ISV Talks
ISV Talks
Automating the Future Where Robots Meet Cloud : How the IntraOne WMS by Hy-Tek's Full-Stack Platform is Transforming Supply Chain Management
🚚Smart Warehouses are here! AI, automation, and robotics are transforming warehouse management, optimizing efficiency, accuracy, and scalability. From AI-driven inventory tracking to autonomous robots streamlining fulfillment, businesses embracing these innovations aren’t just keeping up, instead they’re staying ahead.
On this episode of ISV Talks, Carol Livingston chats with Naomi Marti and Kyle McNerney from IntraOne WMS by Hy-Tek about their Tier 1 WMS, full-stack solution, and Azure-powered Integration Hub. Their ERP-agnostic approach supports industries from wholesale to pharma, integrating seamlessly with Dynamics, Acumatica, and more ERPs. They dive into AI innovations, robotics, cloud adoption, and how their one-stop-shop execution platform helps businesses scale efficiently.
🔹Key Trends:
✅ AI-driven inventory and task automation
✅ Robotics boosting warehouse productivity
✅ Cloud demand & integrated, full-stack solutions
✅ VAR success through ISV alliances & industry specialization
🤖 Are robotics and AI the future of warehousing? Listen to the full episode and learn more about it.
Discover more about IntraOne WMS by Hy-Tek Intralogistics
Well, welcome to this episode of ISV Talks. I'm Carol Livingston, the owner of Dynamics Connections and your host of ISV Talks On this episode. I have both Naomi and Kyle from Intro. One Welcome guys.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Carol.
Speaker 3:Glad to be here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's great to have you both, so tell me a little bit about yourselves. I'd love to hear a little bit about your background.
Speaker 2:So tell me a little bit about yourselves. I'd love to hear a little bit about your background. Thanks, kara. My name is Naomi Marty. For those of you who don't know me, I lead our partner channel here at Hightech. I've been in strategic partnerships really over the last 12 plus years across different ecosystems, really helping partners and customers find the right solutions. So I joined HITECH in October really to kind of build and scale out our partner program and really my focus is going to be on collaboration, enablement and growth with our partners. So I'm super passionate about working with all of our partners hand in hand and hoping to bring some value into the supply chain and ERP world.
Speaker 3:Great.
Speaker 2:Thank you, kyle.
Speaker 3:Yep McHarrell, again Thanks for having us. So my name is Kyle McNerney. I'm a VP on our software solutions team here, so InterOne is our software platform. I've been working in the channel really across several different software segments for close to 20 years now. I've been with high tech. Come up here two years. I've been working closely with Naomi to not only create and build but grow our partner channel, which has been going extremely successfully over the last couple of years. So looking forward to chatting a little bit further, Carol.
Speaker 1:Great. So, kyle, I'll start with you how did the company get started and a little bit about the company history.
Speaker 3:Sure. So Hitech has actually been around for about 60 years. We're about a $400 million a year company. Over the last several years we've acquired a number of different firms that really make us a one-stop shop around supply chain. The IntraOne software platform was a few acquisitions across really warehousing technology, so DES and TMS. We've taken those acquisitions, built them onto a common platform, a very modern architecture, which is now called IntraOne. Intraone is what we are going to market with through the partner channel, several different ecosystems, really to bring tier one, best of breed warehousing technology from all the way from the management to the controls to the execution.
Speaker 1:Okay awesome. So I know you kind of gave a little high level description but kind of, can you break it down, what products you have for the ERP ecosystems and kind of, what are your unique features?
Speaker 3:Sure, absolutely so. Hr1 is a full-stack platform, so meaning it's not four separate applications of WMS, wcs, wes and TMS. So that's the warehouse management, warehouse execution systems, warehouse control systems and the transportation management. So it's a single platform, full-stack in the transportation management. So it's a single platform, full stack. And really what we're doing is bringing the three different Ws together on a single platform where traditionally, you're going to have your ERP whether that's Microsoft 365, acumatic, netsuite, oracle, sap and you would have three different vendors and three different integrations of those different.
Speaker 3:Right, we're bringing that all together in a single platform. Now it's modular based, so a customer doesn't have to deploy all of them. They can pick and choose what they deploy. What we say is we meet the client where they're at. So we do have customers that have it and we are the execution and controls layer. We have others where we're the full stack across all of it. The other thing that we're bringing is with high-tech. We have a very large automation and robotics team and you're going to hear us talk about labor, labor, labor and automation and robotics. That's happening within the four walls of the warehouse. Well, in order to do that, you need to go above.
