The Many Reasons to Go With a Cloud Based WMS
Fulfilling customer orders on time and maintaining a smooth workflow depend on the efficiency of your warehouse management system. There are comprehensive software solutions available for this today. And businesses choose them mainly to streamline their inventory planning, tracking, inventory picking and other processes. This helps them cut down costs and improve the efficiency of workflow. And to make things even more future-proof one other idea will be to go for a cloud based WMS. This adds a layer of sophistication to the warehouse management system by moving the critical data to the cloud. Below are a few benefits of choosing a cloud based integration of WMS.
Cloud Based Warehouse Management Benefits
1. Forget about additional hardware costs
One main fear that most businesses have when they have to implement new technologies will be the added expenditure involved in buying the essential hardware setup. From additional memory to devices that help execute the implementation, there are a lot of hardware costs involved. But with cloud WMS you cut down these costs.
2. Data accessibility
When it comes to cloud WMS you do not have to worry about data access. Unlike traditional systems where all the data is in a physical server, in cloud systems the data is stored in the cloud. Businesses add restricted access based on which different teams in the business can access different types of data or edit them. And this can happen from anywhere and at any time. All it takes is to have access to the database. One does not have to worry about being present in the warehouse physically in order to access the required information.
3. Flexibility to scale
One of the main reasons businesses go with cloud WMS is the ease of scaling these implementations. When you have to expand an in-house WSM system you will have to think about adding the required hardware in order to support the expansion. This comes with a time delay as well. But with cloud WMS you might be able to scale without trouble. You can add storage at an additional cost without any time delay. The transition will also be smooth in this case.
4. Better security and data backup
One of the main disadvantages of a local WMS system will be the reliance on a single set of hardware components for the entire process. As a result, you should have a strong data backup plan in place. Otherwise, data recovery post a disaster will be a huge problem. With cloud based WMS, it becomes possible to add authorizations for different teams in order to prevent internal data leaks. And automatic data backups can also be scheduled. So, there is better data security and the data management process on the whole becomes more robust.
Implementing a cloud based WMS might appear like a slightly more expensive option in the early stages. But considering the hardware costs and the hardware operation and maintenance costs that you can eliminate, cloud WMS might be a more cost-effective option. In fact, with a personalized cloud WMS you continue to save a lot of money in the long run.
