their offerings
must meet most mainstream warehousing requirements in complex warehouses without significant
modifications, and a substantial number of high-quality implementations must be available to
validate this. Leaders must anticipate where customer demands, markets and technology are
moving, and have strategies to support these emerging requirements ahead of actual customer
demand. Leading vendors should have coherent strategies to support users' BPPs and SCE
convergence. Leaders also invest in and have processes to exploit innovation, and they are
normally the first to introduce new capabilities often years ahead of other vendors. Because
Leaders are often well-established in leading-edge and complex user environments, they benefit
from a user community that helps them remain on the forefront of emerging needs.
Challengers
The critical characteristic of the Challengers is that they have capable, proven and mature products,
with numerous live customers. They also have a consistent track record of successful
implementations. Challengers' offerings often run some very large and complex warehousing
facilities. These solutions are in use by a large number of individual enterprises, supporting multiple
warehouse operations worldwide. While vendors in this quadrant provide solid and established
WMS solutions, they generally lack the overall thought leadership, innovation or compelling visions
for next-generation WMSs that are exhibited by Leaders. These solutions are favored by buyers that
prefer Ability to Execute over Completeness of Vision. Vendors can have practical visions for these
solutions and, more generally, SCE, but vision and thought leadership is typically not on par with
solutions in the Leaders quadrant.
Visionaries
To be a Visionary, vendors must have a coherent, compelling and innovative strategy that seeks to
deliver a robust and vibrant offering to the market. Visionaries are thought leaders in one or more
WMS solution dimensions (for example, functionality, services, go-to-market or deployment
strategies), and they tend to be on the leading edge of emerging concepts. However, these
offerings have yet to demonstrate an ability to handle a broad range of complex user requirements
without modifications. At a minimum, solutions in the Visionaries quadrant fall into one of two
categories:
First, they can be established WMS offerings that have yet to mature into leading positions in
the market. Additionally, these vendors must anticipate user requirements across all functional
areas of WMSs; demonstrate a commitment to an adaptive technology strategy, such as SOA
and model-driven architectures; and articulate a strategy for pursuing SCE convergence.
Second, Visionaries can be specialist vendors with unique and potentially disruptive views of
where the market is going. They can exhibit innovation in WMS products, services, and go-to-
market or deployment strategies.
Niche Players
Although there's an assumption that vendors in the other quadrants are better choices for new
WMS buyers, Niche Players are just as good or better choices for prospective users because they
focus on a geographic or vertical component of the market that is meaningful to particular users.
However, this focus is not a compelling enough differentiator for a vendor to ascend to a leadership
position. Some offerings in the Niche Players quadrant, although often solid WMS solutions for a
specific industry or geography, are not as broad as the WMS solutions in other quadrants, and they
won't likely evolve to broadly support SCE convergence. Other solutions are part of broad suite
providers. Although Niche Players' WMSs are solid, they are not a strategic product for these
vendors, and investments in broadening and deepening functionality are limited. All these offerings
meet modest warehousing requirements, but they cannot meet more complex requirements across
the WMS market without modification.
Context
Because it is notoriously difficult to justify the costs of WMS procurements, it might be assumed
that, during difficult economic conditions, WMSs would be low-priority investments. However,
Gartner finds that just the opposite is true. Given weak business cases, it would seem logical that
businesses would allocate limited IT resources to higher-priority initiatives, such as upgrading BI,
CRM and ERP; improving SCP and sales and operations planning; or implementing TMSs.
However, WMS market demand has remained higher than Gartner anticipated for the past several
years. In talking with clients, Gartner has found that many organizations see now as the time to
invest in a stronger SCE foundation to position them better for a return to growth, and that
upgrading their warehousing and fulfillment capabilities is necessary.
Over the past 18 months, Gartner has found that WMS buyers place particular emphasis on WMS
product breadth and depth, vendor expertise, and customer service and support. Vendor and
product viability and TCO continue to be very important criteria, but they play less of a role in
complex WMS engagements. However, they are becoming differentiating factors in less demanding
transactions. TCO considerations are key factors driving the rapid increase in interest for SaaS
WMSs in low to moderately complex warehouses, where subscription pricing models reduce short-
term costs. Improving efficiency and productivity slightly bypassed cost containment as a dominant
objective for supply chain organizations, with improving customer service also a very important
priority. The increased emphasis on efficiency and productivity is evident in WMS upgrades and
replacement engagements, since we find that customers are now focusing more attention on the
value-adding capabilities that surround core WMS capabilities (see "Apply an Architectural
Framework to Stratifying Warehouse Management Systems"), such as workforce management, task
interleaving, slotting, yard management, dock scheduling and performance management. These
have now become common requirements in all but the most simplistic WMS deals.
WMS Vendor Landscape
Vendor and product evaluations and rankings have changed from 2012 for this year's Magic
