Competition for the high jump?

Source: Technology Digital

Date :10/05/2007 09:21:16

John O'Hanlon reviews voice picking technology and looks at 3M's rather dramatic entry onto the supply chain solution scene

3M entered the warehouse management market as recently as 2004, when it acquired US company HighJump Software and launched it as the Supply Chain Solutions division of 3M. HighJump Software was the ideal platform for 3M, says Marcus Bennett (pictured) of 3M Supply Chain Solutions, because it was growing at a rate of around 30 percent against the industry average of around five percent.

Why? Well one factor has to be that it is easy to configure and users can customise and upgrade the system themselves. They can have whatever level of support they may need from 3M of course, but with the right training they can avoid the expensive and disruptive process of regular upgrades as the vendor announces a new release.

HighJump Supply Chain Advantage Suite is a complete suite that can handle the requirements of the largest enterprises, and it is already in the top three globally, alongside RedPrairie and Manhattan Associates. It has some way to go in the UK and Europe but has already had some notable successes.

The MAP Merchant company gm2 Logistics has just gone live with HighJump Warehouse Advantage. The company would have stuck with its highly customised WMS system had the vendor been prepared to support it, says Bennett: “We mapped our software to be just like the system they were used to. They acquired it with minimum disruption, but now they have a system they can configure themselves.“We were able to replicate the functionality and usability of our old system very closely, allowing a smooth transition to the new system with minimal retraining,” said Haydn Costin, WMS Project Manager at gm2 Logistics.

The latest version of HighJump Supply Chain Advantage can be operated in a number of…

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