WMS Pioneers

This episode, recorded last summer, is a fun look back at Softeon’s leadership team and where their NFL predictions currently stand.

In the latest episode of The WMS Pioneers, Softeon CEO Jim Hoefflin and CTO Mark Fralick discuss the ongoing tariff war, supply chain uncertainty, and how businesses can stay agile amid change.

Softeon CEO Jim Hoefflin and CTO Mark Fralick discuss what makes Softeon’s One WMS philosophy unique and how it drives value for customers.

In this episode of The WMS Pioneers, Softeon leaders Jim Hoefflin (CEO) and Mark Fralick (CTO) weigh in on what the end of life for SAP WM means for customers and why this transition presents a major opportunity for organizations to rethink their warehouse management strategy.

In this episode of WMS Pioneers, Softeon CEO Jim Hoefflin and CTO Mark Fralick explore how Softeon helps third-party logistics (3PL) providers identify efficiencies, drive operational excellence, and unlock the power of enablement for both themselves and their end customers.

In this episode of the WMS Pioneers, Softeon CEO Jim Hoefflin and CTO Mark Fralick discuss how Softeon is redefining the warehouse management system (WMS) experience through cutting-edge UI/UX, smarter interfaces, and a deep understanding of real-world operational challenges.

In this episode, Softeon CEO Jim Hoefflin and CTO Mark Fralick discuss how enablement empowers users to customize and adapt their WMS to unlock its full potential, why other vendors seem to have lost their minds, and how Softeon helps customers leverage their uniqueness as a competitive weapon.

Softeon Chief Revenue Officer Patrick Maley delivered a well-received presentation on how to evaluate robotics and automation for your warehouse during IntraLogisteX UK 2025. This is a bonus episode of the WMS Pioneers podcast that contains the full audio.   Download the robot guide referenced in the episode at https://www.softeon.com/blog/robot-and-goods-to-person-selection-guide/.

In this episode, Softeon CEO Jim Hoefflin and CTO Mark Fralick discuss Softeon’s concept of micro-tuning, philosophy for upgrades, and commitment to creating more value for customers and partners as quickly as possible. Plus, a look back at how the executives’ preseason predictions for their favorite NFL teams, the Packers and Eagles, measure up in December!

In this episode, Softeon CEO Jim Hoefflin and CTO Mark Fralick discuss their decision to join Softeon, the customer-focused culture they're building, and valuable advice for aspiring supply chain professionals on becoming indispensable in their organizations.

Mark has a sneezing spell, while the Pioneers dive into the rise of third-party logistics (3PL), the intricacies of multi-tenant systems, and how Softeon empowers 3PLs to enhance both speed and flexibility.

In this episode, the Pioneers discuss the secrets to a successful WMS implementation, how to avoid death by a thousand keystrokes, and share battle scars from challenging go-lives.

Softeon CTO Mark Fralick loves coffee. And efficient, integrated, and harmonious warehouses! Mark joins Softeon CEO Jim Hoefflin in the second episode of the WMS Pioneers limited podcast series. The two friends describe the evolution of warehouse technology, where the industry stands today, and provide tips for leaders to navigate the sometimes-daunting landscape. Lookout for new episodes every month. Watch them all at https://www.softeon.com/wms-pioneers.

“Brothers from different mothers” as they describe it, Softeon CEO Jim Hoefflin and CTO Mark Fralick have worked together over the last 35 years. The duo, known at Softeon as “WMS Pioneers” developed one of the first Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) in 1993 after realizing there was a market shaping.   Lookout for new episodes every month. Watch them all at https://www.softeon.com/wms-pioneers.

Getting WMS team members on the same page in terms of terminology is a key part of a successful Warehouse Management System project. The WMS Glossary of Terms can help, defining more than 90 terms and acronyms, as an on-line resource or downloadable pdf. Great handout for term members at start of a project. 

Less well-known than the WMS Magic Quadrant, the Gartner Critical Capabilities report ranks WMS vendors purely on functionality across nine attributes, weighted by different levels of warehouse complexity. It is an important companion piece to the MQ to understand the WMS market, as we explain in this podcast.

In the second of our two podcasts featuring highlights of Mark Fralick’s interview with Bob Trebilcock of Modern Materials Handling magazine, Fralick suggests a new way to think about how Warehouse Execution Systems might orchestrate order fulfillment to balance work across the distribution center.

Highlights from a recent Modern Materials Handling magazine podcast featuring editor Bob Trebilcock and Mark Fralick, Chief Technology Officer at Softeon. “Interfacing is easy. Integration is hard,” when it comes to warehouse automation, Fralick says. Trebilcock wants to know why.

We conclude our look at this important but little understood type of supply chain software.

Distributed Order Management or DOM is a powerful and unique tool to optimize order sourcing across an extended network. It is most well known in Omnichannel retail applications, but there are a number of use cases in B2B as well. Learn more in this informative podcast. 

After a somewhat slow start, some lessons learned from dozens of Cloud WMS deployments.

Annual study finds US Logistics Costs as Percent of GDP soared to record level last year.  

Washington latest to pass legislation, targeting Amazon but impacting many other companies.

Softeon’s WMS Glossary of Terms provides a great resource for vendor selection and implementation team members.

Gartner recently released its annual Magic Quadrant report on Warehouse Management Systems. In addition to the vendor rankings, we’re always interested in the WMS market analysis Garter provides in the report.

Real estate firm CBRE is out with its latest report, packed with interesting data points.

