MHD SUPPLY CHAIN Incremental roadmaps to WMS implementation mean lower barriers to entry, and quicker returns on investment.
ROI ON DAY ONE
MHD talks to Samuel Dawson, Business Development Manager at Microlistics, about how incremental roadmaps for WMS implementation show the path to the future.
O
n its face, the notion of an “incremental roadmap” for implementation of a WMS system doesn’t sound like a radical proposition, but – as Samuel Dawson, Business Development Manager at Microlistics explains – it actually is. This is because both the design and architecture of traditional WMS systems are geared towards large organisations, and the providers often have large service consultants at their disposal to implement a new WMS all at once, he notes. “The traditional business model for a WMS company works off two streams of revenue: provision of the software itself, plus service consulting,” Samuel says. “There is a built-in incentive, given how many service staff many WMS providers have, to keep them out there and consulting and not sitting on the bench. The goal for such companies, therefore, is to prefer selling bigger projects. Instead, they opt to do
long wholesale implementations, with complete implementation and strategy worked out in advance. This means that the buyer won’t see actual results until six to 12 months after the project begins. This isn’t to say that the outcome is necessarily the wrong one for those buying such software and services – but it isn’t agile enough for businesses that have immediate problems in need of immediate resolution.” The limitations of this long-term approach came into sharp relief with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This crisis shook up how distribution and logistical operations worked – most notably with a rapid shift to e-commerce and the attendant need for smaller, more individualised order fulfillment instead of larger shipments of the same items to retail stores. But is also imposed geographical limitations on the ability of consultants to move around and engage with businesses on the ground.
Samuel Dawson, Business Development Manager for Microlistics.
Furthermore, Samuel says, in a climate of economic and business uncertainty, many organisations no longer had the resources to spend big on a major WMS implementation absent a tangible near-time returnon-investment (ROI). MHD MARCH 2022 | 23
