Inbound Logistics | September 2026

WMS REMIX

Rather than pointing to any single feature, Armanious frames adaptability as the real differentiator. Directed workows let new or temporary workers become productive in hours rather than weeks, task-level tracking gives supervisors real-time visibility into where labor is going, and the deeper test comes at peak season: Can a warehouse change its wave logic, allocation rules, or workows without triggering a software project and a six-week wait? “If reconguring for peak season requires a change order and a six- week timeline, the system is part of the problem,” he says. That philosophy runs through Datex’s Footprint ® WMS, which the company built on its own Datex Studio platform with the multi-client complexity of 3PL operations at its core. While many WMS platforms are designed for single-inventory operations and retrotted for multi-client use, Armanious describes Footprint ’s approach as native separation: Inventory, orders, tasks, documents, and reporting are all client-scoped from the ground up. That structure extends into billing, where the system captures billable events at the task level as work happens, and into a customer portal that gives each

client self-service visibility into only their own inventory and orders. Cascading Benefits With leaner headcounts, a WMS directly impacts on-the-oor productivity by directing work and removing the need for employees to make decisions. “Every time a worker has to decide where to go, what to grab, or where to put something, you’re counting on experience you may not have on the oor anymore,” Armanious says. “When the WMS makes those decisions—directed putaway, directed picking, intelligent location recommendations—a rst-week employee performs close to a rst-year employee,” he adds. Integration has also changed shape, Armanious says. While an ERP ran on nightly batch les, the WMS now sits within a real-time mesh of order sources, marketplaces, robotics, and customer portals, with little tolerance for latency. Because Footprint is built on the Datex Studio platform, an integration endpoint becomes a congurable artifact rather than custom code. That means Datex and its customers can stand up a new client feed or piece of automation in days and end

up with a conguration that survives future upgrades. Datex engineering and services teams already use AI agents equipped with a library of company-built skills to build and modify reports, dashboards, and workows for customer deliverables, compressing work that used to take days into hours. Conversational AI and AI-powered analytics are reaching users directly too, with more agentic capabilities in development. But Armanious is candid about where the technology is and isn’t proving itself. He draws a rm line at full autonomy inside execution. “Anything touching inventory accuracy, compliance, or billing needs determinism and an audit trail,” he says. “The pattern that works is AI proposing and humans, or deterministic rules, disposing; vendors claiming otherwise are ahead of their skis.” Armanious is direct about how shippers frequently go wrong with WMS selection, calling out the tendency to buy based on the demo rather than year three. His advice: ask every vendor exactly what happens when requirements change—who does it, how long it takes, and what it costs—because that answer, more than any feature list, determines the real cost of ownership over time. DA VINCI: WMS Built for Omnichannel Fulfillment Da Vinci, a warehouse management platform built for 3PLs and complex distribution operations, is positioning itself around a distinction its leadership argues most buyers overlook: the difference between a congurable system and a customizable one. Customizable means every change, such as a new billing rule, a modied pick workow, or a relabeling requirement, routes back through the vendor as a ticket or a services engagement. Congurable means the operator’s own team makes that change directly, without waiting on outside development cycles. The inexible nature of many legacy WMS options leaves 3PLs looking for a

Datex’s Footprint® WMS, which the company built on its own Datex Studio platform, gives each client self-service visibility into their own inventory and orders.

74 Inbound Logistics • September 2026