A WMS Business Case Calculator Built on Delivered Go-Lives

Warehouse management business cases built on vendor-supplied industry averages give a review board little to audit. This calculator returns ranges modeled from Everest delivery experience across 300+ WMS go-lives since 1997 and 150+ Manhattan Active® go-lives, so the numbers you take to your review board carry a source you can name.

What it returns4 bands
  • Throughput per direct labor hourRange
  • Inventory accuracyRange
  • Integration effortBand
  • Labor efficiencyBand
  • Total cost of ownershipChecklist

No payback period. No duration of any kind.

What it is for

What This Calculator Is For

The Everest WMS business case calculator is a modeling tool for the person who has to justify a warehouse management system internally, well before an RFP exists, and who needs defensible ranges rather than a vendor’s headline number.

  • Built for the internal sponsor sizing an investment before procurement is involved
  • Runs on your own operating numbers, not on a vendor’s illustrative example
  • Shows the full input set and every output band on this page, so you can see what the model returns before you contact anyone
  • Covers Manhattan Active® Warehouse Management and Infios (formerly Korber) starting points, with any other incumbent system entered as your current platform
The model

Enter Your Operating Profile

12 inputs, 11 of them required. Every band updates as you type, nothing is sent anywhere, and no contact details are required to see the results.

Your starting point sets the data migration scope and most of the integration-effort band.

Site count drives rollout scope and integration multiplicity. A mixed environment behaves differently from a single-site operation.

Orders shipped per year across all channels. Channel mix matters more than the total, because an each-pick order and a full-case order consume very different labor.

Average outbound units per day. With headcount and shifts, this is what sets your current units per direct labor hour.

Average outbound cartons per day. Separates an ecommerce each-pick profile from a case-pick profile.

Lines per order across the channel mix. Used to model daily line volume alongside units and cartons.

Receiving, put-away, replenishment, picking, packing and shipping. Exclude supervision and clerical support: the labor band applies to direct hours only.

Shift structure determines how much of a modeled labor gain can convert into cost at all, and how much can only convert into capacity headroom.

Paid direct hours per shift, before overtime.

Whether the operation runs nights or weekends changes how a labor gain can be realized.

Peak-day volume divided by average-day volume. Frequently omitted from internal cases, and it materially changes the band, because capacity, licensing and staffing are all sized against peak.

ERP, order management, transportation, parcel and carrier, material handling and automation controls, store systems, and EDI trading partners. Leaving this blank widens the integration band rather than removing it.

From your inputs

  • 1,440Direct labor hours per day
  • 83.3Units per direct labor hour today
  • 12.5Cartons per direct labor hour today
  • 20.5Lines per direct labor hour today

These four figures are arithmetic on the numbers you entered, not modeled values. Everything below is a modeled range.

Modeled band 1

Throughput range

87.2 to 101.1 units per direct labor hour on an average day

Average dayToday 83.3

209.2 to 242.7 units per direct labor hour on a peak day at your 2.4x multiplier

Peak day at 2.4xToday 200.0

Derived from your current 83.3 units per direct labor hour, with the modeled labor-efficiency band applied. Reported as a band, never as a point estimate.

Modeled band 2

Inventory accuracy range

99.0% to 99.8% at location level

98.5% to 99.5% at stock-keeping unit (SKU) level

Location level
SKU level

Expected once directed put-away, license-plate tracking and system-directed cycle counting are in place. Master data condition is the usual reason a result holds at the bottom of this band rather than the middle.

Modeled band 3

Integration-effort band

7 to 17 interfaces in scope

Standard interfaces3 to 8
Configured interfaces2 to 6
Custom interfaces1 to 3
Custom extensions2 to 12

You left the integration surface blank, so this band is deliberately wider. Entering a count narrows it. The top of the extension band is anchored on one documented Everest program that delivered 47 integrations alongside 33 Manhattan custom modules and 4,722 test scenarios.

Modeled band 4

Labor-efficiency band

  • Conservative4.4% (63 hrs/day)
  • Central9.9% (143 hrs/day)
  • Stretch17.6% (253 hrs/day)

The share of direct labor hours the model treats as addressable through system-directed work, wave and slotting optimization, and reduced travel, modulated by your current platform. Stated against direct hours only, so it cannot be read as a headcount reduction claim. Your shift pattern decides how much of it can convert to cost rather than to capacity headroom.

Cost side

WMS total cost of ownership (TCO) checklist

The model deliberately prices nothing. These are the lines a credible business case has to carry, whoever fills them in.

  • Subscription or licence, with the pricing metric stated explicitly
  • Implementation services, scoped against sites and channels rather than seats
  • Integration build and the middleware or integration platform that carries it
  • Extension build, plus the standing regression effort each release requires afterwards
  • Data migration, cleansing, and inventory reconciliation
  • Infrastructure and non-production environments, priced individually
  • Internal backfill for the operations and IT people seconded to the program
  • Training and enablement across every shift, including seasonal staff
  • Elevated post-cutover support
  • Ongoing support or managed services, whether from the vendor, a partner, or a team you hire
Calibration

How the Model Is Calibrated

Everest calibrates its WMS business case calculator on modeling assumptions drawn from Everest’s own delivery experience, specifically 300+ WMS go-lives since 1997 and 150+ Manhattan Active® go-lives, 65 of them across 2024 to 2025, rather than on licensed industry benchmark data.

