In the past 12 months, SnapFulfil has seen significant growth in demand for its software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution, which has been boosted by Remote Implementation (RI) and self-configuration capabilities.

“It’s an exciting time in the technology sector with companies pushing forward with their digital transformations,” Rich says. “SnapFulfil’s advanced WMS software delivers strong value through rapid ROI, industry-leading deployment speed and low total cost of ownership (TCO). My focus in North America is to enable the growth trajectory of our current and potential customers by providing their warehouse and fulfillment operations with leading edge capabilities. We have the team and track record to deliver.”

Rich has an MBA in Financial & Operations Management from the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Chemical Engineering from Penn State. He and his family reside in Franklin, Michigan on the outskirts of Detroit. He is a frequent speaker and seminar leader on topics including leadership, transformation, and business growth, including Visiting Professor and Visiting Lecturer roles at Wharton and the University of Michigan MBA programs.

As a volunteer, Rich previously served as Chairman of Wharton’s Global Alumni Association, with over 85,000 members worldwide, and as Treasurer and trustee for national leadership honor society Omicron Delta Kappa, with chapters at 300+ institutions of higher learning. Armed with a brilliant career, Rich has been taking the company to new heights.

Building A Brand

There is massive growth and demand in the direct-to-consumer (D2C) e-commerce sector, and the customers want to achieve their D2C ambitions. Colorado-based Synergy, North America’s SnapFulfil, delivers a class-leading warehouse management solution to customers in various industries, including retail and e-commerce, third-party logistics (3PL), manufacturing, food, and beverage, etc. With a continued focus on customer retention and accuracy, the company is providing unique solutions–so that those new to it don’t make mistakes while rushing to compete with established e-commerce retailers.

The shift to modern D2C retail also means that data gathering and insight are even more important when it comes to understanding goods in and out and staffing patterns and consumer habits.

This need for real-time data will continue to drive demand for intuitive WMS, with built-in flexibility and the capability to store and interpret data in one place. The power of data delivered by SnapFulfil enables customers to keep up with demand while scaling for growth.

As a specific example of accuracy, one of Synergy’s retail customers asked if they were aware of their inventory accuracy for their multiple locations. At year-end, they had conducted their normal inventory assessment for financial purposes. “Given our ability to have accurate inventory in real-time, we thought we would be close to their actual level,” says Rich. “They told us that the SnapFulfil platform had provided a value of $325 million in inventory, and their financial assessment showed only a $150 variance!”

A best-of-breed WMS like SnapFulfil allows retailers to track progress and reconfigure changes to achieve the best results and most efficient fulfillment operations. However, there is no point in being quicker and having speed of delivery if you are sending the wrong product to the wrong person. It’s also about delivering accuracy – and SnapFulfil is very precise and reliable.

Transforming Business

Technologically advanced WMS is one of the most cost-effective ways of connecting the ever-changing supply chain blocks. Synergy’s functionality-rich software integrates with other solutions, creating a seamless approach to peer-to-peer transactions in real-time. This lets firms share information about a transaction just once, but everyone up and down the chain can instantly see that data.

Importantly, by joining these silos into one cloud platform, Operations, Finance, HR, or Marketing Directors can also access a consistent, real-time summary or detailed view of their business, allowing them to make better, more efficient decisions based on solid data – essential as margins are now tighter than ever.

Through IoT-style technology, firms are also waking up to the value of the customer data trail and the loyalty they can harness through having a single customer view, which can only be achieved through integration and mapping each customer’s buying journey from start to end and beyond. And fulfillment is part and parcel of that. Therefore, having access to reliable, real-time data from a WMS is a critical link.

SnapFulfil offers seamless integration to ERPs and other systems through Jitterbit, a smart commercial software integration product, via a simple drag and drop capability. It’s quick and easy, no longer requiring the skills of a tech specialist – and the same is even true for direct integration with NetSuite. The existing connectors mean you can align systems via simple drag and drop workflows without expensive IT overhead and delays.

As enterprise-level businesses have no choice but to open micro-distribution centers en masse, SnapFulfil can also successfully work with rigid and industrial-scale on-premise systems that lack the functionality and configurability of cloud-based WMS and can’t manage the smaller picks that e-commerce and D2C fulfillment demand.

Towards the Future

Synergy is an organization with an outstanding WMS solution that is only beginning to deliver on the growth opportunities in the market. Supply chain technology has always been a critical part of an organization’s technology stack, but it has rarely been prioritized. Recent challenges for most companies in the supply chain emphasize the importance of strong technologies that can deliver rapid value.

They are domain experts in the WMS sector, and this is their exclusive focus. Their software and the team can assess and deliver rapidly on the value levers in a warehouse or fulfillment operations. It is not a cookie-cutter approach; every customer has a distinct set of challenges. It may be scaling and being able to add new locations quickly, becoming highly efficient with labor resources in a tight labor market, or demanding high picking and inventory accuracy to minimize returns and errors.

For the days to come, the company’s growth strategy is to focus on the sectors where the ability to harness the greater value in warehousing and fulfillment in a short period is now a business priority. “Our assessment of the market is that these sectors are D2C and 3PL companies. Our product roadmap reflects these priorities, especially with respect to accelerating time to value,” adds Rich.