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Budget. The costs associated with building custom software as complex as a modern WMS can quickly mount. Established, vendor- based solutions are generally more cost-effective and easier to implement, making better economic sense than using dedicated internal resources. Less disruption. Expert WMS vendors understand your business and will take the time to help you plan the roll-out of the WMS, whether it's a phased approach or accomplished in one fell swoop. This ensures the minimum amount of disruption to existing processes, and gives warehouse staff an opportunity to gradually become familiar with new processes. Competitive advantage. One of the major benefits of any WMS solution will come from its ability to streamline all inventory- handling processes. From receiving and slotting to picking, packing and shipping, the WMS makes every point of the process faster, easier, more efficient, more accurate, and more traceable. For distributors and small businesses these advantages cannot be overestimated, particularly if your competitors are not using a WMS. Scalability and flexibility. Most WMS solutions offer incredible scalability to meet the needs of a changing organization. They can easily adapt to the implementation of additional equipment such as conveyors or carousels, and they can be given new functionality — such as inbound transportation management — through regular upgrades or additional modules. WMS solutions have been tried and tested. When it comes to inventory management and ecommerce fulfilment, there are very few truly unique warehousing operations today. Most companies have similar processes and requirements that have already been considered. By adopting a tried, tested and trusted solution, your business will benefit from industry standards and best practices that won't require you to reinvent the wheel. If your company has internal software resources, taking WMS development in-house can seem like a very attractive option. If the software team doesn't fully understand how to support the business objectives through development WMS software tools, the results will unlikely meet your expectations. WMS software typically isn't cheap, but neither is designing your own proprietary, custom- built software.

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