Top Warehouse Management Systems Reviewed

Distribution companies that are looking to drive more throughput and efficiency in their operations are typically looking to warehouse management systems to automate their operations. But what are the top 10 warehouse management systems in the industry? I'll talk about that here today. My name is Eric Kimberling. I'm the CEO of Third Stage Consulting. We're an independent consulting firm that helps clients through their digital transformation journeys and companies that are looking to automate their warehouses and track inventory better and help manage fulfillment and throughput better than... they have in the past are faced with a plethora of options out there. There's a lot of different technologies that can help automate operations, drive efficiency, drive scale, drive standardization, higher revenue, lower inventory, all that stuff that warehouses and distribution companies are typically looking for. looking for, but they have a lot of options out there to choose from. And so what I want to do today is talk about our independent ranking of the top 10 warehouse management systems in the marketplace. Now, the way we developed our ranking of the top systems is based on independent criteria that's based on our experience with helping clients select and implement these different warehouse management systems. And it's also based on our research and other quantitative data in addition to qualitative data. So we look at things like average implementation cost, average risk. We look at... functionality and the breadth of functionality. We look at the flexibility of the software. We look at the install base. A lot of different criteria were used in developing this top 10 list, but the key here is that no vendor influence affected this list. This is all based on third stages experience with these different systems. So without further ado, let's jump into the top 10. Coming in at number 10 is Oracle NetSuite. Now, Oracle NetSuite is a warehouse management system, but it's also much more than that. It's a full-blown ERP system, and it's a very commonly used ERP system that's used particularly in the small and mid-market. They have over 10,000 customers using the product. Some of the benefits of working with NetSuite or implementing NetSuite include the fact that, first of all, it's a SaaS-based solution. So it's one of the first ERP systems in the market, if not the first, that was built entirely in the cloud. the cloud built as a software as a service model, which makes implementation a bit easier and actually ensures that upgrades and other types of functionality are pushed out to customers sooner than companies using on-premise systems. One of the other advantages of NetSuite is that, as I mentioned before, it's used by a lot of small and mid-sized companies. So it has a level of simplicity that is beneficial to companies that are looking to make a leap from QuickBooks and other enterprises. up to NetSuite, including NetSuite's warehouse management function. Now some of the downsides of NetSuite are, first of all, is that because it's a SaaS and cloud-based solution, it can be a bit less flexible than some of the more robust systems out there in the marketplace in terms of systems that allow more customization and configurability. The other disadvantage is that NetSuite isn't as well known in the warehouse management space as it is within financials and CRM. and some of the other capabilities that companies look for outside of warehouse management. So if you're looking for a broad ERP system that can handle fairly vanilla needs across your enterprise, including your warehouse management, Oracle NetSuite can be a great fit for you. Coming in at number nine is a product called Softion. And I'll be honest, this is a product I hadn't heard of until recently. And it's a system that's been around for about 20 years. There's a lot of companies that use it across the globe. Some larger organizations included, for example, Sears, which is a popular U.S. retailer, or at least it used to be a popular U.S. retailer, uses Softion as do some other organizations throughout the world. Now, the beauty of Softion is that it's focused primarily on warehouse management. So whereas Nets... suite as we talked about in the number 10 slot and other systems in the marketplace that we'll talk about throughout our top 10. Some of those are focused on warehouse management plus other things. Softeon is more of a best of breed solution that focuses exclusively on warehouse management. So one of the benefits of Softeon in addition to being a best of breed solution for warehouse management is the fact that it integrates well with other systems. So it's used to playing in a sandbox with other systems that handle other things that their software does not. So for example, material automation. That's something that it can integrate with other systems. And another benefit that we've seen with the product is that it can have a lower total cost of ownership when compared to other systems in the marketplace. And then finally, one of the other advantages of Softeon is because it is a smaller vendor in terms of number of customers and just the size of the company, our customers that have used the product or evaluated the product have found that they get a little bit more attention from the vendor than you might get from some of the larger vendors in our top ten list. So there are two main disadvantages of the Softeon. First of all is that the product doesn't have a large install base or as large of an install base as some of the other systems. the marketplace, which could be a good thing because on one hand, you're going to get more personalized service most likely. But on the other hand, it could be a negative because it's harder to find consultants that know the system. It's harder to find resellers and third parties that can help support the product. So that lack of an ecosystem or robust ecosystem like a lot of other vendors have can be a disadvantage for Softeon. And then the second disadvantage of Softeon is the fact that it only does warehouse management. Even though it does warehouse management well, it doesn't do a lot of other things that organizations need, whether it's related to their supply chains or whether it's related to financials and CRM and human capital management and some of the other functions of their organization. But if you're looking for a very focused, best of. of breed solution that does warehouse management well, Softeon can be a great fit for