IT Considerations When Selecting a Mobile Solution for SAP (EWM)

Customer expects shorter lead times, a wider product selection, and the ability to enable Universal distribution, and warehouse operations appear to have suddenly become the focus of attention. Companies must react swiftly by establishing new supply chain models, such as smaller facilities closer to clients and new procedures that allow them to choose smaller orders with short lead times. The supply chain must adapt by boosting productivity and reducing unit costs as margin pressures grow.

On top of each of these structural changes, many firms are deploying SAP S/4H ANA and Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) as their warehousing solution of preference. The company's IT team needs step up to the challenge of these much further business changes, and one key consideration will be the warehouse mobile solution, which is vital to an EWM implementation's success.

IT Considerations When Selecting a Mobile Solution for SAP (EWM)

    

Ability to adapt to changing business needs Flexibility of mobile solutions Safeguards and IT infrastructure Product Marketing plans in Depth Investment Return on Investment (ROI)

Flexibility to accommodate changing business needs - Supply chain and IT activities must change fast to suit changing business needs. Cross-docking, two-step picking, task interleaving, and kitting, to mention a few, are just a few of the features that EWM offers to assist businesses solve these issues. The major challenge is how to take all of that deep backend EWM capability and make it accessible to end users on a mobile device in a very easy way.

Older SAP solutions, such as the ITS Mobile and Fiori applications, that used to interface SAP's warehouse systems with RF scanners, have severe limitations. They're browser-based, which slows down speed, necessitates costly scripting to reflect unique warehouse procedures, can't be used offline, and can't take advantage of all the features.

Scalability of mobile solutions — In many organisations, the deployment of mobile solutions has a troubled past, with early adventures frequently include building solutions in-house or utilising Systems Integrators. While the first warehouse deployment may have gone smoothly, rollouts frequently became stymied as inflexible, hard-coded solutions failed to account for varying warehouse procedures, language needs, and other localizations. These methods were costly to maintain because even minor updates required hiring developers. Even basic adjustments, such as adding a new field to an RF scanner screen, required filing a Change Request to IT, entering the queue, and waiting six months for the change to be accomplished!

IT architecture and security - IT architecture and security are a given; no mobile solution should even get beyond the first barrier unless it satisfies these criteria. There is no space for debate because the mobile solution will eventually interface with your corporate SAP system. There will be a slew of questions to answer, including the following:

What type of authentication will be utilised to access the mobile solution and SAP? Is there any data on the mobile device?

Is it possible to put the solution on the cloud?

Is the solution SAP-certified?

Deep Product Roadmaps - Whereas older SAP deployments remained fairly static over time, this is not going to be an option for the future. The pace of business change seems to be increasing by the day and S/4HANA must be a business enabler not a constraint. SAP itself has recognised the need to move more quickly, shifting their solutions to the Cloud and implementing a faster cadence on new product releases and features.

Return on Investment (ROI) - With the ever-present margin squeeze, every dollar IT spent needs to be justified. Companies are becoming more cautious how they spend their IT dollars and rightly want to develop robust business cases and a clear Return on Investment (ROI). However, in our experience these business cases do not always consider the total costs of ownership.

#WarehouseManagement #SAPEWM #Logistics #Storage #GoodsMovement