The other warehouse management system (WMS) market

Modern Materials Handling - Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Bob Trebilcock

Not everyone needs a Tier 1 warehouse management system from a Top 10 provider. For those who don't, there are dozens of alternative providers with their own approach to the market.

Think WMS (warehouse management system) and most warehouse and logistics professionals think of leading best-of-breed providers like Manhattan Associates (770-955-7070) and RedPrairie (877-733-7724) or ERP giants like SAP (800-872-1727) and Oracle (800-633-0738).

There's a reason those companies are warehousehold names: They excel at meeting the high-throughput rates and complex order fulfillment requirements demanded by Tier 1 companies. That's why Modern Materials Handling publishes an annual list of the top supply chain management and execution providers.

Not every supplier, however, is a Tier 1, and not every user needs that level of functionality. "If I'm a smaller company, I may not want to pay for a solution that includes a lot of functionality I don't need," says Steve Banker, service director for supply chain management at ARC Advisory Group (781-471-1000).

In fact, there's another WMS market running parallel to the top best-of-breed providers that specializes in meeting the needs of smaller companies as well as targeted industry verticals... Read More