you. Coming in at number eight is 3PL Central. And like Softeon that we just talked about, 3PL Central is a warehouse management focused solution. So it's a best of breed solution that's built specifically for warehouse management, which can be a great thing if that all you're looking for that's all you need is warehouse management the difference with soft eon though is 3pl central tends to have a bit more robust capabilities so if you're a large organization a more complex organization or you have more complex warehouse management needs higher volumes, cross docking, things like that that might be a little bit more unique to your organization, 3PL Central can be a good fit for you. It handles a lot of those things that I mentioned, plus things like small parcels, high volumes, docking scheduling, a lot of those different things that might be a bit unique to your warehouse operations. Now probably the biggest downside of 3PL is even though it's a bit more scalable, a little bit more robust, and has a greater breadth of capability within warehouse management than some of the other systems in our top 10 list, it is very focused on warehouse management. So if you're looking for a system that can do more than just warehouse management in other areas like supply chain, customer relationship management, human capital management, anything like that, there might be other products that are better for you in the top 10. But if you're looking for a really good warehouse management, best of breed solution, 3PL Central can be a great fit. So Microsoft Dynamics 365 is one of the most popular ERP systems or enterprise technologies, and it has fairly strong warehouse management capabilities. And if you're looking for a good warehouse management option, Microsoft Dynamics 365 can be a great option either as a standalone warehouse management system or even better yet as a full-blown ERP system. And D365 is something that's used by mid-market companies as well as some larger organizations, particularly those that have fairly vanilla. warehouse management needs. So if you don't have anything super complex or crazy that you're trying to do within your warehouse operations, Microsoft D365 can be a great fit. Now another strength of Dynamics 365 is that it has that Microsoft look and feel that a lot of end users are used to. And if you're a Microsoft shop, that can be a plus. It also has a good deal of flexibility. So if you're looking to change the software to really mold and fit to how your operations run today, that could be a good thing, although it could also be a negative. thing because it could be an excuse not to change or not to leverage software technology. But in general, if you're looking for something that's flexible, Dynamics 365 can be a great fit. And it also handles broader supply chain needs even outside the warehouse. So when you think about things like e-commerce and order fulfillment in general, certainly when you talk about order management and creating work orders and that sort of thing, D365 can handle not just the warehouse management side of things, but other. things related to your supply chain, as well as even areas outside of your supply chain as it relates to CRM and HCM and whatnot. Now, the downsides of Microsoft D365 are twofold. One is that it's not the most robust warehouse management system out there. There's others in the top 10 that can handle some of the more complex nuances of warehouse operations than D365. But if you have a fairly vanilla warehouse and you're not doing anything super unique or complex, it can be a good fit. And then the other challenge is that it's not the most robust warehouse management system challenge with D365, not just for warehouse management, for ERP and the technology in general, is that they have a very loose control or lack of control over their reseller network. So there's a lot of different companies out there that are selling the software, implementing the software, and there's a lot of good companies out there that can implement effectively, and there's a lot of really bad ones out there. that can't implement very effectively. So if you do choose this product and find that this product is a good fit for you, you'll want to spend a little bit extra time making sure you vet out and find the best implementation partners. So with all that being said, that's enough to land Microsoft Dynamics at number seven on our list. SAP S4 HANA is oftentimes considered one of the gold standards for larger organizations, especially companies that are either manufacturing or distribution types of organizations. And the reason for that is because it was largely built for manufacturing distribution companies way back when. when the software and the technology was first developed, and S4 HANA is no different. S4 HANA has a knack for being able to deal with highly scalable, complex types of organizations, diverse organizations with different types of needs. throughout the companies. So if you have a large complex supply chain with a number of different warehouses spread out throughout the world or even throughout the same country, SAP S4 HANA can be a good fit for you. Now the downside of S4 HANA is first of all the cost. If you're a smaller mid-size organization, chances are that S4 HANA might be a bit of overkill for you. It might be too much or more than you need and you might end up paying more than you should for a warehouse management system. Secondly, S4 HANA is rarely implemented as just a a warehouse management system. So in order for it to make sense as your warehouse management solution, it's probably going to be suitable to look at beyond warehouse management into other more ERP focused areas, things like financials, inventory management, CRM, HCM, etc. And then finally, like a lot of vendors that are making that transition from on-premise systems to cloud, S4 HANA is still a work in progress. So there's still a lot of functionality that they're trying to bring over. from their legacy systems. They had a couple legacy systems that were on-prem primarily, one being ECC and the other one being R3. Some of that functionality was very mature and robust and had benefited from lots of R&D dollars over the years. And a lot of that functionality is still being migrated over to S4 HANA. So if you're looking at S4 HANA, it's very important to make sure you poke holes in it, fully understand what you're getting, and understand the limitations and capabilities of S4 HANA. But if you're looking for something that's got some breadth and scalability, and