Buying manufacturing software is rarely a single decision. Choose a new system for the shop floor and you are also making a decision about your ERP, your quality processes and, often, your supply chain, because the systems that run a factory do not sit in isolation from one another. Get the choice wrong, and it is an expensive one to unwind, sometimes years later and mid-production run. Viewpoint Analysis is a Technology Matchmaker: we help manufacturing operations, IT and en

Manhattan Associates has been a market leader for warehouse management systems for close to two decades, and its Manhattan Active platform remains one of the most capable WMS platforms on the market. Even so, like with any enterprise solution, customers implement and then at some point, they move on to new products. Viewpoint Analysis is a Technology Matchmaker, helping businesses find and select the right technology fast, and helping IT vendors get found by the right buyers.

Quality, health, safety, and environmental compliance used to sit in separate systems, spreadsheets, and paper files, until an audit, an incident, or a customer contract forced them together. In 2026, most mid-sized and enterprise organisations are past that point. Regulators, customers, and insurers now expect a single QHSE record that shows how quality, safety, and environmental performance connect, rather than three departments working from different data. This guide cover

Oracle's JD Edwards is one of the most well-known ERP solutions on the market. Even before Oracle acquired the product years ago, it was a major competitor to SAP. That long tenure in the market is one of the key reasons why customers are looking to replace it - but as with any ERP platform, having plans to replace or wanting to look at alternatives, is very different to actually making the decision and buying something else. Viewpoint Analysis is a Technology Matchmaker: we

Simulating a change before making it is not a new idea in engineering, but the tools available to do it have changed considerably. A digital twin - a virtual representation of a physical asset, process, or facility that stays connected to real operational data - now lets manufacturers, infrastructure owners, and product teams test decisions virtually before committing time and capital to the physical version. What has changed most in 2026 is the convergence between engineerin

Most manufacturers already have machines generating useful data - the problem is that it sits locked inside individual PLCs, historians, and control systems that were never built to talk to each other, let alone to the cloud. Industrial IoT (IIoT) software exists to solve exactly that problem, connecting operational technology to the applications, analytics, and decisions that depend on it. What has changed in 2026 is how much of this market has been reshaped by ownership cha

For organisations that deploy engineers, technicians, or service teams into the field, the gap between what customers expect and what legacy systems can deliver has never been wider. First-time fix rates, same-day or next-day response windows, real-time engineer tracking, and proactive maintenance driven by asset data - these are no longer premium differentiators, they are baseline expectations in most B2B service contracts and an increasing number of consumer service markets

Every organisation with a building, or a portfolio of them, eventually runs into the same problem: work orders scattered across email and paper, no reliable record of asset condition, and no easy way to see whether maintenance spend is under control. Facility management software exists to close that gap, but the market covers a wide range of buyer situations under one label. What makes 2026 a genuinely different buying environment is the widening gap between full real estate

If your plant, refinery, or production line is sitting on years of historian data that nobody has time to dig into, Seeq is one of the names that comes up most often in industrial analytics conversations. The Seattle-based vendor has built its entire business around making time series data from process manufacturing usable, without forcing engineers to become data scientists first. For IT and OT leaders weighing up how to get more value from existing historian investments, Se

Manufacturing operations leaders face a familiar paradox in 2026: more data than ever from the shop floor, and less time than ever to act on it. AI is the answer the industry has been waiting for, but the vendor landscape has fragmented quickly across quality control, predictive maintenance, production scheduling, and connected workforce tools, making it difficult to identify which platforms address real operational problems and which are still in the pilot stage. This post

Pharmaceutical manufacturing sits at one of the most demanding intersections of operational complexity and regulatory obligation in any industry. Getting a batch to market requires not just efficient production, but an unbroken chain of documentation, quality control, and audit-ready records that stand up to scrutiny from the FDA, EMA, MHRA, or any combination of global regulators. ERP systems are the foundation beneath all of that - and choosing the wrong one carries consequ

Manufacturers, energy businesses, and operators of complex physical assets are under real and growing pressure to get more out of what they have. Reduce unplanned downtime. Improve yield. Cut energy costs. Make faster decisions across operations that involve thousands of data points, dozens of systems, and very little margin for error. Industrial AI software is the category that is now delivering on those goals in a measurable way - not in theory, and not just for the largest

The speed at which manufacturers and product companies need to bring new products to market has compressed dramatically in recent years. Customer expectations, competitive pressure, regulatory change, and the growing complexity of product portfolios are all pushing product development cycles shorter while simultaneously increasing the number of stakeholders, components, regulatory requirements, and supplier dependencies that need to be coordinated. For many organisations, the

Unplanned downtime remains one of the most expensive operational failures an asset-intensive business can experience. Whether it is a production line halted by an unexpected equipment failure, a facilities estate with a growing backlog of reactive repairs, or a utility network carrying ageing infrastructure beyond its planned service life, the cost of poor asset and maintenance management compounds quickly - in lost output, emergency labour, expedited parts, regulatory exposu

Quality failures are expensive in ways that go well beyond the immediate cost of a recall or rework. Regulatory penalties, customer attrition, reputational damage, and the operational disruption of a major non-conformance event can dwarf the original cost of the defect many times over. For manufacturers and regulated businesses in 2026, quality management is no longer a compliance checkbox - it is a competitive differentiator, and the software that underpins it is increasingl

For manufacturers, the gap between what demand signals say and what the shop floor can actually deliver has always been the central operational challenge. In 2026, that gap is harder to manage than ever - shorter customer lead times, higher product mix complexity, ongoing supply chain volatility, and growing pressure to reduce waste and energy consumption are all placing new demands on planning and scheduling systems that, in many factories, have barely changed in a decade. P

Manufacturers in 2026 are operating in a demanding environment. Supply chain disruption, rising input costs, skills shortages on the shop floor, and growing customer pressure for shorter lead times and better visibility are forcing businesses to rethink how their operations technology holds everything together. For many, the ERP system at the centre of the business has become the critical question - is it fit for purpose, and if not, what should replace it? Manufacturing ERP

Pharmaceutical organisations run some of the most complex and compliance-intensive technology environments in any industry. From clinical trial management and regulatory submissions through to GMP manufacturing execution, quality management, and serialised supply chain, the software stack that keeps a pharma business operating and compliant spans a wide range of specialist platforms - each with its own regulatory expectations, validation requirements, and integration dependen

For most manufacturers, the journey toward Industry 4.0 is not a single technology decision. It is a series of decisions made across different layers of the operation, often by different teams, at different points in a multi-year digital programme. The question is rarely whether to pursue connected manufacturing, but where to start, which technology layer to address first, and which guide to read to find the right vendors for that specific layer. This page exists to answer th

If your business is still managing stock on spreadsheets, or your current system cannot keep pace with multi-channel demand, omnichannel fulfilment, or supplier volatility, you are not alone - and 2026 is the year many organisations are finally drawing a line under the problem. Inventory management has moved from a back-office operational concern to a board-level priority, driven by the combined pressure of rising carrying costs, customer expectations for same-day availabilit