In the latest Warehousing and Transportation update from the Aberdeen Group, 60% of respondents in the survey said they were likely to implement new warehouse management software or upgrade their current systems in the next 24 months. This with coupled with two thirds of respondents indicating that they were going to improve warehouse processes. While this is surprising, there are very few warehouse operations in the world, if any, that have implemented perfect processes. Warehouse processes can be improved, not only by spending funds on new equipment or software, but by looking at changing simple things like picking strategies or cycle counting processes.

The global credit crunch and economic slowdown is expected to create some impact on purchases of supply chain software solutions by both shippers and logistics providers this year. That trend is borne out by the Q3 2008 financial results of Germany-headquartered software (and related services) giant SAP and supported by disappointing performances earlier this year from two other major logistics IT companies – Manhattan Associates and Kewill Systems.  SAP expects its Q3 2008 revenues to be in the range of €1.97-1.98bn, an increase of 13-14% compared to the same period last year. Manhattan Associates reported a disappointing Q2 2008. The company's consolidated revenue increased by just 1%, compared to Q2 2007, to $90.5m.

The Enterprise Mobility business of Motorola has introduced several new RFID product enhancements, expanding its global RFID footprint. The new European R1 version of Motorola's high-performance RFID handheld reader is compliant with current ETSI 302 208 standards required for operation in countries in the European Union. Motorola has also announced a global firmware upgrade that will offer an LLRP (low level reader protocol) interface for increased flexibility to its XR family of fixed RFID readers. The firmware upgrade will be applicable to XR440, XR450 and XR480 fixed readers and is expected to be widely available in October 2008 as a free download from the Motorola website. Additionally, the RD5000 mobile RFID reader is newly certified for use in Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Singapore, and will be certified for China and Taiwan by the end of 2008.