especially if you're a larger organization, S4 HANA can be a great fit for your warehouse management operations. Coming in at number five is Manhattan Associates. And this product is another one that's very focused and hyper-focused on warehouse management and doing warehouse management better than a lot of other systems out there. And it's a product that's used by a lot of larger organizations. So whereas. some of the other best-of-breed warehouse management systems were more suitable for smaller mid-size organizations. Manhattan Associates is actually a bit more scalable. It can handle more complex warehouse operations, and it can handle the needs of larger organizations better than some of the other organizations. of the others in our top 10 list. We find that Manhattan Associates is very commonly used in food, beverage, grocery, retail, and even omni-channel types of situations. Those tend to be just a few examples of where the product tends to thrive and fit best. And it's also built on the .NET platform, which if you're not a technical person, the way to simplify it is it's a very open architecture. It's easy to integrate with other systems. So if you're implementing Manhattan Associates, but you've already got an ERP system for your back office office, operations to handle your financials and whatnot. So for example, if you're using SAP or Oracle or Microsoft Dynamics already within your core back office operations, it can be a lot easier to integrate with third-party ERP systems or other types of systems than other options in our top 10 list. Now probably the biggest downsides for Manhattan Associates is first of all, it can be overkill. If you're a small or mid-sized company or if you just have pretty simple warehouse operations, it might be a bit much for you. It might be too expensive, too complex. and there's other options that might be a better fit for you. And the other downside is that most of their implementations are run through the company Manhattan Associates, which sort of limits your options in terms of implementation partners. So whereas many others in our top 10 list have multiple ways that you can implement, multiple third parties you can turn to to implement the solution, Manhattan Associates tends to run most of the implementations through their organization. But despite these downsides, if you look at the strengths versus the weaknesses, that's enough to land Manhattan Associates at number one. number five on our list. Fishbowl comes in at number four on our list, and Fishbowl is one of a handful on our top 10 list that is A, focused on warehouse management and nothing else, and B, built primarily for small and mid-sized organizations and their warehouse operations. So Fishbowl has a number of strengths functionality-wise that can help automate your operations and ensure that your warehouse operations are handled effectively and efficiently. And one of the other advantages of Fishbowl is we find that a lot of our clients who are using other ERP systems are using Fishbowl as a way to plug the gap between what their ERP systems warehouse software can or can't do. Fishbowl can be a great way to plug that gap if you've got an ERP system that doesn't handle warehouse management well. Now on the flip side, some of the downsides of using Fishbowl is first of all, like some of the other systems in our top 10 list, it's not the best for large... larger and more complex organizations with more diverse warehouse management needs. So if you're looking for pretty complex and robust global supply chain and warehouse management capabilities, there's probably better options in our top 10 list than Fishbowl. And the other disadvantage is that, as I mentioned before, it's also a strength in that Fishbowl is focused primarily on warehouse management. So if you're looking for something that can handle broader capabilities outside of your warehouse, Fishbowl is not the right answer. You would need some other sort of ear. ERP system to bolt on top of that. But with all that being said, that's enough to land Fishbowl at number four on our top 10 list. Coming in at number three is HiJump, which was recently acquired by Korber, which is another company that focuses on warehouse management, supply chain management. And it's a product that is focused on warehouse management. It's a best of breed solution. It's built for companies that aren't getting what they need out of their their ERP systems in terms of their warehouse needs. In fact, we have a lot of clients that are using HiJump with their Microsoft D365 implementations, for example, or other types of ERP systems that don't do warehouse management well. HiJump can be a great fit. Now, one of the benefits of HiJump, in addition to being focused exclusively on warehouse management, is that even though it's more commonly used by small and especially mid-market companies, is that now that they're partnered with or owned by Corber... So Corber has other solutions that can provide additional and broader, more complex capabilities if you're a larger organization. So if you're looking for things like complex shipping, vessel, port management, things related to transportation, overall logistics, not just the warehouse itself, but other related business processes, Corber has the capabilities that can plug in with HiJump to help provide those capabilities. Now, the biggest downside of HiJump is the price tag. We found. that clients have been concerned with the price relative to the value of the product, at least when it compared to other warehouse management systems in our top 10 list. But with the caveat that if it's a great fit for your organization, it gives you what you need, you probably will be able to prove the ROI on that. But if you can find another system out there at a lower price tag that can have comparable fit with what your needs are, there might be better fits out there. And secondly, if you're a large organization with fairly complex needs, again, like is the case with a lot of the... options in the top 10 list. There might be other systems out there that are better equipped to deal with the more complex needs. But like I said as well, the caveat to that is that now that HighJump is owned by Corber, there's other solutions and bolt-ons that can fit together to scale as you grow as an organization. So all that being said is enough to land HighJump at number three on our list. Coming in at number two is Oracle WMS Cloud combined with Oracle ERP Cloud. And even if you're looking for just a WMS solution, Oracle