Quadrant. Although the high-level criteria did not change, the subcriteria and scores did. Several
factors are now influencing the global WMS market.
First, the marketplace for WMSs is becoming more global, with more Gartner WMS inquiries coming
from emerging markets. Consequently, for this evaluation, we had more stringent inclusion criteria
related to a vendor's global presence, and this also affected the positioning of some vendors. For
example, Deposco, while having strong North America offerings, did not qualify for this year's Magic
Quadrant because it only sells in North America today.
Second, business and product viability, which is always a concern for buyers, has increased, given
the higher concern for risk and the longevity of investments. This affects smaller vendors that might
have strong WMS products, but their current size affects their viability rating.
We also continue to place more emphasis on innovation and thought leadership. Several vendors
again moved to the left, based on an increased emphasis on characteristics related to innovation
and thought leadership, which are the hallmarks of Visionaries. However, this change does not
mean that vendor capabilities deteriorated from previous years rather, how we rated certain
factors, such as innovation, caused the scores to change. In fact, while several vendors moved to
the left, they also moved up, indicating that their Ability to Execute improved. This year, changes to
scoring impacted the evaluation criteria for Ability to Execute, where the emphasis is on a vendor's
ability to successfully serve its customers with solid products, as well as on strong service and
support.
Leading WMS vendors continue to dominate the largest and most complex warehouse
environments due to the breadth and depth of their current applications, their thought leadership
and their position as the vendors that others look to emulate. They have moved beyond basic
WMSs, expanding their portfolios vertically and horizontally. In this Magic Quadrant, the WMS
market is again led by Manhattan Associates' WMOS and JDA's (RedPrairie's) Warehouse
Management. These offerings provide the broadest and deepest WMS functionality, and their
customers are the most demanding and have the most sophisticated warehouse operations. These
solutions have been implemented in some of the most complex warehouse environments.
Moreover, the vendors have extensive experience in SCE, as well as compelling visions for how
WMSs and, more broadly, SCE will evolve over the next five years.
ERP vendor WMSs (that is, Infor, Oracle and SAP) continue to evolve, with vendors adding depth to
their core WMS capabilities as well as some extended WMS capabilities. Although these solutions
have yet to match the overall depth and breadth of the Leaders, they are becoming viable
alternatives for increasingly complex environments. Because ERP vendor WMSs are increasingly
robust, this is one of the fastest growth segments in WMSs, and many users of a specific ERP
product now find the ERP vendor's WMS to be a viable alternative to best-of-breed solutions.
Oracle is in the Challengers quadrant, based on its continued enhancements in functionality,
customer growth and global deployment capabilities. The vendor has demonstrated its ability to
work in some Level 4 warehouse environments (see "Apply an Architectural Framework to
Stratifying Warehouse Management Systems"), but it has yet to prove that it is on the forefront of
WMS thought leadership and innovation in functionality, go-to-market strategies and delivery
models. SAP SCM EWM remains in the Visionaries quadrant, but with an improved execution
position, since it continues to make progress in growing its WMS capabilities and customer
implementations. It also continues to improve customer sales and implementations. In addition,
SAP has strong global sales and support, as well as intriguing strategies for SCE convergence, but
it is not yet a WMS Leader.
The Visionaries quadrant is the most populated this year with seven vendors. Many of them exhibit
innovative solutions, deployment models or go-to-market strategies. Other than SAP, all the other
vendors in this quadrant are relatively small, but while innovative and offering intriguing solutions
they have yet to solidify their long-term viability and global positions. The number of offerings in
this quadrant demonstrates that, although the WMS market is mature overall, innovation continues.
Softeon, although it's small, is an innovator, leveraging a strong SOA platform to challenge the
traditional WMS vendors, and extending WMS concepts into very unique markets like digital
product logistics. Accellos demonstrates consistent success in selling and implementing in the SMB
and 3PL WMS environments, where TCO is a key evaluation criterion for buyers. Tecsys continues
to exploit its expertise in healthcare and other industry-specific warehouse environments. eBizNET
Solutions and Synergy Logistics' Snapfulfil prove that innovation in business model, go-to-market
strategy and delivery method are potential sources of untapped innovation. LogFire is proving that
SaaS WMS is a viable platform for established WMS markets, but, more importantly, it is
demonstrating that it is an excellent option in emerging markets, like Latin America, where rapid
implementation, low TCO and platform support are critical considerations.
Several vendors are positioned in the Niche Players and Challengers quadrants. Niche Players
vendors, although potentially suitable for certain buyers, exhibit one or more of the following
characteristics:
There is a lack of comparable WMS depth or breadth to the Leaders.
They have not exhibited thought leadership comparable to Visionaries.
The primary focus is on one industry or geography.
Solutions operate on a single proprietary hardware platform, such as the IBM iSeries.
Vendors have yet to establish a solid position in the market, and have not exhibited a
compelling strategic vision beyond WMS.
The size of the vendor and small number of current customers increase near-term business risk.
They have limited global presence.