Speaker 3:WMS and you need to be able to execute, control these robots and conveyors and supplies and things like that. We are able to do that and be very nimble to control all of that, as well as the warehouse management team. So really, not only the automation, the technology, but also the people and the labor within the four walls.
Speaker 2:And one thing too, just to add a little bit to that InterOne, as you mentioned a little bit, it's powered by our integration hub and that is built on Azure. So this really allows for scalability. So thinking about like in terms of just being deeply integrated right Within their ERP, which is extremely flexible and really kind of to support that automation and robotics as they're ready to grow, so we can really start small and then go enterprise. So if you think of like, we do have a really strong value proposition just within the Microsoft ecosystem. So thinking about your GP, business Central, fncm or FNO or whatever you want to call that right, so really we're not just the software piece, we're really just in terms of solving operational problems.
Speaker 3:And going back to those ERPs and to Naomi's point with the integration hub, integration hub is an iPad type of solution. It's cloud-based, it's really that low-code, no-code type of connector to these. They're already pre-built, so out of the box we're able to deploy Inter1. And then from there, kind of that 80-20 rule with anything 80% out of the box at 20%. If you have a custom EOP, some tables you've customized, we could simply do some mapping there.
Speaker 1:Okay, I mean, maybe this is an obvious question, but is there any specialties or industries that you work with?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. We're doing a lot right now in food and beverage, a lot in the medical healthcare, pharma space. In there there's a lot around traceability and things like that right Great, a lot of regulation. Same thing in the food and beverage. We're also doing a lot in TPG, health and beauty, but really the manufacturing distribution kind of the high-level verticals. We're doing a lot there, and then those sub-vert verticals within food and beverage, healthcare, pharma, medical, health and beauty uh, tpg okay, great one thing like within the industries itself.
Speaker 2:like one thing like, as you mentioned, like the food and beverage, the retail, pharma, like oftentimes what we're seeing is that these customers are facing like high volume maybe they're strict compliance right or seasonal demands that they're looking to meet, and so that's where our full stack solution, which is integrated with the ERP, really proves its value. So we're able to automate that fulfillment, like you mentioned, and improving traceability, or just managing maybe it's the cold chain logistics or storage. So we've really got that platform to handle it all.
Speaker 3:I forgot to mention the cold storage piece. We're doing a lot of that, too, right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, cold storage Interesting. So maybe one of you can tell us about a story of a customer that's been successful with your InterOne platform and why they were successful.
Speaker 3:One of the customers I want to profile here, carol, is one that's using all of InterOne. The three W's I'd mentioned before was all their TMS. Their journey is a little bit different than others. They started back in 2019 with our WMS and TMS. Their journey is a little bit different than others. They started back in 2019 with our WMS and TMS. So really all across from receiving to put away, to picking fulfillment right, all the way to using what we have a very strong cartonization piece within IntraOne so we could actually look at the orders and as they're coming out and then pick out the type of box that they're going to fit in. So they have eight different box sizes so we're automatically choosing which box for the worker to put these items in and order in and then doing the rate shopping right. Then and there, with our tms, they had a third-party TMS. We brought that all in. They're very low inventory accuracy. They really needed to increase that. They needed to pick the box right with pre-labels there. So they implemented both of that. We ended up getting a 40% reduction in total cost of distribution through it. Wow, so very significant there and again, tens of thousands of SKUs right and, as a distribution company companies ordering these devices and things like that any very quick turnaround time and accurate orders. So that was in 2019. And then comes along 2021.
Speaker 3:And really they looked at some continuous optimization and how can they get quicker with distributing things more accurate and reduce labor, labor, labor, labor. They were using a ton of temporary laborers and that's not always the most efficient thing for your organization. It's also very expensive. So we brought in our automation robotics team and in Cincinnati Ohio it's actually Erlanger, kentucky, which is by the Cincinnati airport we have a 25,000 square foot innovation lab that's running a number of different automation robotics technologies like Exotech, geek Plus, myrobotics, mears K, hartwell, movu, and we vet and test all these before we even bring them into something we'd offer customers. It's all powered by IntraOne in there.
Speaker 3:So we worked with them to really design. What does their current warehouse look like? What does that footprint? Where can we put in some automation? So we ended up putting in an Exotech goods to person system. With that we had a 40, they reduced full-time headcount by 40 people. They increased average orders from the most they could do. I think it was around 24 to 34 an hour and now they're upwards of 110 to 120 per hour. So really we reconfigured the whole pick module and the full case picks and all that and adding in outside of there through all the way to to packing, to adding in the dunnage to an automated print, and apply across that whole operation there. So again, their 30 was really cool, with the wms to tms to start integrated, integrated to oracle, and then we added in the automation robotics there in 21 and into 22 when they went live.