can provide more than just warehouse management, but it is very strong in that area of warehouse. management, particularly if you're looking to integrate or bolt on other capabilities outside of your warehouse management. And when compared to some of the other big ERP systems in our top 10 list, systems like SAP, for example, you're going to find that Oracle WMS is going to be more flexible and have more flexibility in general than some of the other systems in our top 10 list. And as I mentioned, Oracle can do more than just WMS. If you need help with financials and CRM and talent management, some of these other capabilities that are required to automate an entire enterprise, Oracle's ERP cloud can be a good complementary factor when considering Oracle WMS. Now, the other strength that Oracle WMS has and Oracle's product suite in general has is that it's very strong in analytics and reporting. So if that's something that's very important to you and you're really striving for better business intelligence and reporting and analytics, Oracle can be a great solution for you. Now the downside of the Oracle product suite is that they, like some of the other systems in the marketplace, are still making that migration to the cloud. So Oracle has been very successful in the on-premise world historically. So they had a product called business suite, for example, that included some pretty robust warehouse management capabilities. And that functionality is still being moved over largely to the cloud versions of WMS and ERP. So that's something to keep in mind as you're evaluating Oracle's product suite. Make sure you fully understand what is or isn't included in terms of capabilities in the systems that you're evaluating. And it may be that you need to go to one of the legacy Oracle products to plug some of those gaps if needed. But regardless, it's important to to understand that trade-off. And then the other downside would be that if you're a smaller, mid-sized organization, Oracle, just as the case with SAP, may be overkill for your organization. It might be more money and more total cost of ownership than what you might be equipped or what you might need to pay. But with all that being said, that's enough to land Oracle at number two on our list. Coming in at number one on our list is Infor SEM. and Infor Cloud Suite, which we kind of lumped them together as one overall solution that can help with warehouse management, but it can also help with other aspects of your supply chain and your ERP needs as well. Now, Infor's WMS capabilities is something that we see often with companies really of all different sizes, primarily mid-market and larger organizations. It was built largely for manufacturing and distribution companies, so it has a bit of focus that some of the other systems in our top 10 list don't have. And one of the really cool things about the product that is very innovative is just the whole predictive analytics side of things. So they have built some great artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities that are meant to identify and anticipate some of the challenges you may face or some of the bottlenecks you may see in your warehouse management and your overall supply chain as well. So those are some of the things that make Infor CloudSuite and Infor SEM unique and different than some of the other systems in the marketplace. And it can also be a more cost-effective alternative to, say, SAP or Oracle or some of these bigger ERP solutions that might be suitable for larger organizations, but they can also be more expensive than might be needed. Now, some of the disadvantages on the functional side of things that we've heard and seen with our clients is one is document management. That seems to be an area that compared to other warehouse management systems in our top 10 list, document management isn't as strong as it could be. be. And another is stockout reporting. That's something that through our research and experience with clients, we found that stockout reporting is something that's not as strong as with other systems. But just like any system in our top 10 list, including the one that lands at number one in the case of Infor, you're going to have strengths and weaknesses. And the question becomes, are the strengths enough to overcome the weaknesses? But with all that being said, that's enough to land Infor, CloudSuite, and SCM at number one on our top 10 list. So this is our general top 10 list based on general criteria that we use from a technology agnostic perspective when evaluating different systems. But the key comes down to what is the best fit for you and what might be the best fit for you may be a terrible fit for another organization. So it's very important to really look at what are your priorities, what are your needs, and the reality is every organization is going to have a different top 10 list. And that's what we help our clients through every day. We're often recommending products that are nowhere to be found. to be found in our top 10 list, we're making those recommendations to clients. In other cases, we're making recommendations that are in our top 10 list. So it really depends on what your needs are, but this has hopefully given you a starting point of how to evaluate different systems in the market. And one of the big questions to ask yourself when evaluating potential WMS systems is, are you looking for specifically a WMS system, a warehouse management system, or are you looking for a warehouse management system plus other ERP capabilities, supply chain, financials? that sort of thing. And that one question and the answer to that one question might be enough to shake up or narrow down your short list from this top 10. So I encourage you to also download our 2021 ERP report. I've included a link to that below. It includes this along with other top 10 lists that we've accumulated over the years, a number of best practices for how to make your digital transformation more successful. And again, that's called the 2021 Digital Transformation Report. I've included a link to that in the description field. below. I also encourage you to check out some of the other links and resources I've provided to help you through your digital transformation journey. And finally, if you're looking for ideas or you want to brainstorm thoughts you have around WMS systems or digital transformation in general, feel free to reach out to me. I've included my contact information below. I hope you found this information useful and hope you have a great day.

