Why Manhattan-Global Bay Is A Big Deal

By Matt Pillar, chief editor

In case you haven’t heard, Manhattan Associates bought Global Bay, the mobile POS and clienteling solutions company that VeriFone just picked up about three years ago. You read that right—Manhattan, the supply chain titan, bought a company that’s decidedly in-store, in-your-face, customer-centric. At first, the buy surprised me, too. It doesn’t get any more store floor, customer-centric than what Global Bay does.

Then I shrugged off the three-years-ago perception of Manhattan. I started thinking about my visits to its past two Momentum conferences and the recent writing I’ve been doing on the company and its customers. The deal quickly made perfect sense. Manhattan, the harbinger (or at least, trumpeter) of the customer-centric supply chain, has been encroaching on the store for a while now. CEO Eddie Capel has all but written it on the wall for us. The supply chain starts with the customer, so customer engagement is inherently supply chain centric. Especially in this order anywhere, fulfill anywhere omni-channel environment. From where else should supply chain decisions be cued, if not from consumers?

There’s no surprise here at all. More surprising, I suppose, is that this is the company’s first and most overt move to stick a flag into the retail sales floor. Now, it’s clear they’re serious about it. Clienteling is akin to a primary control lever of the supply chain—the associate influences the consumer's purchase, and the supply chain springs to action from there. Now Manhattan will be truly able to hang its hat on the "end to end supply chain" claim. 

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