How to get the benefits of WMS ownership without building one
By Robert C. Kennedy
Ten or fifteen years ago, I told a 3PL they should own their WMS and they looked at me like I was crazy. The idea was so contrary to where the market was -- and it was moving fast in the other direction.
Yet, so many of the stakeholders I talk to feel they need more control over their WMS due to the requirements of a very dynamic business. Today, you have a market that is dominated by a handful of companies while literally hundreds of smaller or specialized WMS companies fight over the rest. Through all of that, I hear far too often that customers are not happy with their systems.
What is to blame for unhappy WMS users?
The complaints are very similar: the software is expensive, and the cost of implementation is enormous. But by far the most common complaint I hear is that the vendor is not responsive, especially when the ask is for custom enhancements.
Calling a vendor non-responsive is harsh when in fairness, there is a natural dichotomy that evolves over time between you and your WMS vendor. You need your software to support your specific needs. Your vendor must be responsive to the market. That gap gets bigger as years roll by.
One would think that there are only so many ways to move a corrugated box through a warehouse. Yet, even after 40 years of living the WMS life, I am still surprised again and again by the need for genuine enhancements. (Genuine in that they are true business requirements, not operational preferences – that’s a story for another time.) Great minds can analyze it, but in the end, the story is going to revolve around the fact that markets move faster than software.
You can’t afford your own WMS – or can you?
It takes an enormous effort to build it, and the total cost of ownership is expensive. On the other hand, have you run the numbers? What is the absence of functionality costing you?
As a simple example, calculate how much it costs to have to page through extra keystrokes that are in the system but not necessary for you. Take that extra time and multiply it by the number of transactions and the number of users each day: the dollars add up. And that’s an easy one.
The good news is you don’t have to build your own system. You have options on the market right now that enable you, the customer, to manage the evolution of your software on your own.
A hybrid solution: adaptive software
Have you ever heard of adaptive software? Or the term composable software? This is software designed to be changed by the customer to fill that functionality gap. It’s an attractive hybrid between building and owning your WMS versus relying on a vendor solution. It’s kind of the best of both worlds: you get a core system that is maintained and advanced by the vendor, but you also have the option to change the software yourself.
These systems have tools that facilitate flexible workflows, or even provide you with the ability to build custom code using their platform. Much of the work, if not all of it, does not require a software developer to complete it.
Personalizing the deployment of software results in a fundamental change in the customer and vendor relationship. The vendor is released from committed resources to customer enhancements and allowed to focus on the advancement of their product, which is good for them and their customer base. Customers can make changes themselves and can do them more quickly and therefore less expensively.
What we’re talking about is users building software. I’ve heard this approach referred to as “citizen” software. I’ve called it “software for the proletariat!”
So how do you get started?
RC Kennedy is partnered with two companies that offer such solutions. (There are others that offer some workflow configurability.) We are partnered with these two companies because we believe in this approach. Before you act, check them out. Contact us at info@rcksc.com to learn more.