My name is Eric Kimberling. I'm the CEO of Third Stage Consulting. We're an independent consulting firm that helps clients through their digital transformation journeys and companies that are looking to automate their warehouses and track inventory better and help manage fulfillment and throughput better than...

they have in the past are faced with a plethora of options out there. There's a lot of different technologies that can help automate operations, drive efficiency, drive scale, drive standardization, higher revenue, lower inventory, all that stuff that warehouses and distribution companies are typically looking for. looking for, but they have a lot of options out there to choose from. And so what I want to do today is talk about our independent ranking of the top 10 warehouse management systems in the marketplace.

Now, the way we developed our ranking of the top systems is based on independent criteria that's based on our experience with helping clients select and implement these different warehouse management systems. And it's also based on our research and other quantitative data in addition to qualitative data. So we look at things like average implementation cost, average risk. We look at...

functionality and the breadth of functionality. We look at the flexibility of the software. We look at the install base. A lot of different criteria were used in developing this top 10 list, but the key here is that no vendor influence affected this list. This is all based on third stages experience with these different systems.

So without further ado, let's jump into the top 10. Coming in at number 10 is Oracle NetSuite. Now, Oracle NetSuite is a warehouse management system, but it's also much more than that. It's a full-blown ERP system, and it's a very commonly used ERP system that's used particularly in the small and mid-market. They have over 10,000 customers using the product.

Some of the benefits of working with NetSuite or implementing NetSuite include the fact that, first of all, it's a SaaS-based solution. So it's one of the first ERP systems in the market, if not the first, that was built entirely in the cloud. the cloud built as a software as a service model, which makes implementation a bit easier and actually ensures that upgrades and other types of functionality are pushed out to customers sooner than companies using on-premise systems. One of the other advantages of NetSuite is that, as I mentioned before, it's used by a lot of small and mid-sized companies. So it has a level of simplicity that is beneficial to companies that are looking to make a leap from QuickBooks and other enterprises.

up to NetSuite, including NetSuite's warehouse management function. Now some of the downsides of NetSuite are, first of all, is that because it's a SaaS and cloud-based solution, it can be a bit less flexible than some of the more robust systems out there in the marketplace in terms of systems that allow more customization and configurability. The other disadvantage is that NetSuite isn't as well known in the warehouse management space as it is within financials and CRM. and some of the other capabilities that companies look for outside of warehouse management.

So if you're looking for a broad ERP system that can handle fairly vanilla needs across your enterprise, including your warehouse management, Oracle NetSuite can be a great fit for you. Coming in at number nine is a product called Softion. And I'll be honest, this is a product I hadn't heard of until recently. And it's a system that's been around for about 20 years.

There's a lot of companies that use it across the globe. Some larger organizations included, for example, Sears, which is a popular U.S. retailer, or at least it used to be a popular U.S. retailer, uses Softion as do some other organizations throughout the world. Now, the beauty of Softion is that it's focused primarily on warehouse management. So whereas Nets...

suite as we talked about in the number 10 slot and other systems in the marketplace that we'll talk about throughout our top 10. Some of those are focused on warehouse management plus other things. Softeon is more of a best of breed solution that focuses exclusively on warehouse management. So one of the benefits of Softeon in addition to being a best of breed solution for warehouse management is the fact that it integrates well with other systems.

So it's used to playing in a sandbox with other systems that handle other things that their software does not. So for example, material automation. That's something that it can integrate with other systems. And another benefit that we've seen with the product is that it can have a lower total cost of ownership when compared to other systems in the marketplace.

And then finally, one of the other advantages of Softeon is because it is a smaller vendor in terms of number of customers and just the size of the company, our customers that have used the product or evaluated the product have found that they get a little bit more attention from the vendor than you might get from some of the larger vendors in our top ten list. So there are two main disadvantages of the Softeon. First of all is that the product doesn't have a large install base or as large of an install base as some of the other systems.

the marketplace, which could be a good thing because on one hand, you're going to get more personalized service most likely. But on the other hand, it could be a negative because it's harder to find consultants that know the system. It's harder to find resellers and third parties that can help support the product. So that lack of an ecosystem or robust ecosystem like a lot of other vendors have can be a disadvantage for Softeon. And then the second disadvantage of Softeon is the fact that it only does warehouse management.

Even though it does warehouse management well, it doesn't do a lot of other things that organizations need, whether it's related to their supply chains or whether it's related to financials and CRM and human capital management and some of the other functions of their organization. But if you're looking for a very focused, best of. of breed solution that does warehouse management well, Softeon can be a great fit for you. Coming in at number eight is 3PL Central.