Speaker 1:Wow, so did they end up saving space? It sounds like they kind of put in some automation equipment.
Speaker 3:They did save space because with the Exotech and a lot of these good to person systems, you could go up 40 feet. So they now have about 5,400 of their SKUs within the exotech system. So, yeah, they were able to save a significant amount of space. And, and what was great was with IntraOne, we had the WMS and TMS there. Once they went to the automation we were able to turn the lights on, which was already there, deployed as the full stack solution the WCS and WES. So we're controlling the extra tech, the print and apply, the sortation and all that. So now it's just one platform with all four of those different modules and pieces. There's one without separate integration.
Speaker 2:Didn't they, Kyle? Didn't they go from like 40 picks per hour to 120?, Didn't?
Speaker 3:they, kyle, didn't they go from like 40 picks per hour to 120? Yeah, it was up, yep. So pretty significant increase in efficiencies, yep and the ability to decrease headcount. Now they didn't go. I want to caveat this. They didn't go and fire 40 people. It was kind of natural attrition. And then they also re-skilled some people into different areas.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then they also re-skilled some people in a different area. So ideally, really, it's like the perfect case of how automation and just having it better orchestrated right can create a real ROI, like this was a huge, yeah, huge case.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's amazing, and even the cartonization. I like the example of like when you get an Amazon box or online order and it comes your house and it's this huge box, a bunch of bubble wrap and a little tiny item that you ordered in the corner you're like well, and it's also it's time, right.
Speaker 3:The workers, they, the boxes have a, b, c on the back of them and the system directs them pick a box box for this order, right? So there's, I think, the guesswork out of it, and you're also saving the environment by not wasting extra material. You don't need to. We're all about sustainability as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great, awesome. So what are some of the new things? High-tech and intro one warehouse software is looking to introduce to the market.
Speaker 3:I mean there's a lot that we're doing. I mean, everybody talks AI, ai, ai, right. So we're doing some things around AI that are making smarter decisions for our customers. We're doing some things around digital twins, so you actually could see the physical side of the warehouse in the layout and then see the digital side of it, and then we can run some design and simulation, which is tremendous for customers to understand how automation is going to work and validate it. The ROI is it there? Is it feasible, is it going to fit within the footprint?
Speaker 3:We're continuing to build out our integration hub insurance integration hub. We continue to expand our integrations into those ERPs as we bring on new products or new customers. We're also continuing to do some things around just overall warehousing with the automation robotics. As we bring in these automation robotics as partners, we vet them in our innovation lab. We want to make sure they work. There's so much automation robotics coming out and a lot of these companies are startups, so are they going to work or not? We do a lot of testing there. So, as we bring them in and blossom as a partner, we are building the WCSWES piece to make sure that we have those hooks into there. So not only do we have the integration to the ERP, but the integration to those automation robotics, so a lot of fun things. We're also doing some really cool stuff around our UI, ux stuff, both on the RF devices as well as the web. Nice and then Naomi can probably talk about some of the cool things we're doing within our partner program.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, and within the partner program itself, we're really here to kind of meet our partners where they're at Right, and so we have the ability to really be flexible. So, whether our partners are wanting hey, maybe they're wanting us to take on that full sales cycle, the discovery, the demo, all of that pre-sales to go live, and that's kind of where we're, we are here really to provide that expertise, hold their hands and give them that support. Or maybe it's more of a strategic partner right, they want to take on the services, they want to take on that implementation. We can get you certified, we can get you trained. You guys take that on as our partner and we're still here right To support you, hold your hand. However, you can kind of take that in under your paper too.
Speaker 2:So, really, a lot of flexibility and, kind of Kyle mentioned, we are really expanding across the different ecosystems. So we do have majority of our customers, when you think of it, are spanning across your Dynamics 365, across all of those ERPsPs plus NetSuite, oracle, sap, acumatica. So we're seeing significant growth and really are leveraging our partners to do that. And one other thing, too, that I just want to mention some of our most successful partners are really leaning on the ISV, leaning on us, to kind of help fill those gaps in the by providing our solutions to where maybe that ERP doesn't provide Right. And so if we lean on each other, work together and kind of build out that real strategic partnership, we're really seeing a lot of success.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would say too, when you look traditionally at in the ISV space and really talk WMS, there's a lot of WMSs that come with the ERPs that we mentioned we work with.
