Can Your Current Enterprise Resource Planning or Warehouse Management System Handel E-Fulfillment?

Offline retailers already have legacy systems which have over a period of time become robust to meet business requirements, but these processes may not be ideal for e-fulfillment from both a hardware and a software point of view.

Read in this article 11 points we recommend considering about your ERP / WMS when going online to find out if your current system is ready to go.

11 points to consider when evaluating your current ERP or WMS system

In the online environment, where speed is critical throughout the supply chain and businesses need to provide seamless integration throughout their logistics systems, your existing ERP or WMS may prove to bottleneck and stifle progress. Here are 11 points we recommend considering when evaluating your existing ERP or WMS for the new online channel:

1. System speed: How fast is your system input/output process? This can have big impacts on turnaround time (TAT) and employee time-management. Assess this factor through optimisation and multi-dimensional analysis.
2. Connectivity & visibility: Information must flow at each step in the supply chain with all involved to deliver a transparent and seamless customer experience. The main system function should be to provide product availability to customers anywhere/anytime.
3. Inventory accuracy: Ability to provide a wide choice of product types and services helps you maximize online sales, but creates a need for a flexible supply chain to fulfill orders. Do you have the right strategies in place to forecast and meet fluctuating demand?
4. Integration capability with existing systems: Can your current systems integrate with your online shopping cart? This is especially important for inventory updates since goods are being sold through multiple channels. It is crucial to provide automated and regular inventory updates to the online shopping cart so your customers avoid disappointment.
5. Integration capability with your partner’s systems: If there are many partners involved in your e-fulfillment chain, your system should be able to ‘talk to their system’ to get real-time feeds on each step in the supply chain.
6. Flexibility & agility: E-fulfillment is a fast-changing environment and there are new models evolving in this space. Does your existing system have the needed flexibility to adopt to new models? How much customisation is possible? How fast can you make these changes? Can it easily adopt technologies ranging from bar-coding, paperless picking, RFID etc.?
7. Returns handling: With a much higher percentage compared to offline, returns handling becomes a critical functionality to have in your system. You cannot afford to handle them outside of your system and/or in a different one.
8. Performance measurement: Your system’s ability to measure the performance of each process will assist you to enhance effectiveness, improve efficiency and reduce the cycle time. Even a small process should be map-able and measureable so improvements can be made. Many times these are not considered important enough to be measured in the offline environment.
9. Reports & analytics: Detailed reports and analytics are crucial features to have in your system if you are serious about competing in the e-fulfillment space. Your system should be able to generate reports and provide intelligent inputs to ensure that you get more website traffic, acquire customers and retain loyalty.
10. Supporting hardware: With so many requirements on performance efficiency, the check and evaluation of existing hardware for its ability to support the software is not to be missed.
11. Expenditure vs. buying new system: Do you have the existing resources to purchase an e-fulfillment system or should you focus on upgrading the existing ERP/WMS?

What you need to do for your business

Taking all above requirements into consideration, it does not come as a surprise that online retail gurus mention technology as the number one driver of e-fulfillment as a business. As much as we wish your existing ERP or WMS to have these functionalities, many times they don’t. Any new system that you wish to buy must pass these checks as well. Learn more about how e-fulfillment can affect your business here.Are you currently trying to find out if your ERP or WMS system can handle e-fulfillment?

Contact BCR’s e-fulfillment experts who can help you in evaluate the suitability of your existing or new ERP or WMS system for your online business model.