Opportunities for Cloud Based Software as a Service (SaaS) Warehouse Management System an Indian Industry Insight

Warehousing is becoming a more critical activity in the supply chain to gain competitive advantage on customer service, lead time and cost. In today's market place, warehouse management system (WMS) plays a vital role, to achieve high performance and efficiency in serving the customer. Various functionalities of WMS are discussed in detail to provide insight on the value addition; it brings to supply chain performance. In spite of its importance, the reach of Indian industries for this technology is less owing to the high acquisition costs and other considerations. To explore further on this, we have researched on low cost alternatives like cloud and software-as-a-service (SaaS) and their advantages. One more issue faced by many organizations is whether to opt for a standard or a tailor-made WMS implementation. The paper analyses the advantages of cloud based WMS and current trends. It also gives a discussion point on the micro-study conducted to understand the level of acceptance in the Industry. On the other hand standard WMS results in making compromises between the way a warehouse wants to work and the way the system allows the warehouse to work. The paper also explores on the complexities involved in the implementation by giving an insight on factors to be considered in choosing a WMS.