aptean ebook: irms wms - the executive guide to selecting

The Executive Guide to Selecting a Cloud Warehouse Management System

Cloud technology has become the universal standard for application development and has revolutionized the way we do business.Yet, while supply chain networks become rapidly more complex, only 8% of Warehouse Management System users are leveraging the cloud. For supply chain organizations, investment in change must happen now to not only stay ahead of the competition but drive significant revenue.

While well-designed on premise technology can still hold value for supply chains as part of a short-term strategy, it is no longer part of an effective sustainable solution. Investing in a cloud WMS means you preserve the operational and cost benefits of today while gaining the growth benefits of future-proofing your business for tomorrow.

This Cloud Warehouse Management System Executive Handbook is designed to aid executives in their search for a cloud WMS. The following sections will build the case for selecting a cloud WMS and provide expert insight, including what to look for when researching a cloud WMS, how the buying process has changed and most importantly, how it will positively impact your bottom line.

Table of ContentsWhy a Cloud Warehouse Management System is Essential

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The Many Benefits of a Cloud Warehouse Management System

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What to Look for When Buying a Cloud Warehouse Management System

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The Benefits of SaaS Pricing u

How the Cloud Will Make You More Profitable u

10 Things Supply Chain Leaders Should Do Now to be More Profitable u

4eBook | The Executive Guide to Selecting a Cloud Warehouse Management System

Why a Cloud Warehouse Management System is EssentialYour warehouse management system (WMS) does more than just fill an operational need within your organization; it helps achieve boardroom goals. A cloud WMS not only gives you the benefit of tracking goods in and out of the warehouse, it can be your greatest competitive weapon. With information at your fingertips to influence larger strategic business decisions, a cloud WMS is essential to the future of your business.


Achieve Your Strategic GoalsThe ultimate benefit of investing in cloud technology is that it gives you the power to overcome your organization’s biggest challenges. From a data perspective, it provides a clear and complete view of the vital analytics from your business operations - one that you can use to continuously improve your business as a whole. Here are a few examples:

Reduce Costs Digging into the real-time data and reports will show you hidden inefficiencies that can be cut from your business. This could mean reducing costs by 15% throughout your supply chain.

Collect More Revenue Billing functionality built right into the WMS will help manage and gather any revenue that may have been otherwise missed.

Manage Labor Costs Labor management functionality built into the WMS decodes how to increase output while lowering your overall labor costs.

• Gives you the power to solve your organization’s biggest challenges

• Allows you to gain the meaningful data you need to run your business better

• Ensures that your technology stack remains on the cutting edge

Here are the ways it contributes directly to your bottom line:


Get Actionable DataAcquiring a cloud system allows you to gain the meaningful data you need to run your business better. It will impact your business in the following ways:

• It will free your data from living only within the four walls of the warehouse and allow it to flow throughout the organization.

• It provides complete transparency to track every facet of your supply chain and to uncover valuable analytics in real-time to aid decision making.

• It will root out problems before they happen on the floor and keep your warehouse running more effectively.

• Since every company is unique, a cloud WMS can adapt to each company with custom reports that give them the exact metrics they want to track right out of the box.

Real-time analytics provide the blueprint for how to reduce costs and uncover revenue in your supply chain. Making the right changes will not only improve your operations and customer service but will have a measurable impact on your bottom line.


Improve OperationsMoving to a best-in-class, fully-supported cloud platform for your WMS will ensure that your technology stack remains on the cutting edge. Even better, it’s cost-effective. Here’s why investing in a cloud system means running a smarter business:

• It will be continuously upgraded for security reasons and functionality purposes.

• You can easily add advanced functionality to a cloud WMS to increase efficiency.

• You can connect robotics, mobile devices, voice picking, or any number of future technologies to your system within a few mouse clicks. Voice picking alone is proven to increase worker productivity by 35%.

Most businesses underestimate the capabilities of their warehouse management system. It’s viewed as merely a tool to track a product from its origin point in the warehouse to the point when it leaves, and nothing more. That all changes in the cloud. A cloud WMS will become an active and vital part of your organization - not just in the warehouse - but throughout the entire enterprise.


The selection of your cloud technology framework is critical to protecting your technology investment.