  • Evidence base: 300+ WMS go-lives since 1997, including 150+ Manhattan Active® go-lives
  • Manhattan depth: 150+ Manhattan Active® go-lives, 65 of them across 2024 to 2025
  • Partner standing: Manhattan Associates Platinum Partner, listed on Manhattan’s own consulting-partner directory, and 2-time Manhattan Partner of the Year, Commerce Services 2022 and Collaboration Excellence 2023
  • No licence interest: Everest sells no software of its own, so platform guidance carries no licence interest
  • Multi-platform bench: certified Infios (formerly Korber) implementation partner with 50+ certified Infios associates alongside the Manhattan Active® practice
  • Client confidentiality: cohorts are aggregated by industry and scope, never by client name

Calibration answers where these bands come from. Working out what three vendors each mean by the same feature name is a separate discipline, and the selection guide covers it.

Read the WMS selection guide
Limits

What This Model Cannot Tell You

The Everest WMS business case calculator cannot tell you a payback period, cannot price your software, and cannot promise that your operation will reach the top of any band, and the calculator states those three limits on the page rather than hiding them.

  • The calculator does not output a payback period, or any other duration

    Payback depends on your procurement process, your contracting, your internal staffing and your change capacity, none of which these inputs can observe. The calculator deals in scope and magnitude.

  • The calculator does not price software

    Subscription and licence pricing for Manhattan Active® comes from Manhattan Associates. Everest is a Platinum implementation partner rather than the vendor of record.

  • The calculator cannot see your building

    Racking, dock and door constraints, aisle layout, automation condition and network design all bound what any WMS can deliver on a physical site, and those require a walkthrough.

  • The calculator cannot see your data

    Master data condition is a frequent reason a result lands at the floor of a band instead of the middle, and no calculator can assess item master, location master or inventory record quality from the outside.

  • The calculator cannot make change stick

    Reaching the upper half of a labor band depends on process redesign, supervision and adoption on the floor, not on configuration. Treat every output as a hypothesis to test, not as a commitment.

  • The calculator’s bands are modeled, not measured

    The labor-uplift, inventory-accuracy and integration-effort ranges are Everest modeling assumptions informed by delivered programs, not a statistical distribution of client results. Read a band as a starting hypothesis with a named source behind it, and widen it wherever your own evidence is thin.

Your building, your master data and whether change sticks on the floor are limits no calculator can reach from the outside. They get assessed on site, by people who have done it before.

The review board

Turning the Output Into a Case Finance Will Accept

A WMS business case survives finance review when it presents a range with a named source, states the conditions under which the low end applies, and separates the benefits that need process change from the benefits the platform delivers through configuration alone.

  • Publish your inputs next to your outputs, so any reviewer can re-run your logic
  • Present the band and defend the floor, not the midpoint
  • Split benefits into platform-delivered and process-dependent, and own the difference
  • Convert every widened band into a named open question for the Phase Zero assessment
  • Carry the full WMS total cost of ownership (TCO) checklist, including internal backfill, a line that is easy to omit
FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

  • A WMS business case calculator is a model that converts your operating profile into expected ranges for throughput, inventory accuracy, labor efficiency and integration effort, so you can size a warehouse management system investment before an RFP exists. Everest calibrates those ranges on 300+ delivered WMS go-lives, including 150+ Manhattan Active® go-lives, rather than on generic industry assumptions.

  • No. The Everest WMS business case calculator outputs scope and magnitude only, never duration. Payback depends on your cost of capital, contract terms, internal decision process and change capacity, none of which a calculator can observe about your organization. Publishing a payback figure from an operating profile alone would be a guess dressed as arithmetic, so Everest publishes none.

  • The Everest WMS business case calculator differs in three ways: it models from Everest delivery experience across 300+ WMS go-lives since 1997 and 150+ Manhattan Active® go-lives, it returns bands rather than single point estimates, and it states the conditions under which your result lands at the floor of a band rather than the middle. Those bands are Everest modeling assumptions informed by delivered programs, not a statistical distribution of client results, and the calculator says so on the page.

  • The Everest WMS business case calculator asks for your current platform, then your operating profile: distribution centers in scope, annual order volume, outbound units per day, outbound cartons per day, average lines per order, direct associates per shift, shifts per day, paid hours per shift, operating days per week, and your peak-day multiplier. Only one input is optional, the number of systems your WMS must integrate with, and leaving it blank widens the integration band rather than removing it.

  • Yes. Current platform is an input, not an assumption. Manhattan WMOS, Manhattan SCALE, an earlier Manhattan Active® release, Infios (formerly Korber), another third-party WMS, a homegrown system, or enterprise resource planning (ERP) plus spreadsheets each change the integration-effort band and the data migration scope, because the work of moving off each one differs materially.

  • No. The Everest WMS business case calculator shows its full input set and every output band on the page, and running the model requires no company name. If you want a senior Everest practitioner to review your numbers with you, that is a separate and optional step you choose after seeing the results.

  • Present the band, not the midpoint. State your inputs, name the source of the ranges, and separate the benefits that require process change and adoption from the ones the Manhattan Active® platform delivers through configuration. A conservative number with a visible assumption is easier to defend than an optimistic number with a hidden one.

Want a Practitioner to Pressure-Test It?

The model is yours to run without contacting anyone. If you want a senior Everest practitioner to review your inputs and tell you where your bands would widen, that is a separate and entirely optional conversation.

Review My Numbers