Recently, I got to chatting with a customer who asked me if we had ever considered adding a warehouse management system (WMS) to our product lineup. I pointed to the crowded playing field (which is filled with giants like Manhattan Associates, JDA, SAP, Infor, IBS, Logfire, Microsoft, Oracle, and Softeon). His response surprised me: "Nobody writes WMS keeping the operators in mind."
As he said it, I knew it was true. He elaborated, saying the people that write these software packages sit in their f...