Niche solutions are often functionally sufficient or, in some cases, good choices for many
companies. However, these offerings lack the full depth, breadth or robustness of functionality
demanded by the most complex and sophisticated users. In addition, these vendors might not have
a broad vision for next-generation WMSs. They might also lack the experience, number of clients,
customer references or business viability of the leading vendors in the market. This is not to say
they are not viable or preferable for many WMS buyers. In cases such as Europe-centric warehouse
operations, vendors such as @logistics Reply and Consafe Logistics could be acceptable if not
preferable choices, primarily because of their strong local presence.
Solutions in the Challengers quadrant are mature, functionally solid and proven with strong track
records of customer adoption and successful deployments. These solutions typically support Level
3 or higher warehouse operations, and they have strong core WMS capabilities and some extended
WMS capabilities. Although offerings in the Challengers quadrant are normally functionally robust,
the vendor or the specific solution is not on the forefront of innovation. The vendor is not typically a
WMS thought leader, or rather this is not the platform where it first exploited its thought leadership.
Manhattan Associates offers multiple WMS solutions. Although its strategic offering is in the
Leaders quadrant, it has solutions in the Challengers quadrant, where buyers favor product
maturity, vendor track record and product track record more than breadth and vision. HighJump
Software has moved into the Challengers quadrant because, while it has a unique ability to simplify
the WMS experience (from customization to end-user ease of use for midsize warehouse
environments), it is not a thought leader, nor does it have an organic strategy for SCE convergence.
Market Overview
The core WMS market is mature, dating back more than 30 years to when commercially packaged
WMSs first emerged. From its inception, core WMS functionality that is, receiving, put-away,
inventory management, physical inventory/cycle counting, rule-based locator, picking,
replenishment, packing and shipping has remained fundamentally the same, although there have
been and continue to be notable improvements in the depth, number of options and flexibility of
these capabilities. When we say that the WMS market is mature, with near parity in basic core WMS
capabilities across product offerings, this is analogous to saying that all cars have four wheels, an
engine, a transmission and a steering wheel. Indeed, most WMSs cover the most basic capabilities,
but notable differences remain in core capabilities, just as there are differences in engines and
transmissions between cars.
WMS innovation hasn't stopped, however. Leading WMS vendors continue to enhance and extend
core capabilities, as well as expand the breadth of their application footprints. They now provide
more value-added capabilities surrounding the core WMS, or what Gartner calls "extended WMS"
(see "Consider These Critical Issues When Evaluating Warehouse Management Systems").
Furthermore, the recent focus has been on enhancing the technical architectures: Some vendors
have upgraded to model-driven architectures that enable more user adaptability of the WMS during
and after implementation. Additionally, cloud and SaaS delivery models have recently become more
viable deployment options for all but the most complex and sophisticated warehouse environments.
Today, the WMS market is heavily weighted toward midsize to large warehouse operators in North
America and Western Europe, with these regions representing 79% of WMS licenses and
maintenance revenue, and 54% and 25% of market revenue, respectively. However, projected new
license growth rates through 2015 are expected to be higher for emerging markets than for
established markets.
Furthermore, the WMS market has historically been dominated by specialist WMS vendors,
especially for more complex and sophisticated warehouse environments. While these high-end
users will continue to gravitate toward offerings in the Leaders quadrant, there are significant
numbers of companies whose needs can be satisfied with less leading-edge WMSs, which create
new market opportunities for other WMS providers. The SCE market is in transition, and this will
have a fundamental affect on the WMS market (see "Predicts 2013: Collaboration, Cloud and
Evolving Strategies Will Drive Global Logistics").
The application megavendors Infor, Oracle and SAP are using their global reach, large
customer bases, broad industry coverage and ability to continually invest in their SCE products to
provide more competitive SCE offerings, and to capture a disproportional percentage of new SCE
business. Over the next four years, this will result in the megavendors capturing half of the SCE
market. While the megavendors might not have half of the market revenue, they will capture half the
number of named SCE customers.
Given the state of the WMS marketplace, a few themes dominate when evaluating vendors (see
"Consider 10 Criteria When Evaluating WMSs"). Although functionality is at the top of the list of
criteria, and there's near-functional parity for core WMS capabilities across providers, significant
differences remain in the following areas:
The overall depth of core WMS packaged functionality
The overall breadth of value-added extended WMS capabilities offered by the vendors
The vendors' vision for next-generation WMSs and SCE, and a proven track record of
commercializing innovations
The adaptability of the WMS technical architecture
Integration with other applications and support for cross-functional process orchestration
Deployment model options, such as traditional on-premises licensed software, private or public