And like Softeon that we just talked about, 3PL Central is a warehouse management focused solution. So it's a best of breed solution that's built specifically for warehouse management, which can be a great thing if that all you're looking for that's all you need is warehouse management the difference with soft eon though is 3pl central tends to have a bit more robust capabilities so if you're a large organization a more complex organization or you have more complex warehouse management needs higher volumes, cross docking, things like that that might be a little bit more unique to your organization, 3PL Central can be a good fit for you. It handles a lot of those things that I mentioned, plus things like small parcels, high volumes, docking scheduling, a lot of those different things that might be a bit unique to your warehouse operations.

Now probably the biggest downside of 3PL is even though it's a bit more scalable, a little bit more robust, and has a greater breadth of capability within warehouse management than some of the other systems in our top 10 list, it is very focused on warehouse management. So if you're looking for a system that can do more than just warehouse management in other areas like supply chain, customer relationship management, human capital management, anything like that, there might be other products that are better for you in the top 10. But if you're looking for a really good warehouse management, best of breed solution, 3PL Central can be a great fit. So Microsoft Dynamics 365 is one of the most popular ERP systems or enterprise technologies, and it has fairly strong warehouse management capabilities. And if you're looking for a good warehouse management option, Microsoft Dynamics 365 can be a great option either as a standalone warehouse management system or even better yet as a full-blown ERP system. And D365 is something that's used by mid-market companies as well as some larger organizations, particularly those that have fairly vanilla.

warehouse management needs. So if you don't have anything super complex or crazy that you're trying to do within your warehouse operations, Microsoft D365 can be a great fit. Now another strength of Dynamics 365 is that it has that Microsoft look and feel that a lot of end users are used to.

And if you're a Microsoft shop, that can be a plus. It also has a good deal of flexibility. So if you're looking to change the software to really mold and fit to how your operations run today, that could be a good thing, although it could also be a negative.

thing because it could be an excuse not to change or not to leverage software technology. But in general, if you're looking for something that's flexible, Dynamics 365 can be a great fit. And it also handles broader supply chain needs even outside the warehouse. So when you think about things like e-commerce and order fulfillment in general, certainly when you talk about order management and creating work orders and that sort of thing, D365 can handle not just the warehouse management side of things, but other.

things related to your supply chain, as well as even areas outside of your supply chain as it relates to CRM and HCM and whatnot. Now, the downsides of Microsoft D365 are twofold. One is that it's not the most robust warehouse management system out there.

There's others in the top 10 that can handle some of the more complex nuances of warehouse operations than D365. But if you have a fairly vanilla warehouse and you're not doing anything super unique or complex, it can be a good fit. And then the other challenge is that it's not the most robust warehouse management system challenge with D365, not just for warehouse management, for ERP and the technology in general, is that they have a very loose control or lack of control over their reseller network.

So there's a lot of different companies out there that are selling the software, implementing the software, and there's a lot of good companies out there that can implement effectively, and there's a lot of really bad ones out there. that can't implement very effectively. So if you do choose this product and find that this product is a good fit for you, you'll want to spend a little bit extra time making sure you vet out and find the best implementation partners.

So with all that being said, that's enough to land Microsoft Dynamics at number seven on our list. SAP S4 HANA is oftentimes considered one of the gold standards for larger organizations, especially companies that are either manufacturing or distribution types of organizations. And the reason for that is because it was largely built for manufacturing distribution companies way back when.

when the software and the technology was first developed, and S4 HANA is no different. S4 HANA has a knack for being able to deal with highly scalable, complex types of organizations, diverse organizations with different types of needs. throughout the companies. So if you have a large complex supply chain with a number of different warehouses spread out throughout the world or even throughout the same country, SAP S4 HANA can be a good fit for you. Now the downside of S4 HANA is first of all the cost.

If you're a smaller mid-size organization, chances are that S4 HANA might be a bit of overkill for you. It might be too much or more than you need and you might end up paying more than you should for a warehouse management system. Secondly, S4 HANA is rarely implemented as just a a warehouse management system. So in order for it to make sense as your warehouse management solution, it's probably going to be suitable to look at beyond warehouse management into other more ERP focused areas, things like financials, inventory management, CRM, HCM, etc.

And then finally, like a lot of vendors that are making that transition from on-premise systems to cloud, S4 HANA is still a work in progress. So there's still a lot of functionality that they're trying to bring over. from their legacy systems. They had a couple legacy systems that were on-prem primarily, one being ECC and the other one being R3.

Some of that functionality was very mature and robust and had benefited from lots of R&D dollars over the years. And a lot of that functionality is still being migrated over to S4 HANA. So if you're looking at S4 HANA, it's very important to make sure you poke holes in it, fully understand what you're getting, and understand the limitations and capabilities of S4 HANA.

But if you're looking for something that's got some breadth and scalability, and especially if you're a larger organization, S4 HANA can be a great fit for your warehouse management operations. Coming in at number five is Manhattan Associates. And this product is another one that's very focused and hyper-focused on warehouse management and doing warehouse management better than a lot of other systems out there. And it's a product that's used by a lot of larger organizations.