Speaker 3:There's also a lot of ISVs. Again, we meet the client where they're at. That's certainly fine, but what we're finding in a lot of these ecosystems is beyond WMS. These partners don't have an answer for automation robotics and they're starting to get their customers to ask, hey, we need to do some automation robotics in our warehouse, we need to start adding this in, and no company is going to be immune to this. It's going to continue to trickle down into the SMB market.
Speaker 3:And so we're finding too and we've revamped our partner program where we can address that automation robotics piece for those partners and give them a piece of it and bring them into the fold and they can bring their customers into our innovation lab and see all this running in real time and really touch it, feel it. And it's really that art of the possible that we can offer partners to bring them to our innovation lab right, and then be part of that process and not have to say we don't do anything like that, we don't have a partner right yeah, yeah, I think you're right that a lot of the partners that work with the erps think they can only really offer the the software, not the hardware, right?
Speaker 1:so you guys have that both and I think it's it's really super cool. I like the idea of going to your innovation lab there, do a tour, be able to kind of see everything and get inspired. What could be?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I did three of them this week and each time we had four to eight people from these organizations come in. But it really it's not like, oh, they're going to buy something right away. Really, they have to think about how would this automation and these robots work in my warehouse? Is it even, is it feasible? Is my company ready to accept it? Right, so we can help with a lot of that guidance and education. But for these partners out there, we could be an extension of their team right on that journey and work with them and their customer along the way.
Speaker 1:It's kind of like it simplifies everything because you've got one vendor to work with and you guys cover a lot of ground and that's the supply chain distribution.
Speaker 3:That's where it gets tricky is, a lot of these partners have a WMS or an ISV, but then the WPSV has come into play and now you've got all these integrations all over the place and fingerprinting on support and all that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so with that full stack solution, like you stated, and all the WMSs. So one thing, too I just want to highlight is we can interface with the existing WMS. So if maybe they already have that in place, right, and they're just looking to add automation, add robotics, we can do that right. They don't have to start all over, rip out their WMS. So and that in itself, too, is just is huge, because you don't necessarily need to start over. You just add that flexibility and automation where they need it.
Speaker 3:And we would never recommend anybody rip out their WMS. You know there's an absolute need. It's similar to ERP. Once you implement it you don't want to do it again. But we do have not only those integrations into a lot of those ERPs but we do like the Manhattans, corvus, lou, yonders, dobbyon, and then even like advanced WMS within D365F, oracle's WMS, SAP. So in a lot of those cases where those are in place, sometimes we just have the customer that's using Oracle WMS for inbound. They haven't done anything on outbound. We're going to take over the rest of it for outbound. They're going to leave everything in inbound and then we're going to do all the automation WCS to BESP, so we can work with the WMS in any facet needed. But again, we're never to Naomi's point. We're never going to recommend, yeah, rip out asset needed. But again, we're never to Naomi's point. We're never going to recommend without your WMS to put in ours right.
Speaker 1:That's good to know. So kind of changing gears a bit. Let's talk about what you're seeing in the channel as far as partners and just challenges that partners are having or customers that have issues. What are you seeing?
Speaker 2:Well, one of the things I know that we're seeing is there's just been a shift in terms of like buyers are doing their own research nowadays, where that never used to be the case, right, they went to a partner and recommended the solution, and now they're doing their own research before coming and talking to sales.
Speaker 2:So that's definitely something that's evolved over the years. And then I say, to like cloud first, it's kind of the new standard, right, everything in the cloud, and so we do support that and are able to accommodate that too, and I think that's just where things are going. And then I would say, kind of the third one is just having there's really a high demand for having that integrated full stack solution, like you said, having everything under one umbrella. You don't have to go to multiple vendors. But not only that from the partner's perspective, from like customer service wise too, like it just makes it easy, it's a lower cost, easier to manage one interface, all of those different things. So, from all of the VARs, really nowadays they're focusing. The successful VARs are focusing on software and looking for ISVs such as high tech that can fill in those operational gaps, especially in automation.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I would just add what I mentioned before is just we're finding a lot of the partners don't have a go-to partner and answer yet for automation robotics and I don't think that's necessarily the partner's fault, I just think it's the momentum of automation robotics and I've been on the VAR side right for a number of years implementing ERP and working with ISVs and of course we had WMS ISVs right, but we weren't quite there to take a WCS, wes and automation. So we're finding a majority of those partners are now whether we're educating them and they're like we actually have some customers asking about that, or they're actually having their customer base come to them and start talking to them about it.