Task Management is one of the most essential capabilities of an advanced Warehouse Management System, but not well Understood

Various data points indicate a real slow down in e-commerce growth. Will there be a pullback in investments for hardware and software in support of e-fulfillment automation?

Many companies are considering or deploying mobile robots in distribution. A key question: should you rely on the robot company’s software to manage the robots’ activities? Or would a platform that supports multiple robot types and vendors be the better choice? We explore this issue in this week's episode.

In this week's episode, we have part 2 of our review of the State of Distribution Technologies Report. Based on a survey of 187 logistics managers, this study provides interesting and valuable insight to readers. The report by Softeon is available here: https://www.softeon.com/new-report-state-technologies-distribution-2022  

In this week's episode, we review the highlights of a new research report from Softeon on how users view various distribution center technologies. The report by Softeon is available here: https://www.softeon.com/new-report-state-technologies-distribution-2022    

In this week's episode of Logistics Insights, we review highlights of the 27th annual "3PL Study" from Dr. John Langley and team, released at the recent CSCMP Edge conference in Nashville.

In this week’s episode, we advise on not losing critical time early in a WMS project. An often unrecognized key to Warehouse Management System implementation success is ensuring valuable days aren’t lost early in a project.

In this week's episode, we take a look Gartner's seven categories of mobile robots for distribution and manufacturing, or what Gartner calls "Smart Intralogistics Robots."

In this week’s Logistics Insights podcast: Cross-Docking in Distribution Cross-docking in distribution is often talked about, but there are several types, and it generally takes a robust WMS to well handle the complexity and timing issues. In this episode, we dive deeper into cross-docking.

In this week’s Logistics Insights podcast: Understanding the Gartner WMS Critical Capabilities Report. Different from the WMS Magic Quadrant analysis, the Critical Capabilities report focuses solely on functionality across nine different attributes. Those attributes include core and extended WMS capabilities, adaptability, usability, the ability to support automated material handling systems, and several others.

Labor is a hot topic distribution right now, with rising wages and labor shortages in most markets. In fact, a recent survey by Gartner found that for the first time, addressing labor issues was cited as the top reason for investing in DC automation, surpassing reducing operating costs, the traditional driver of material handling systems adoption. Labor management software can provide a variety of capabilities and benefits to address labor issues in distribution.

Software demonstrations are a critical step in selecting a Warehouse Management System or any other logistics software package. How else are you going to determine the fit of various packages to your operational requirements? Despite its criticality, it is surprising how often companies don’t really think through the many elements needed to get the demo process right – which in the end means selecting the solution that is right for you both short and long term. Here are a couple of points...

Warehouse Management Systems were a little late to the Cloud party but now are the great majority of implementations. Softeon, a tier 1 WMS provider, has successfully deployed Warehouse Management Systems in the Cloud dozens of times. Here are some lessons learned from those successes...

At the recent Gartner supply chain symposium in Orlando, it was revealed that the number 1 topic for client inquiries is around robots for distribution. A recent Gartner survey found that for about two-thirds of companies interested in robotics, the driver for doing so now is to combat labor shortages, not to drive cost reduction, which is very different than just a few years ago. Gartner has categorized these robots into seven types.

With what appears to be growing interest in automation in distribution, driven by severe labor issues for many shippers and more, Softeon commissioned a survey and report on a variety of topics relevant to materials handling systems and warehouse software. The report is based on survey data from a wide variety of business sectors, led by retailers and consumer goods companies of all sorts, but many other industry sectors as well. The full report will be available soon, but here’s a little preview.

In our last episode, we discussed some of the ways efficiency can be improved with the right software tools. Here are some more ways you can optimize Cart Picking in ways you may not know about...

How warehouse software can optimize cart picking in ways you probably don’t currently know about.

In our last episode, we discussed how Softeon and Thru-Put Partners produced a webinar on the “7 Uncommon Keys to End-End WMS Success.” We covered the first 4 of those tips, which included: Understanding WMS Value Upfront Creating a clear decision-making framework Getting the demo right, and… Not wasting time early in the project This week, the final three uncommon tips...

Recently, Softeon and Thru-Put Partners – a leading supply chain consulting firm – produced a webinar with Modern Materials Handling Magazine on the “7 Uncommon Keys to End-End WMS Success.” On this podcast we’ll cover the first 4 of those, and we promise these will be a little different than tips you might have heard from others.

In this week’s Logistics Insights podcast, we sort out the WMS, WCS and WES flavors of warehouse software.

Gartner recently held its virtual Supply Chain Symposium for 2021. That included a session on Warehouse Management Systems, or WMS, led by well-known Gartner analyst, Dwight Klappich. During the session, Klappich detailed what he sees as key trends in WMS technology moving forward. As an intro to those trends, Klappich first noted that Warehouse Management Systems are getting smarter.

In this week’s Logistics Insights podcast, a look at three key trends in warehouse management systems, including the move to the Cloud, the rise of Warehouse Execution Systems and the increasing support for automation, such as for mobile robots and putwall systems.

Labor challenges in US distribution are as high as we have ever seen. Almost everyone is scrambling for labor, and few are able to hire and retain all the DC labor they need. Facing similar challenges, tool maker Hilti launched a program earlier this year to revolutionize the way it treats DC workers, across more than a dozen facilities in the US.

Here's a fact: if a company is deploying a new WMS solution, unless they are already using Voice or other picking technologies such as pick-to-light or “put walls,” these types of technologies are almost never designed in from the start, even if there is great interest in them for down the road. But is that really the right approach?