Selection of appropriate software can make or break a business.  In the Supply Chain world, companies are faced with a major decision:  Which WMS is best suited for our business? 

The infrastructure choice falls along the spectrum from a multi-tenant SaaS WMS to a top of the line tier 1 complex WMS, with various hybrid models in between.  These are some common selection mistakes that are hard to overcome:

In buying a multi-tenant SaaS WMS, you must:

• Adopt the best practices already offered by the product
• Focus only on the best practice gaps rather than “We are Unique” expectations
• Accept the fact that changing the core code is not possible and that this is the nature of the multi-tenant rollouts
• Accept the fact that getting access to the DB is not possible since DBs could be shared across customers
• Adopt Rapid Rollout methodologies
• Automate Regression Testing

In buying a top of the line tier 1 complex WMS, you must:

• Build an internal design team capable of pre-designing your operations and automation flow, giving direction to the WMS, WCS and all other MHE vendors
• Arrive at a scalable Inventory Segmentation design
• Set clear expectations on Realtime Inventory and OMS / DOM Order Allocation
• Implement CI/CD
• Automate Regression Testing

Regardless of the final choice, it is imperative to get input from key decision-makers and carefully consider the implications of WMS choice.