How Logistics Firms are Powering Retail Experiences

By using the power of the SPS Commerce Retail Community Logistics firms are creating multi-channel retail experiences. SPS Commerce, Inc. is a leader in cloud services when it comes to retail. They recently announced that they are using their Universal Network to allow third party logistics providers to stay ahead of the game when offering multi or omnichannel retail. To fulfill their omnichannel business many logistics companies like DM Fulfillment and TAGG Logistics are jumping on this opportunity to integrate the SPS Universal Network through the Retail Standard XML system. This will help the logistics firms complete their duties, which include expanding their delivery that is direct to consumer.

The vice president of marketing and product at SPS, Peter Zaballos says of the action, “Suppliers and retailers are looking to their 3PL partners to meet the ever-changing expectation of today’s consumer for rapid delivery of a rapidly expanding assortment of products…By connecting one to the SPS Universal Network, 3PLs can support their omnichannel customers by seamlessly fulfilling orders originating from stores, mobile apps, e-commerce sites and other channels. 3PLs taking advantage of these agile capabilities are leading the omnichannel era.” Last year TAGG Logistics got a head start by integrating what they do with the SPS Commerce Universal Network. This allowed the logistics company to access a huge network of retail trading partners, the largest network of its kind available. SPS Commerce works by using total integration of the TAGG’s internal systems that includes a warehouse management system (WMS) and a transportation management system (TMS) to automatically deliver support and scalability to the large and growing TAGG’s customer base. This year, by adding SPS’s Universal Network to the Delivering Branded Omnichannel Fulfillment (DM Fulfillment) hundreds of retailers can be simply accessed through one single connection. This will allow the service to be used by more customers faster and with fewer internal resources.

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Argentina and the World Cup

Argentina is known for their great soccer team. They are one of the best in the world and feared opponents for many others in the game. The 2014 summer World Cup will be the 16th for the team and the 11th World Cup they have attended in a row. They are technically skilled and win many of the matches they come up against. However, for all their victory and glory they have not won a World Cup since 1986 in England when Diego Maradona scored the historic, incredible goal. Even more shocking is that they haven’t even been to the semi-finals since 1990. Perhaps their year has arrived.

Another South American country, Brazil, is hosting the games this year so they did not have to participate in the qualifying matches. With their closest rival out of the way, Argentina dominated during those qualifying rounds. After all of the games were over they had won nine and only lost two. One of the keys to Argentina’s success is there team captain, Lionel Messi. He is one of the team’s best players and he has had a great transformation from an okay player to one of the best kickers in soccer today. His ascension has a bit to do with him improving as a player, but a lot more to do with changing management and being utilized in a much more strategized manner. The new manager for the Argentina team, Alejandro Sabella, has developed tactics to use Messi, Gonzalo Higuaín, and Sergio Agüero in a coordinated effort to make a great attacking team. That is what the whole team is riding on for this World Cup. Instead of trying to field a balanced team or at least trying to give the impression that they are, Argentina is strategizing to just put as many great attack players on the field that they can and seeing where it takes them.

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England May Have a Shot at the World Cup

England’s “Golden Generation” has finally left the field. Although the country had some amazing players, namely, David Beckham, Jamie Carragher, Wayne Rooney, Ashley Cole, Steven Gerrard, and Frank Lampard, they played well for their clubs but didn’t really turn up for their country when it was time to compete at the World Cup. Finally, many of these players are out of the game and England can now move on and practice with a new and revitalized team. A few are still around, like team captain Gerrard, Rooney, and Lampard, but the latter should spend most of his time in Brazil vacationing rather than actually playing. Because of the changes in roster, the England team looks better than it has for many years. They have gone undefeated in the UEFA’s World cup qualifiers and so they are going into the group 6-4-0 with a 31-4 goal differential so they have automatic qualification. The whole country is earnest and hopeful about the team’s possible World Cup changes because they haven’t won the World Cup since 1966, the only trophy they took home. They came close in 1990 but lost out in the end.

Although this young team shows a lot of promise, they will still have many obstacles to overcome. First, the climate is very different in Brazil than cold, wet England. The have been training in whether that is drastically different from where they are going and their ability to adapt will make or break what they are able to win. No matter what, England has no where to go but up so any games that England is able to nab during this tournament will be a victory because it will mark that they are getting better and showing more promise. The player to really keep your eye on in this team is Wayne Rooney who plays for Manchester United. He is a forward and one of the greatest players alive today and one of the best in English history. However, even with all of these talents he has not done much for the English national team. Really, this World Cup stands as what he will leave behind as his legacy, so he also will give a boost to younger players as we works on his exit out the door. Whatever happens, it will be exciting to watch England play this year!

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Columbia is Still Going to be Fierce in the World Cup

To qualify for the World Cup, the Columbia team had to make it through the qualifiers in South Africa. They breezed through that test with the help of their superstar player, Radamel Falcao. Columbia performed so well, in fact, it looked like they were going to be the sure winners of the entire World Cup in 2014. That changed when the team lost their amazing striker, Falcao to a torn ACL at the French Cup game. He tried to recover fast enough, but just two days ago he officially pulled himself off of the Columbia team for the upcoming World Cup. For any other team, this would be the end. However, even though Columbia greatly benefitted from the outstanding skill of Falcao, they still have a lot of talent and depth in their team. Even though their captain is gone, Columbia still has about four great attack, goal scoring players ready to step in. Of course, there are other major teams with a lot of great attackers (Uruguay and Chile among them) but Columbia has the added advantage that they can defend just as well as they can attack. Therefore, even without the legendary Falcao, Columbia may still have a shot at winning the World Cup and raising the trophy on July 13.

The strategy for Columbia has to change slightly without Falcao. The team’s manager José Pékerman has moved from a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-4-2 for fluidity. Right now Pékerman is really heavily using an attack partnership with Carlos Bacca of Sevilla and River Plate’s Teófilo Gutiérrez. If that pairing doesn’t work, he has many other options with a great batch of players. If Columbia has about seven or even eight players near the penalty area of their opponent then they are golden. They have great midfielders who will step up and make this scenario a reality.

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Real Madrid Wins Champions League

Real Madrid came out top for this year’s champions league after Atlético Madrid finally lost some momentum and gave them a chance to score. Atlético Madrid was looking like they were going to be the ultimate champions. They were charging and able to out run and out fight Real Madrid at every turn. Fortunately for Real Madrid, they lost their incredible performance speed, strength, and great energy after a 70 minute push and so the final win went to Real Madrid at 4-1.

There was a real and noticeable shift at the 70 minute mark. Atlético Madrid was playing the best they ever had and it didn’t seem like Real Madrid had a chance. Then as 70 minutes clicked it’s like the energy seeped from one team and went to the other. Real Madrid had the burst of speed, and with a goal they gained confidence as it seems like they really might have a shot at winning this thing. For the opener, Atlético Madrid scored just as they had been through the Champions League this year. Gabi came around in a corner, Real headed their attempt away from the goal and then Juanfran head-butted it back so it was just inside the box. After that move Diego Godin got a big higher than Sami Khedira so that he was able to nod the ball. Then Iker Casillas was out of position, which allowed Atlético Madrid to score. It seems that they had them from that point until the seismic shift in the game and energy of the teams. The energy of Atlético Madrid after the 70 minute mark was completely drained, all of their amazing feats in game after game and La Liga match after La Liga match since the Champions League match was completely depleted so the champion league overall went to Real Madrid for a very sweet victory.

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