How To Emphasize ROI Of WMS To Your Clients

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

Warehouse management systems (WMS) have evolved over the years, and now are providing a strong ROI when properly deployed. Recognizing the need for a WMS can be straightforward for your clients; inaccurate inventories and pressures to continually reduce costs make the investment decision almost intuitive. Beyond intuition, fortunately, the benefits of WMS can be identified and, to a great extent, quantified, in order to provide an accurate basis for justification.

WMS provider Foxfire asserts that less than one-third of all warehouses are efficient today. Adopting a WMS creates value by building consistency, accountability and efficiency, reducing inventory shrinkage, errors and chargebacks. Foxfire also provides an ROI calculator to help add up what this can mean for your client from a financial perspective.

Solutions provider iCepts lists numerous benefits including easily quantifiable ones such as improving operational efficiency and reducing labor, refining inventory control and management, and complete visibility into warehouse contents.

In his article for EBN, Eric Allais, president and CEO of PathGuide Technologies offers information you can share with your clients that can help them achieve solid ROI. His advice includes rolling out WMS in phases to reduce business disruption and to allow workers to become more skilled in its use. As different areas deploy the WMS and gain insight into operations, your clients should review this information and consider any changes if necessary.

He explains that ROI will vary depending on circumstances, but positive ROI can be realized in a few as three to six months and most often in 12 to 18 months.