As I talk to many SAP customers looking to migrate from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA to better support frontline workers and back-office processes, a key question often arises: Should I choose SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) or Stock Room Management (SRM)? Ultimately, the best option for your business depends on how complex your warehouse and inventory management needs are and whether you truly need the added capabilities of EWM at the added cost of an additional software license.

Editor's Note: This post originally published May 2024. It was updated January 2025. In today's fast-paced world, the unexpected is always around the corner. Imagine an associate suddenly slips off a ladder in your retail store during the holiday season while it’s buzzing with activity. Would they be able to call for help? If not, someone needs to be notified, especially if customers or other associates don’t witness the fall or notice the injured associate on the ground.

Can you believe that Amazon launched 30 years ago? It was one of the earliest e-commerce ventures on the then-nascent Internet. Born as an online bookstore, the company has more recently transformed the world by making goods and services easily accessible to anyone with a computer or smartphone – and inspiring others to do the same. What made Amazon different from traditional brick-and-mortar stores wasn’t just that you could buy online.

It’s no secret that demand planning is a critical component in managing a consumer packaged goods (CPG) company. To achieve success in this competitive market, you must anticipate and meet customers' needs efficiently. But I think it’s important we talk more about how to manage the two fundamental factors that influence demand planning: pricing and trade promotions.

After my last post about responsible AI practices, some people rightfully inquired about Zebra’s practices. So, I thought it would be best to answer these questions publicly. The first thing I want to stress is that our underlying Code of Conduct, company policies, and departmental procedures provide the foundation for everything we do at Zebra.

Editor's Note: This post first published in April 2021. Jenny updated it in December 2024. Did you know that public safety agencies were among the earliest adopters of rugged tablet technology over 25 years ago? It’s true.

If you're assessing a new machine vision project and you want to get it right, there’s only one thing you must do: Ask the right questions. It’s that simple. The likelihood of nailing the perfect solution without completing a thorough assessment is low, and the likelihood of completing a thorough assessment is low if you don’t ask the right questions of every consultant, technology provider, and integrator every time.

If sales are holding steady or even growing, you may not realize that your convenience rating is dropping with shoppers and that, at any moment, they may decide you’re no longer the best option for them. Every time they come into your store, they’re judging you. They’re deciding whether it was convenient or not to browse your inventory or buy what they needed.

Recently, on the Your Edge podcast, I spoke about how your organization’s culture directly affects your employees’ ability to support customers – how your values influence employee actions. Well, this spurred some conversations about whether it’s more important to invest in your organization’s culture for the sake of your customers or your employees.