Get So Much More, Pay So Much Less

Rather than spending a small fortune on a traditional Warehouse Management Solution, in the cloud you pay a small monthly fee based on how many people actually use the system.

1Remove the Risk and Cost of IT

Relieve internal demands on your IT department and focus more on your business. No longer do you have to worry about regularly purchasing new hardware, maintaining massive amounts of data storage, installing software upgrades and security patches, or preparing for new releases.

2Scale to Grow with Your Business

Quickly ramp up or down based on the changing needs of your business. The cloud allows you to use what you need today with the flexibility to quickly increase based on your needs tomorrow.

3Anywhere, Anytime Access

Accessing your supply chain data is now as easy as getting on the Internet. In the cloud, you have the power to completely control your WMS from anywhere, at any time via workstation, laptop, mobile phone, or tablet.

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Acquire Easy On, Easy Off Licensing

Most businesses experience increases and decreases in production throughout the calendar year. While traditional Warehouse Management Systems offer rigid pricing packages, a cloud WMS gives you the flexibility to quickly adjust for to the varying periods of your production.

5State-of-the-Art Data Security

Moving to the cloud will instantly improve your organization’s data security. Your data is maintained using a continual process of compliance updates, security patches, and implementation, insulating your organization against threats as they happen.

6State-of-the-Art Data Security

Moving to the cloud will instantly improve your organization’s data security. Your data is maintained using a continual process of compliance updates, security patches, and implementation, insulating your organization against threats as they happen.

7Get Started Immediately

With minimal setup and training time, your warehouse could be up and running in the cloud tomorrow. With a cloud warehouse management system, you have secure access to your supply chain from virtually anywhere, all for a fraction of the cost of a traditional WMS.

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Selecting a cloud WMS is a critical decision for businesses. The cost of switching systems is so high that you must make the right decision the first time.


What to Look For When Buying a Cloud Warehouse SystemGartner Research stresses that technical architecture should be the single greatest factor in selecting the best warehouse management system.


There are four key factors for why the underlying technology of a WMS is so valuable for its effectiveness:

• Cost – The costs involved in switching from one WMS to another can be quite high.

• Customization – A system that requires a high level of customization to its platform to make it work for your business will also require higher costs to maintain and longer wait times for upgrades.

• Adaptation – A modern WMS will be able to more easily adapt to the ever-changing world than a system built long ago.

• Sophistication – A cloud WMS will be able to more efficiently keep up with the demands of modern supply chain management.

When buying a new WMS, follow these guidelines to ensure that your WMS will contribut to making your business more effective and efficient:

• The platform the WMS is built on will be able to last for a long time.

• There is minimal customization required to the core platform of the WMS, but if customization is required, the WMS has the tools already in place to make them.

• The platform of the WMS will be able to easily adapt to changes in industry standards.

• The WMS is easy-to-use and has great support.

If the WMS you are considering for your business can’t keep up with those guidelines, it’s in your best interest to look elsewhere.

Overseeing the supply chain is a continual process of making sure your business operates in a more cost-effective, efficient, and profitable manner. Doing this requires technology that can talk, interact, and easily share data with your other systems. As Gartner stresses, organizations looking to purchase the best warehouse management system should embrace the principles of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA).


The Importance of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) Embracing SOA simply means that your organization is future-proofing your warehouse management system. While core functionality may be the same across WMS platforms, all WMS technical architectures are not created equal. A modern WMS must integrate with in-house and external systems without the need for extensive custom coding. This requires your WMS to have the most advanced technological architecture available today: utilizing the cloud. To remain agile and allow your organizations to adapt to changes as they occur, you need to buy into the most advanced technological architecture available for your WMS.

While you certainly cannot foresee the challenges your business will face during the next ten years, you can ensure that your WMS is able to dynamically change along with your company. When purchasing or upgrading, select a WMS vendor that has already made the investment in differentiating its technology. You will then have the business and applications agility necessary to better control and improve your supply chain operations.

“While service-oriented architecture (SOA) continues to be a compelling topic for IT organizations considering application replacement and modernization, most WMS vendors haven’t rewritten their applications to be SOAcompliant. Instead, they’ve wrapped their APIs in SOA-style technologies for syntactic compliance to meet demand. Although this approach will reduce some integration costs, it won’t deliver the capabilities required for increased agility.”