So whereas. some of the other best-of-breed warehouse management systems were more suitable for smaller mid-size organizations. Manhattan Associates is actually a bit more scalable. It can handle more complex warehouse operations, and it can handle the needs of larger organizations better than some of the other organizations. of the others in our top 10 list.

We find that Manhattan Associates is very commonly used in food, beverage, grocery, retail, and even omni-channel types of situations. Those tend to be just a few examples of where the product tends to thrive and fit best. And it's also built on the .NET platform, which if you're not a technical person, the way to simplify it is it's a very open architecture. It's easy to integrate with other systems. So if you're implementing Manhattan Associates, but you've already got an ERP system for your back office office, operations to handle your financials and whatnot.

So for example, if you're using SAP or Oracle or Microsoft Dynamics already within your core back office operations, it can be a lot easier to integrate with third-party ERP systems or other types of systems than other options in our top 10 list. Now probably the biggest downsides for Manhattan Associates is first of all, it can be overkill. If you're a small or mid-sized company or if you just have pretty simple warehouse operations, it might be a bit much for you. It might be too expensive, too complex. and there's other options that might be a better fit for you.

And the other downside is that most of their implementations are run through the company Manhattan Associates, which sort of limits your options in terms of implementation partners. So whereas many others in our top 10 list have multiple ways that you can implement, multiple third parties you can turn to to implement the solution, Manhattan Associates tends to run most of the implementations through their organization. But despite these downsides, if you look at the strengths versus the weaknesses, that's enough to land Manhattan Associates at number one. number five on our list. Fishbowl comes in at number four on our list, and Fishbowl is one of a handful on our top 10 list that is A, focused on warehouse management and nothing else, and B, built primarily for small and mid-sized organizations and their warehouse operations.

So Fishbowl has a number of strengths functionality-wise that can help automate your operations and ensure that your warehouse operations are handled effectively and efficiently. And one of the other advantages of Fishbowl is we find that a lot of our clients who are using other ERP systems are using Fishbowl as a way to plug the gap between what their ERP systems warehouse software can or can't do. Fishbowl can be a great way to plug that gap if you've got an ERP system that doesn't handle warehouse management well. Now on the flip side, some of the downsides of using Fishbowl is first of all, like some of the other systems in our top 10 list, it's not the best for large... larger and more complex organizations with more diverse warehouse management needs.

So if you're looking for pretty complex and robust global supply chain and warehouse management capabilities, there's probably better options in our top 10 list than Fishbowl. And the other disadvantage is that, as I mentioned before, it's also a strength in that Fishbowl is focused primarily on warehouse management. So if you're looking for something that can handle broader capabilities outside of your warehouse, Fishbowl is not the right answer. You would need some other sort of ear. ERP system to bolt on top of that.

But with all that being said, that's enough to land Fishbowl at number four on our top 10 list. Coming in at number three is HiJump, which was recently acquired by Korber, which is another company that focuses on warehouse management, supply chain management. And it's a product that is focused on warehouse management.

It's a best of breed solution. It's built for companies that aren't getting what they need out of their their ERP systems in terms of their warehouse needs. In fact, we have a lot of clients that are using HiJump with their Microsoft D365 implementations, for example, or other types of ERP systems that don't do warehouse management well.

HiJump can be a great fit. Now, one of the benefits of HiJump, in addition to being focused exclusively on warehouse management, is that even though it's more commonly used by small and especially mid-market companies, is that now that they're partnered with or owned by Corber... So Corber has other solutions that can provide additional and broader, more complex capabilities if you're a larger organization. So if you're looking for things like complex shipping, vessel, port management, things related to transportation, overall logistics, not just the warehouse itself, but other related business processes, Corber has the capabilities that can plug in with HiJump to help provide those capabilities. Now, the biggest downside of HiJump is the price tag.

We found. that clients have been concerned with the price relative to the value of the product, at least when it compared to other warehouse management systems in our top 10 list. But with the caveat that if it's a great fit for your organization, it gives you what you need, you probably will be able to prove the ROI on that.

But if you can find another system out there at a lower price tag that can have comparable fit with what your needs are, there might be better fits out there. And secondly, if you're a large organization with fairly complex needs, again, like is the case with a lot of the... options in the top 10 list.

There might be other systems out there that are better equipped to deal with the more complex needs. But like I said as well, the caveat to that is that now that HighJump is owned by Corber, there's other solutions and bolt-ons that can fit together to scale as you grow as an organization. So all that being said is enough to land HighJump at number three on our list. Coming in at number two is Oracle WMS Cloud combined with Oracle ERP Cloud. And even if you're looking for just a WMS solution, Oracle can provide more than just warehouse management, but it is very strong in that area of warehouse.

management, particularly if you're looking to integrate or bolt on other capabilities outside of your warehouse management. And when compared to some of the other big ERP systems in our top 10 list, systems like SAP, for example, you're going to find that Oracle WMS is going to be more flexible and have more flexibility in general than some of the other systems in our top 10 list. And as I mentioned, Oracle can do more than just WMS.

