Where is the warehouse management systems industry headed?

That's a question confronting Kenneth J. Powell, who was recently appointed president and COO of EXE Technologies (www.exe.com).

With more than $115 million in revenues in 2000, EXE is the number two player in the space, behind industry leader Manhattan Associates (www.manhattanassociates.com, see our story on the Top 25 WMS suppliers  in this issue).

According to Powell, there are still opportunities to grow the WMS market beyond the estimated $1.4 billion that will be generated in licensing and services this year.

"People say the Fortune 1000 market is saturated, but we still see a tremendous opportunity to provide updated, Web-enabled systems to the Tier I players who are taking their business to the Web," says Powell.

That is certainly reflected in EXE's emphasis on e-fulfillment solutions. But Powell also sees leading WMS vendors like EXE growing through an expanded suite of supply chain execution and management tools.

To that end, Powell cites EXE's close ties to i2, the leading supply chain planning provider, and their recent acquisition of AllPoints Systems (www.allpoints-systems.com).

"We're now an execution company built around a core WMS platform," says Powell. "We think a lot of the real growth in the future is going to come from applications that complement the core, like transportation management, supply chain event management, labor management, collaboration, and even some planning."