The Benefits of SaaS PricingIn both the short and long-term, a SaaS pricing model will help you become more profitable and more flexible. With SaaS pricing, you not only save money in the long run but you’ll become more profitable with quicker time-to-value and a blazing fast ROI. The software-as-a-service (SaaS) pricing model allows you to access the full functionality of traditional software through the internet while paying an incredibly low monthly subscription fee for each user.


Here’s how SaaS pricing will help your business grow:

Lower Risk

The elimination of the infrastructure and personnel necessary to support an on premise WMS means lowered risk. You won’t feel like you’re tied to the same system for ten years anymore. Software no longer dictate business decisions, and you can choose the right system to help your business thrive.

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Easier Executive Buy-In

The low upfront costs and minimized capital expenditures means that it’s quicker and easier for warehouse managers to get buy in and approval from business leaders. The quicker the system can be implemented, the sooner you can reap the benefits of a cloud WMS.

2Dynamic & Advanced Features

Lower risk for you means more responsibility for your cloud provider. Cloud providers are going to work harder to keep you on their system, providing exemplary customer support and continuously working to improve their technology.

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Lower Entry Cost

Compared to the typical warehouse management system, a cloud WMS has a significantly lower upfront cost. Capital expenditures are a thing of the past with a cloud WMS. Your system is hosted for you with advanced integration features to quickly and cost-effectively connect the WMS to all of your existing systems.

4Access to the BestTechnology

SaaS pricing makes it easier for small and medium sized businesses to gain access to the world’s best technology. The barriers to entry are fewer, and the technology available is the best there is. You can literally use the same software as billion dollar companies to help you stay competitive. The low SaaS monthly cost includes a multitude of services in it. The subscription covers usage rights for the WMS, 24x7 system support, maintenance, comprehensive security, feature upgrades, and continuous product development.

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Cost Effective Growth

Utilizing the cloud for your WMS allows your business to grow more easily and efficiently. You aren’t going to outgrow the cloud, and when you need to add more users to the system, you only need to purchase another user subscription. That’s a huge cost savings over buying and installing new servers on premise. Having more users in a cloud WMS often translates to higher user discounts. Your WMS will no longer hold you back or be a liability while your business expands.

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How the Cloud Will Make You More ProfitableIt all starts with better control over your warehouse. With a cloud WMS, you can manage your productivity and output, manage your labor, and manage customer service-related costs. Direct control over each of these factors means a more optimized warehouse and ultimately a more profitable business.


Here’s are the steps to optimizing the benefits of a cloud WMS for your supply chain:

Cost Reduction

The quickest and most effective way to become more profitable is reduce your costs, but first you need to understand your costs. With a sophisticated toolset to view and manage your supply chain, you can significantly reduce the costs your business incurs. Use metrics from your supply chain to discover where your costs are coming from.

• Where are your bottlenecks? Analytics real time data and reports will show you hidden inefficiencies or bottlenecks that can be cut from your supply chain.

• Where is your revenue coming from? A real-time view of what’s on your warehouse floor and where items are in your supply chain will mean that you are accurately billing each customer.

• What are your labor costs? Advanced labor management tracking and techniques will help you better unlock the potential within each worker. With a clear view of all the vital analytics from your business operations, you can measure the direct impact your warehouse operations have on costs, and use that data to continuously improve your profitability. Monitoring and maximizing operations on your warehouse floor will go a long way to achieving your strategic goals.

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Big Data Analytics

Allowing your data to freely flow throughout the company, instead of being bound by the four walls of the warehouse, will influence larger strategic business decisions. By sharing data from your warehouse, your organization will have complete transparency to track every facet of your supply chain and to uncover valuable analytics in real-time.

You’ll have important production data for your customer service team, billing information for your accounting department, staff analytics for your human resources department, and productivity metrics for your operations department. Every company is unique, but real-time analytics provide the blueprint for how to reduce costs throughout your entire organization. Utilizing this data throughout could have a measurable impact on your bottom line.

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Scalable Technology

Your warehouse doesn’t need to be stagnant. It can be a dynamic cost saver and money maker for your company. Being open and able to implement advanced new operations technologies will allow you to constantly evolve and stay ahead of your competition. Technologies that can effectively remove cost from your supply chain include robotics, mobile devices, and voice picking. Voice picking alone is proven to increase worker productivity by 35%. Utilizing a fully supported cloud platform for your warehouse management system will ensure that you have a cost-effective means to connect to the latest and greatest ways to achieve your organization’s goals.

