How to Find Out If You Need a New WMS

If your business has been using the same warehouse management software for several years, you may want to evaluate whether this technology suits your current operation and future plans. Technology advances at a rapid rate-you wouldn’t want your business to get left behind. Having leading edge warehouse management system technology can provide you with a competitive advantage and help you win and retain clients. Technology changes quickly but so do customer needs. For years, warehousing and 3PL operations mainly shipped goods by the pallet. Not anymore! Along came Amazon and Omni-channel retailing. Now consumers can place orders using many different methods and want fast free delivery. Is your business equipped to handle this? Can your older technology meet the needs of today’s consumer? If you have a 3PL operation and provide service to retailers, your system must be much more flexible and able to meet these challenges.

Is the cost of upgrading to the latest version of your WMS software too expensive? Many WMS vendors tell you that you get free upgrades but read the fine print- it can be really costly. Upgrades can sometimes cost as much as a new implementation.

Are you already too dependent on your software vendor to make changes to business processes, reports and other items? If your current warehouse management system is difficult, costly and hard to customize, you should consider changing to a more flexible system. Some warehouse management systems are now workflow-based. This means that customization can be done quickly at a fraction of the cost of hard coded systems.

Does your current warehouse management system help you comply with current regulations? If your business handles goods like food and pharmaceuticals, recent regulatory changes may require you to upgrade your technology.

Does your warehouse management software have an innovative database architecture and design that minimizes data loss and helps to increase the speed of searches and system performance? Think of all the time and frustration you can eliminate with that type of powerful state-of-the-art technology.

Does your software integrate easily with other systems? Is the flow of real time data between systems seamless or problematic? Think of all the time and labor your business may be wasting.

Does your warehouse management software rely on old technology? Some new state of the art systems were built from the ground up to handle complex changing technology needs. If your system is experiencing lack of data integrity, unresponsive screens and errors committing data to the database, you should seriously consider the impact that this has on your operation and consider new technology.

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you need a technology check up. Contact Datex today for a free technology assessment. Let our experts show you how to reduce costs, improve workforce productivity and reduce errors using state-of-the-art technology.