• Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Supplier Directory
  • SCB YouTube
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Logout
  • My Profile
  • LOGISTICS
    • Air Cargo
    • All Logistics
    • Express/Small Shipments
    • Facility Location Planning
    • Freight Forwarding/Customs Brokerage
    • Global Gateways
    • Global Logistics
    • Last Mile Delivery
    • Logistics Outsourcing
    • LTL/Truckload Services
    • Ocean Transportation
    • Rail & Intermodal
    • Reverse Logistics
    • Service Parts Management
    • Transportation & Distribution
  • TECHNOLOGY
    • All Technology
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud & On-Demand Systems
    • Data Management (Big Data/IoT/Blockchain)
    • ERP & Enterprise Systems
    • Forecasting & Demand Planning
    • Global Trade Management
    • Inventory Planning/ Optimization
    • Product Lifecycle Management
    • Sales & Operations Planning
    • SC Finance & Revenue Management
    • SC Planning & Optimization
    • Sourcing/Procurement/SRM
    • Supply Chain Visibility
    • Transportation Management
  • GENERAL SCM
    • Business Strategy Alignment
    • Education & Professional Development
    • Global Supply Chain Management
    • Global Trade & Economics
    • HR & Labor Management
    • Quality & Metrics
    • Regulation & Compliance
    • SC Security & Risk Mgmt
    • Supply Chains in Crisis
    • Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility
  • WAREHOUSING
    • All Warehouse Services
    • Conveyors & Sortation
    • Lift Trucks & AGVs
    • Order Fulfillment
    • Packaging
    • RFID, Barcode, Mobility & Voice
    • Robotics
    • Warehouse Management Systems
  • INDUSTRIES
    • Aerospace & Defense
    • Apparel
    • Automotive
    • Chemicals & Energy
    • Consumer Packaged Goods
    • E-Commerce/Omni-Channel
    • Food & Beverage
    • Healthcare
    • High-Tech/Electronics
    • Industrial Manufacturing
    • Pharmaceutical/Biotech
    • Retail
  • THINK TANK
  • WEBINARS
    • On-Demand Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Webinar Library
  • PODCASTS
  • VIDEOS
  • WHITEPAPERS
Home » Q&A | Why WMS Is Playing Catchup With the Cloud
Video

Q&A | Why WMS Is Playing Catchup With the Cloud

May 21, 2019
SupplyChainBrain

Warehouse management systems were relatively late in coming to the cloud. Dan Gilmore, chief marketing officer with Softeon, puts the issue into context and lays out the various options for cloud deployment of WMS.

SCB: What should people know about WMS in the cloud?

Gilmore: As prominent as this has been in the last few years, there's still a lot of kind of confusion out there. If you think about WMS in the cloud, you have three variables or attributes. First is the deployment model. Is the software going to be deployed on premise, as it's typically called, which means either within the warehouse itself or the four walls of the enterprise? Or is it going to be deployed in the cloud in some fashion? That's variable one. Variable two is the pricing model. Is it going to be traditional license pricing, upfront pricing, or more of a subscription or transaction model? That's the second dimension. So you've got a deployment model that’s on-premise or in the cloud. You've got pricing model that’s based on subscription versus an upfront license.

That gives you four choices. The traditional model is on-premise deployment with upfront license pricing. The emergent cloud model, of course, is cloud deployment with transaction subscription pricing. But you can have hybrids of that. You could have traditional onsite deployment, but still use a transactional pricing model. Conversely, you could deploy it in the cloud and still have an upfront license model. Those are the things that people can look at in terms of deciding what they really want to do and why. And then the third dimension is the management model — who’s actually going to be responsible for managing the application over time. That can either be your in-house staff, or the vendor itself.

SCB: Does that level of complexity begin to hint at why WMS was a little late to the cloud party?

Gilmore: There's a variety of factors. Number one is that some of the larger WMS players were indeed a little late to the party, and held things back. And then some of the original cloud-based vendors had somewhat limited functionality. But the biggest reason was the fear that with material-handling systems, response times were just going to be too slow. They require very timely, real-time-type communications and messaging. The good news is that this objection has really kind of gone away.

SCB: What about issues of reliability, continuation of service and the like? That was a concern with the cloud with all types of software.

Gilmore: The big thing about WMS is if it goes down, you're not shipping product. And if you're not shipping product, you're not billing revenue, so that's a little different than a forecasting application or something along those lines. Clearly, there were some concerns about uptime. I think now the bigger concern is about cybersecurity. But there are a number of security protocols and standards that leading vendors are putting in place to minimize the risk of that as well.

SCB: Of all these different options that you have outlined, what are the trends now in actual WMS deployment in the cloud?

Gilmore: There’s no question that we’ve seen a pronounced movement over the last two years to cloud deployments. That's in the neighborhood of about two-thirds of companies that are now going for cloud versus traditional on-premise. Having said that, you can see some hybrid models. Say, for example, that a large 3PL has a dozen sites. They may have nine or ten in the cloud. They have two for perceived bandwidth reasons, or other kind of factors, that have led them to go on-premise. So it's a hybrid model. In some cases then you can migrate that on-premise deployment into a cloud deployment if you've got the right architecture to make it seamless for the company.

SCB: So it's not so much that WMSs are necessarily site-specific. They can link multiple warehouse facilities with the same WMS, all being stored in the cloud in the same place?

Gilmore: Yes. For a given company you could have one cloud instance that would be able to support multiple facilities as well.