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10 Tips for Building a More Profitable Supply ChainThese emerging factors of supply chain management are pushing organizations to new levels of profitability. Here are the ten leading supply chain trends that organizations are embracing this year to reduce costs, increase productivity, and improve profitability.


Cutting edge integration tools allow all of your business systems to connect with one another cheaper and faster. Your supply chain software can quickly link up with QuickBooks, SAP, Oracle, CRMs, and any other system you utilize. You gain instant value from all of our data to have a faster time to market, lower operational costs, and increase productivity.

Smartphones have revolutionized the supply chain. They reduce training time and using an iPhone or iPad in picking increases productivity. Smartphones help improve profitability by lowering costs by more than 90% over using proprietary industrial equipment like RF guns.

Software as a Service (SaaS) pricing models are taking over the business world, and for good reason. The subscription rates and lowered upfront costs mean decreased risk for the customer and greater flexibility, since you’re only paying for what you use. The model also ensures that your software provider will do everything they can to keep the system secure and constantly add new innovations to your supply chain management.

Leading organizations are putting their technology to use faster than ever before and discovering a quick turnaround on fast ROI. With out-of-the-box functionality, workflow rules can implemented system wide in an instant, replacing costly and time consuming custom development of on premise solutions. New solutions adapt to your business on the fly, instead of your business needing to adapt to its limitations.

The cloud introduces new functionality that is easier to use and requires less involvement from IT. It’s accessible from anywhere on any device, secure, flexible, and quickly connects to the rest of your business solutions. Reduce costs and increase productivity to become even more profitable. Jumping aboard now will give you a major competitive advantage.

New technology solutions will have an impact beyond just the IT department. Complete supply chain visibility frees data to go beyond the warehouse, up into the boardroom. Your technology solutions will become an essential part of your annual reports, allowing you implement more effective cost reducers around the warehouse and to more accurately

Upgrade to a Cloud Warehouse Management System

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Align IT Goals with Strategic Goals

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Reduce Capital Expenditures

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Reduce Software Customizations

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Integrate All of Your Systems

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Go Mobile

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Real-time and actionable analytics are the blueprint for how business leaders can reduce costs in their supply chain. You can use real-time analytics to optimize floor space, manage labor better, bill more accurately, plan better, and so much more. Make the correct decisions to not only improve your operations and customer service but to have a measurable impact on your bottom line.

Organizations are keeping an eye on the future when implementing supply chain solutions. Your technology should not dictate business decisions, it should support and adapt to the changes necessary to run a business. For too long organizations have had to switch or dramatically update systems whenever they experience any growth. But now with the power to scale up (or down) to meet your business needs, new solutions ensure that your supply chain will no longer hold you back or be a liability while your business expands.

Supply chains are becoming subject to stricter regulations. Tracking all of your product components into lots will keep track of expiration dates, product differentiations, and recall information on the fly. Lot control can help your company meet all recall deadlines, and minimize financial and reputational losses. More real-time data means instant accountability to your clients and regulators.

A warehouse floor can be one of the most diverse places in the country, with a number of different languages spoken. Maximize the potential for greatness within every one of your employees by supporting each language. Supply chain solutions that can be automatically set in different languages on a per user basis at each login will break down barriers and increase productivity for all your operations.

Become Transparent

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Support All Language in the Warehouse

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9Invest in Scalable Supply Chain Solutions

10Gain Actionable Insight from Real-time Analytics

Connect all the disparate departments of your business to reduce supply chain costs, increase productivity, and increase overall profitability.

irms|360 is an Aptean company. Aptean is a global provider of mission-critical,industry-specific software solutions. Aptean’s purpose-built ERP and supply chainmanagement solutions help address the unique challenges facing process anddiscrete manufacturers, distributors, and other focused organizations. To learnmore about irms|360, visit www.irms360.com.

See the Bold New Look of Warehouse ManagementSchedule a personal tour of our award-winning Cloud Warehouse Management System developed on an advanced cloud platform. You’ll get a first-hand view of core functionality, advanced features, and real-time dashboards.

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http://www.irms360.com

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aptean ebook: irms wms - the executive guide to selecting

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