If you need help with financials and CRM and talent management, some of these other capabilities that are required to automate an entire enterprise, Oracle's ERP cloud can be a good complementary factor when considering Oracle WMS. Now, the other strength that Oracle WMS has and Oracle's product suite in general has is that it's very strong in analytics and reporting. So if that's something that's very important to you and you're really striving for better business intelligence and reporting and analytics, Oracle can be a great solution for you.

Now the downside of the Oracle product suite is that they, like some of the other systems in the marketplace, are still making that migration to the cloud. So Oracle has been very successful in the on-premise world historically. So they had a product called business suite, for example, that included some pretty robust warehouse management capabilities. And that functionality is still being moved over largely to the cloud versions of WMS and ERP.

So that's something to keep in mind as you're evaluating Oracle's product suite. Make sure you fully understand what is or isn't included in terms of capabilities in the systems that you're evaluating. And it may be that you need to go to one of the legacy Oracle products to plug some of those gaps if needed. But regardless, it's important to to understand that trade-off.

And then the other downside would be that if you're a smaller, mid-sized organization, Oracle, just as the case with SAP, may be overkill for your organization. It might be more money and more total cost of ownership than what you might be equipped or what you might need to pay. But with all that being said, that's enough to land Oracle at number two on our list. Coming in at number one on our list is Infor SEM.

and Infor Cloud Suite, which we kind of lumped them together as one overall solution that can help with warehouse management, but it can also help with other aspects of your supply chain and your ERP needs as well. Now, Infor's WMS capabilities is something that we see often with companies really of all different sizes, primarily mid-market and larger organizations. It was built largely for manufacturing and distribution companies, so it has a bit of focus that some of the other systems in our top 10 list don't have. And one of the really cool things about the product that is very innovative is just the whole predictive analytics side of things.

So they have built some great artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities that are meant to identify and anticipate some of the challenges you may face or some of the bottlenecks you may see in your warehouse management and your overall supply chain as well. So those are some of the things that make Infor CloudSuite and Infor SEM unique and different than some of the other systems in the marketplace. And it can also be a more cost-effective alternative to, say, SAP or Oracle or some of these bigger ERP solutions that might be suitable for larger organizations, but they can also be more expensive than might be needed.

Now, some of the disadvantages on the functional side of things that we've heard and seen with our clients is one is document management. That seems to be an area that compared to other warehouse management systems in our top 10 list, document management isn't as strong as it could be. be. And another is stockout reporting. That's something that through our research and experience with clients, we found that stockout reporting is something that's not as strong as with other systems.

But just like any system in our top 10 list, including the one that lands at number one in the case of Infor, you're going to have strengths and weaknesses. And the question becomes, are the strengths enough to overcome the weaknesses? But with all that being said, that's enough to land Infor, CloudSuite, and SCM at number one on our top 10 list. So this is our general top 10 list based on general criteria that we use from a technology agnostic perspective when evaluating different systems.

But the key comes down to what is the best fit for you and what might be the best fit for you may be a terrible fit for another organization. So it's very important to really look at what are your priorities, what are your needs, and the reality is every organization is going to have a different top 10 list. And that's what we help our clients through every day. We're often recommending products that are nowhere to be found. to be found in our top 10 list, we're making those recommendations to clients.

In other cases, we're making recommendations that are in our top 10 list. So it really depends on what your needs are, but this has hopefully given you a starting point of how to evaluate different systems in the market. And one of the big questions to ask yourself when evaluating potential WMS systems is, are you looking for specifically a WMS system, a warehouse management system, or are you looking for a warehouse management system plus other ERP capabilities, supply chain, financials?

that sort of thing. And that one question and the answer to that one question might be enough to shake up or narrow down your short list from this top 10. So I encourage you to also download our 2021 ERP report. I've included a link to that below. It includes this along with other top 10 lists that we've accumulated over the years, a number of best practices for how to make your digital transformation more successful.

And again, that's called the 2021 Digital Transformation Report. I've included a link to that in the description field. below.

I also encourage you to check out some of the other links and resources I've provided to help you through your digital transformation journey. And finally, if you're looking for ideas or you want to brainstorm thoughts you have around WMS systems or digital transformation in general, feel free to reach out to me. I've included my contact information below. I hope you found this information useful and hope you have a great day.

Transcript for:Top Warehouse Management Systems Reviewed

Transcript for:
Top Warehouse Management Systems Reviewed