SCB: What are some of the lessons that we've learned about WMS and the cloud?

Gilmore: First off, the benefits are very real. Deployment time is reduced by 50 percent. Having said that, people sometimes are a little confused that there are a lot of the things you have to do regardless of the deployment model — testing, training and other factors. That's a constant. So, while there are real benefits in terms of time to value and speed of implementation, you still have to do the basics and the 101 stuff you need to make a successful deployment.

Second, we're finding that the market, at least in North America, is more interested in what's called a private cloud deployment versus a multi-tenant SaaS. In other words, you are in the cloud, but you get your own cloud instance, if you will. That may run across multiple facilities, but it's not the same exact system for everybody. You've got all these things that are unique to each scenario. A cookie cutter-type thing works for something like Salesforce.com, but not in the WMS market. Maybe it will someday, but right now, that doesn't seem to be the way customers want to go. However, we are finding internationally, for example in Latin America, that maybe a Saas model does make sense, because implementation is simpler.

The last important point is that the concerns about response time that we talked about earlier are turning out not to be a factor. There are a couple of ways you can address that. First off, even if you have a cloud deployment, you can put local software agents inside the distribution center that handle real-time communication with things like voice or material-handling systems. That’s a way to mitigate concerns about bandwidth. But frankly, we're finding that most of the time you don't even need that approach. The bandwidth that's available in the marketplace is sufficient to run a high-volume WMS, and give you the kind of millisecond response time you need to be successful.

RELATED CONTENT

RELATED VIDEOS

Cloud & On-Demand Systems Technology All Warehouse Services Warehouse Management Systems
KEYWORDS Cloud, SaaS & On-Demand Systems Warehouse Management Systems
  • Related Articles

    Q&A | Turning the Page: Going Paperless With a WMS

    Is WMS Ready for the Cloud?

    Is WMS Ready for the Cloud?

  • Related Directories

    SnapFulfil

SupplyChainBrain

Amtrak Passengers Stranded for 29 Hours Feared They Had Been Kidnapped

More from this author

Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter!

Timely, incisive articles delivered directly to your inbox.

Popular Stories

  • DOCUMENTS BEARING THE INSIGNIA OF US CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION LIE ON A TABLE

    New CBP Regs Call for Greater Diligence by Brokers in Reporting Security Breaches

    Freight Forwarding/Customs Brokerage
  • A WORKER IN A WAREHOUSE, SUPERIMPOSED WITH GRAPHICS SHOWING SUPPLY NETWORK

    Enabling Intelligent Visibility With Supply Chain Analytics

    Data Management (Big Data/IoT/Blockchain)
  • A GROUP OF WORKERS RANGED IN AN OFFICE, OF DIVERSE RACE, GENDER, AGE AND PHYSICAL ABILITY

    Podcast | The Supply Chain Workforce of the Future Is Already Here

    HR & Labor Management
  • GSCMS-Promo.png

    Watch: Introducing the Global Supply Chain Marketing Summit

    Education & Professional Development
  • A HAND TURNS A LARGE, LIGHTED DIAL WITH THE WORD RISK ON IT iStock-NicoElNino-1364371014.jpg

    Measuring KPIs and KRIs for Comprehensive Supplier Performance Management

    Technology

Digital Edition

Scb q1 2023 cover

2023 Supply Chain Management Resource Guide: Packing for a Difficult Year

VIEW THE LATEST ISSUE

Case Studies

  • New Revenue for Cloud-Based TMS that Embeds Orderful’s Modern EDI Platform

  • Convenience Store Client Maximizes Profit and Improves Customer Service

  • A Digitally Native Footwear Brand Finds Rapid Fulfillment

  • Expanding Apparel Brand Scales Seamlessly with E-Commerce Technology

  • How a Global LSP Scaled its Security Program and Won More Business

Visit Our Sponsors

Orderful Yang Ming Alithya
Barcoding Blue Yonder BNSF Logistics
CoEnterprise Data Capture Deposco
E2open GAINSystems Generix
Geodis GEP GreyOrange
Here Honeywell Intelligrated IFM
Infor Inmar Keelvar
Kinaxis Korber Lean Solutions Group 2H
Liberty SBF Locus Robotics Logility
LogistiVIEW Lucas Systems MCA Connect
MPO Nvidia Old Dominion
OpenText ORTEC Overhaul
Parsyl PMMI QIMA
Redwood Logistics Ryder E-commerce by Whiplash Saddle Creek Logistics
Schneider Dedicated Setlog Holding AG Ship4WD
Shipwell Tecsys TGW Systems
Thomson Reuters Tive Trailer Bridge
Vecna Robotics Verity
Verusen
  • More From SCB
    • Featured Content
    • Video Library
    • Think Tank Blog
    • SupplyChainBrain Podcast
    • Whitepapers
    • On-Demand Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
  • Digital Offerings
    • Digital Issue
    • Subscribe
    • Manage Your Subscription
    • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Events Calendar
    • SCB's Great Supply Chain Partners
    • Supplier Directory
    • Case Study Showcase
    • Supply Chain Innovation Awards
    • 100 Great Partners Form
  • SCB Corporate
    • Advertise on SCB.COM
    • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact Us
    • Data Sharing Opt-Out

All content copyright ©2023 Keller International Publishing Corp All rights reserved. No reproduction, transmission or display is permitted without the written permissions of Keller International Publishing Corp

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing