5 Times You Should Bring in Help for Manhattan SCALE

Most companies running Manhattan SCALE already have someone on staff who understands the system—often an IT professional keeping things running behind the scenes or an operations lead who's become the internal expert through years of hands-on experience.

That internal knowledge is valuable. It's what keeps the day-to-day moving.

But even strong internal teams often encounter limitations—especially when the system needs to evolve. Troubleshooting deeper issues, building reliable integrations, supporting customizations, or improving how SCALE supports operations often requires a different skill set: one that blends technical expertise with a clear understanding of warehouse workflows.

Internal teams are often stretched thin—focused on keeping things running, not stepping back to rethink how the system could better support the business. These are five situations where outside support can complement your existing team and help you get more from your investment in SCALE.

1. When Troubleshooting Hits a Wall

Most internal teams can easily handle the usual day-to-day SCALE issues. They constantly analyze allocation or locating failures in the process history, troubleshoot interface errors, or manually clean up data via SQL.

But what happens when your team encounters deeper or less familiar failures?

Maybe obscure RF errors result in work needing to be confirmed from the Work Insight screen. Or intermittent shipping label failures hold up packing and ship confirmation. Or wave performance drops and no one can trace it back to an inefficient override data wave step.

In these cases, companies often learn to live with the issue. They find a workaround, adjust a process, or accept that something isn't working quite right. Digging into the root cause takes time, experience, and a broader understanding of SCALE than most internal teams have.

That's where outside support can make a difference. With the right tools and a wider view of how SCALE behaves across different environments, lingering issues can be traced, understood, and resolved rather than worked around.

Takeaway:
When something breaks, you need someone who can find the root cause fast, not just build a workaround and move on.

2. When You're Building Something New

Most SCALE environments evolve over time. A new ERP is introduced. An existing customer requires real-time data from SCALE through their API. You launch a new automation project. These all require SCALE to connect to something new.

Internal teams are usually comfortable maintaining what's already in place, but building new integrations is a different challenge. It requires a deeper understanding of how SCALE communicates with external systems, how those connections are triggered, and how to resolve issues when data doesn't flow as expected.

Outside support brings the experience of having done it before. You get cleaner, faster implementations and fewer surprises when go-live hits.

Takeaway:
New integrations are often critical, whether driven by customer requirements or internal projects. Getting them right keeps operations efficient and stakeholders confident.

3. When It's Time to Upgrade

Most companies understand that a SCALE upgrade isn't a small task. It's a significant project that typically only happens every few years. That means internal teams often don't usually have recent, hands-on experience with the process.

An upgrade usually includes creating new environments, upgrading the database, migrating customizations, and retesting key workflows. It's also a chance to revisit how the system is used. New features, updated screens, and configuration changes can all impact your users.

Just as important, upgrades require time—more than most internal teams can spare while keeping up with daily responsibilities. Leading an upgrade while supporting a live warehouse is a heavy lift, and trying to do both puts each at risk.

Outside support helps lighten that load. From installing the new version and migrating code to guiding testing and helping your team understand what's changed, experienced help reduces risk, avoids surprises, and keeps the project moving forward.

Takeaway:
Upgrades require time, focus, and deep knowledge. With the right support, your team can stay focused on daily operations while the upgrade moves forward with confidence.

4. When You're Expanding Operations

Most internal teams can independently set up a new site or onboard a new customer. They've done it before, and typically default to doing it the same way again.

But that's where opportunity gets left on the table.

Each expansion is a chance to refine how SCALE supports the business. Minor improvements can compound quickly across locations, whether it's streamlining receiving or shipping workflows, improving allocation or locating rules, or improving how shipments are staged and loaded.

Outside support brings a fresh perspective. Instead of repeating the same setup from your last rollout, you get a chance to re-evaluate what's working, fix what isn't, and avoid inefficiencies that are easy to overlook when you're close to the process.

Takeaway:
Your team can expand independently, but experienced support helps you avoid stale setups and get more value with each rollout.

5. When You Want to Get More From SCALE

Most companies use SCALE the same way they did when it was first implemented. The workflows work, and the team knows the system. The status quo keeps inbound product moving and shipments leaving the warehouse on time.

But over time, operations evolve. And the status quo doesn't always keep up.

There may be features your team isn't using, workflows that could be streamlined, or manual steps that could be automated with the right customization. These inefficiencies often go unnoticed simply because they've always been part of the process.

Outside support brings a broader perspective. By seeing how other companies use SCALE, what features are often overlooked, and where small changes can unlock meaningful improvements, it becomes easier to turn a stable system into a strategic advantage.

Takeaway:
If your SCALE environment hasn't evolved in years, there's a good chance it's holding you back. A fresh perspective can help you get more value from what you already own.

Wrapping Up

Your internal team keeps SCALE running every day—and that's no small task. But when the system needs to evolve, or the stakes get higher, it helps to have backup.

Whether you're dealing with recurring issues, planning an upgrade, rolling out a new facility, or just wanting to get more out of the platform, outside support can help you move faster and take the guesswork out of what comes next.

If you're ready to level up how your team supports SCALE, let's talk.