Gain confidence with cloud-based warehouse management

When companies rely on a dated warehouse management system (WMS) to run their distribution centers, it’s not uncommon with the IT staff familiar with the system to move on. Unfortunately, this leaves the company without an in-house expert to manage issues as they arise. Plus, if the original vendor is no longer supporting that version of the system, it can be incredibly difficult to get the system back up and running.

Over time, each organization builds the distribution ecosystem that uniquely addresses its needs. The challenge emerges when only a handful of people understand how to manage and maintain that system successfully and perhaps only one individual truly understands the complete picture. With a mission critical WMS and corresponding data at the very core of the business, any scenario that puts it at risk is can be detrimental to getting products out the door.

For many organizations, the realization that your go-to people who truly understand all the nuances in your operations and the systems that support them are no longer there comes too late. Whether this loss comes through resignation, retirement, health issues, or merger and acquisition, you'll need to find replacements when running a legacy on-premise WMS. How can your organization ensure the continuity of day-to-day operations with the potential loss of technical expertise?

One of the ways to mitigate this risk is to accelerate cloud migration. By shifting your WMS to the cloud, your organization is supported by a comprehensive solution that is continuously updated so you don’t have to worry about new trends forcing you to upgrade your system down the road. Furthermore, a trusted cloud partner should have a substantial investment in IT personnel that would be difficult for some of the largest organizations to match. A small army is dedicated to monitoring your organization’s WMS and your data to ensure they are optimized and protected.

A recent CIO tech priorities survey by IDG showed that “despite increased budgets and interest in new technologies that can positively impact business in the future, organizations still face familiar challenges to adoption. The top challenges that IT leaders encounter are lack of sufficient budget (48%), lack of staff (46%), and lack of skill sets (42%).” By shifting the responsibility of managing and maintaining your WMS over to a cloud provider with modern capabilities, your organization will not only create an opportunity to reset expectations and priorities for your IT staff but also ensure your WMS always has the support it needs to stay up and running so that your customers receive their orders on-time and in-full.

To learn more about how a cloud-based warehouse management system can improve your fulfillment operations, visit the Infor WMS product page today.