cloud, or multitenant SaaS
Vendor and/or ecosystem domain expertise in translating business goals and objectives into
specific WMS functional requirements
The ability of new investments to deliver enhanced business value through the use of innovative
capabilities
The vendor's ability to sell and support global deployments
The long-term viability of the vendor and product, which is particularly important given the long
life span of WMS implementations
The ability of vendors to support the most complex and high-throughput warehouse
environments
SCE as a platform, or what Gartner refers to as SCE convergence (see "Unify End-to-End
Logistics Processes With Supply Chain Execution Convergence")
It is the combination of a vendor's ability to address the above forces that influences its position on
this Magic Quadrant. While product functionality is important, it is not the only consideration when
investing in a new WMS. Users should use this Magic Quadrant and Gartner's other WMS research
to help build an evaluation strategy specific to their companies' needs.
Recommended Reading
Some documents may not be available as part of your current Gartner subscription.
"Magic Quadrants and MarketScopes: How Gartner Evaluates Vendors Within a Market"
"Apply an Architectural Framework to Stratifying Warehouse Management Systems"
"10 Technology Best Practices When Evaluating Warehouse Management Systems"
"Consider 10 Criteria When Evaluating WMSs"
"Predicts 2013: Collaboration, Cloud and Evolving Strategies Will Drive Global Logistics"
Evaluation Criteria Definitions
Ability to Execute
Product/Service: Core goods and services offered by the vendor that compete in/
serve the defined market. This includes current product/service capabilities, quality,
feature sets, skills and so on, whether offered natively or through OEM agreements/
partnerships as defined in the market definition and detailed in the subcriteria.
Overall Viability (Business Unit, Financial, Strategy, Organization): Viability includes
an assessment of the overall organization's financial health, the financial and practical
success of the business unit, and the likelihood that the individual business unit will
continue investing in the product, will continue offering the product and will advance
the state of the art within the organization's portfolio of products.
Sales Execution/Pricing: The vendor's capabilities in all presales activities and the
structure that supports them. This includes deal management, pricing and negotiation,
presales support, and the overall effectiveness of the sales channel.
Market Responsiveness and Track Record: Ability to respond, change direction, be
flexible and achieve competitive success as opportunities develop, competitors act,
customer needs evolve and market dynamics change. This criterion also considers the
vendor's history of responsiveness.
Marketing Execution: The clarity, quality, creativity and efficacy of programs designed
to deliver the organization's message to influence the market, promote the brand and
business, increase awareness of the products, and establish a positive identification
with the product/brand and organization in the minds of buyers. This "mind share" can
be driven by a combination of publicity, promotional initiatives, thought leadership,
word-of-mouth and sales activities.
Customer Experience: Relationships, products and services/programs that enable
clients to be successful with the products evaluated. Specifically, this includes the ways
customers receive technical support or account support. This can also include ancillary
tools, customer support programs (and the quality thereof), availability of user groups,
service-level agreements and so on.
Operations: The ability of the organization to meet its goals and commitments. Factors
include the quality of the organizational structure, including skills, experiences,
programs, systems and other vehicles that enable the organization to operate
effectively and efficiently on an ongoing basis.
Completeness of Vision
Market Understanding: Ability of the vendor to understand buyers' wants and needs
and to translate those into products and services. Vendors that show the highest
degree of vision listen and understand buyers' wants and needs, and can shape or
enhance those with their added vision.
Marketing Strategy: A clear, differentiated set of messages consistently
communicated throughout the organization and externalized through the website,
advertising, customer programs and positioning statements.
Sales Strategy: The strategy for selling products that uses the appropriate network of
direct and indirect sales, marketing, service, and communication affiliates that extend
the scope and depth of market reach, skills, expertise, technologies, services and the
customer base.
Offering (Product) Strategy: The vendor's approach to product development and
delivery that emphasizes differentiation, functionality, methodology and feature sets as
they map to current and future requirements.
Business Model: The soundness and logic of the vendor's underlying business
proposition.
Vertical/Industry Strategy: The vendor's strategy to direct resources, skills and
offerings to meet the specific needs of individual market segments, including vertical
markets.
Innovation: Direct, related, complementary and synergistic layouts of resources,
expertise or capital for investment, consolidation, defensive or pre-emptive purposes.
Geographic Strategy: The vendor's strategy to direct resources, skills and offerings to
meet the specific needs of geographies outside the "home" or native geography, either
directly or through partners, channels and subsidiaries as appropriate for that
geography and market.
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This research note is restricted to the personal use of ryan.mahoney@jda.

Although @logistics Reply is a modest-size WMS provider, it is part of a much larger

The company has notable customers with complex warehouse environments.

It offers capable, but not differentiated, core WMS capabilities.

It is not pursuing a comprehensive SCE convergence strategy at this time.

Accellos is very Microsoft-centric and takes advantage of contemporary Microsoft technologies.

The vendor trails in delivering a cloud offering.

HighJump continues to be recognized by customers and Gartner as the most intrinsically

The vendor is pioneering a unique approach to packaging customer- and vendor-developed

JDA Warehouse Management is in the Leaders quadrant because it offers industry-leading

The merger potentially expands the vendor's global sales infrastructure.

LogFire's experienced leadership has long tenure in the WMS marketplace.

As LogFire continues to grow, resources could become constrained.

Sales volume for this solution continued to grow in 2012.

This product offers certified integration with Microsoft Dynamics AX.

SCALE is more broadly sold and implemented across vertical markets.

Customer references note the stability and scalability of the solution.

Manhattan Associates' Warehouse Management for IBM i offering is developed in RPG/IBM i,

This is not the strategic direction for the vendor.

Manhattan's WMOS is broadly used in WMS environments, from moderately complex to

Manhattan is focused on organic, self-directed innovation. It continues to bring to market self-

The vendor's WMS is installed in a wide variety of industries. It is particularly well-represented

Oracle has a growing ecosystem of implementation partners.

Synergy offers rapid implementation.

There are a small number of employees around 40.

Snapfulfil is not a true multitenant SaaS WMS. It offers an on-demand, single-instance-per-

The vendor historically sold exclusively in North America; however, it is expanding

The vendor has not articulated a compelling cloud deployment strategy.

Deposco: Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Deposco is a provider of cloud-based SaaS SCM

There is a lack of comparable WMS depth or breadth to the Leaders.

They have not exhibited thought leadership comparable to Visionaries.

The primary focus is on one industry or geography.

They have limited global presence.

The overall depth of core WMS packaged functionality

The adaptability of the WMS technical architecture

The vendor's ability to sell and support global deployments

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