Henri Seroux
Manhattan Associates
Senior Vice President EMEA

The disruption that has affected all of us this year has thrown up a myriad of challenges to the world of commerce and supply chains. While we are slowly fi nding a new balance between supply and demand, sales and safety, and agility and reliability the danger is yet to pass entirely. 

At this point, I would first like to console and empathise with the many families around the world that have been touched by the pandemic. Secondly, we must also recognise that the global economy is also reeling from the shock-waves of the virus. 

In many cases companies have had to close down branches, significantly reduce workforces and sometimes even fi le for bankruptcy. Despite the best efforts of governments and organisations all over the globe, the lives of millions of people have been completely turned upside down. 

But like every crisis, heroes & heroines have emerged. In the medical sector, of course, the doctors and nurses deserve a special mention, but also in other areas such as transport and logistics countless other professionals have kept our supply chains and communities running, while the majority of us were in lockdown – we are grateful to them all. 

At the same time, in the midst of the crisis, we introduced a groundbreaking innovation to the market: Manhattan Active® Warehouse Management, the first complete cloud-native warehouse management system. A WMS that never needs to be upgraded. In short, the last WMS you will ever have to buy.

In this jubilee (5th) edition of Commerce Trends we would like to show you how these types of cloud native, microservices architected solutions can help you to be prepared and respond to the next challenge; regardless of whether that is another pandemic, natural disaster, geo-political trade war, or simply shifting consumer behaviour.