Speaker 1:Great, so it's more tools in the toolbox to help those customers.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I'm sure there's some challenges too with partners, maybe just their resource constraints. They have talent limitations, they're busy. What other things are you seeing that partners are trying to solve for their own business?
Speaker 2:Well, I would say to a lot of like, let's say, the bigger partners, to what we're seeing is a lot of consolidation, where they're acquiring smaller shops right, realignment, so that kind of goes into where they're juggling the customer expectations in terms of having their own bandwidth to be able to support customers, especially thinking of, like, there's a big push on the Microsoft side where they're trying to get all of the old legacy GP customers move to the cloud, right, and so that in itself is just creating a major transition that partners are trying to navigate and that's where we are here to support that, to help that.
Speaker 2:And one thing too with our intro, one full stack solution, let's say they're on GP, we can help solve their distribution and supply chain problems, right Pain points. But then when they transition, when they migrate let's say they migrate to BC or whatever ERP they're migrating to all we have to do is literally change that integration point so we can really move with them and help support them now, and then when they grow and move into that new ERP, we're here to support that Right, okay, awesome.
Speaker 1:Any other new trends on the horizon that you're seeing? I know you mentioned AI, AI, AI, but anything else?
Speaker 3:As far as warehousing trends, I mean, you have the Amazon effect going on right, where people are expecting things quicker, sooner, correct. So that's pushing that competitiveness across anybody that is competing against Amazon or in that same boat there. Definitely, seeing the labor thing as a trend, the go-to-market speed and the acceleration of automation robotics is definitely a big, big trend. I mean, if you were at ProMAT this year or MODEX the year before, there's a number of new technologies out there it's, frankly, a little overwhelming. Yeah, so we're seeing a lot of those trends.
Speaker 3:We're seeing a lot of the partner trends around AI. What are they doing with it? How do they leverage it? And if you look at Gartner, what Gartner's saying, there's only a handful of companies that have fully automated right or gone that route, but I think it's like 50% are already thinking about it and planning on doing it here in the next few years, and then the rest of them they're planning over the next five to 10 year horizon. You're going to start seeing even some of the smaller companies take on more and more automation robotics as the industry gets more and more commoditized right With these technologies.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. Well, guys, in conclusion, what is the kind of one driver that drives partners or customers to come talk to you?
Speaker 2:Well, I would say we're seeing a lot of interest, carol, because we really offer something that's unique, right. We're scalable and practical and really being able to meet businesses where they are and as things evolve. And as we know, things change rapidly in technology and in this industry especially. So, whether let's say that company is just starting to digitize or maybe they're ready for a full automation, we can really support that journey and grow with them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I would say the one thing I would take away. One of the reasons I came over here was again that unique value prop and what we've built with IntraOne being that full-stack platform where companies are trying to move away from these point solutions because of the integration headaches, support headaches and all that stuff I've mentioned a few times here. So I think that's the one piece there is. We have that full stack but it's modular so you can grow with it. But then we have the whole automation robotics piece, where most companies that do automation robotics don't have the software piece, and vice versa. We bring both to the table.
Speaker 2:Well, one other thing too, and at the end of the day, really it's just about helping businesses run smarter, faster, more efficient and, as we know, like supply chain demands aren't slowing down the Amazon effect. We want it in a day, two days, right. So companies need partners, they need ISV solutions like us to really help them scale, adapt and compete. So one thing too, like we're super proud just to work hand in hand with all of our partners in the dynamic community and other ERP ecosystems to really deliver value together. So we're here to empower growth and just really kind of work together to help our customers.
Speaker 1:Great. Well, thank you, kyle and Naomi, for joining us today. We really appreciate you being on ISV Talks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, thank you, carol for having us. It's been a pleasure. What a valuable conversation. So if I mean, if you're a partner or maybe a business looking to take control of your warehouse right and add that supply chain operation, reach out, work through your partner, come and contact us. I can be reached at naomimarty at hightechcom, or go ahead and visit our website, hightechcom. Or go ahead and visit our website, hightechcom. Intro one there's a ton of information and resources. We're happy to help and look forward to hearing from you.
Speaker 3:Thanks, Carol, for having us Really enjoyed it. Love the work you're doing.
Speaker 1:Thank you All right. Well, friends, we'll see you on the next episode of ISV Talks. Have a great day. Bye-bye.
Speaker 3:Thanks, Carol, See you everybody.