Warehouse Management systems and software, with their proven business and commercial benefits, are at the heart of driving the country’s most efficient warehouse and distribution operations. Previously they were only easily accessible to those with deep pockets and a masochistic tendency for business pain.

Gavin-ClarkGavin Clark, Commercial Director, Synergy Logistics Ltd – Provider of the Snapfulfil SaaS WMS, spoke to Warehouse & Logistics News.

WLN – So what’s different about Snapfulfil?

With true SaaS like Snapfulfil there are no run-away implementation costs, no protracted projects, just the solution you need for one simple monthly fee. By packaging the software licence, essential RF hardware, access infrastructure and services, along with the implementation services and training into a solution with NO CAPEX required, your business immediately benefits from driving through savings, increased service levels and in nearly all cases an instant ROI.

WLN – As the Warehouse Management Systems category experts, how has the category been performing in the last 12 months? What are the major trends and developments?

The industry has been very busy in 2014. We have seen a lot of new product launches, from existing vendors and new entrants to the market place. The consolidation of the past couple of years, where large finance software vendors have gobbled up smaller WMS independents have created a great deal of movement, both in personnel and clients.

We have seen the most movement around hardware options, the launch of many new Android™ based HHTs are really offering the end users a lot more flexibility with lightweight and easier to handle devices for their operations teams. With more to come next year, the ‘brick on a stick’ is really seeing a decline.

Also, the market confidence is booming. We are seeing many more enquiries over last year, with many from company’s looking to replace low-end paper based WMS systems, or to move to much larger premises and know they need a better control system than they currently have.

WLN – What are your core products and services: what are you best known for providing?

We are specialists in Software as a Service WMS and have been continuously developing that system to meet the needs of our busy eCommerce and 3PL clients throughout 2014.

WLN – Does a SaaS WMS have the same range of features as on-premise WMS? Do they perform as quickly and in a way that is as user-friendly?

The simple answer to this question is “of course”, but a more detailed answer would really be “of course, but it depends on the system and setup.”

Some on-premise systems may be feature rich, but deployed on poor networks, or from inferior IT servers. Maybe the RF network is badly configured or the HHTs are old/cheap technology. Any business solution is only as good as its component parts. When choosing a WMS solution, you can effectively forget the deployment method; the important parts are functionality, quality of HHT and RF provision, Project Management experience and attention to customer service once installed.

If you are considering cloud/SaaS then you must consider the bandwidth available to connect to the internet of course, but this should only be a serious concern if the connection is very poor, or if software isn’t optimised for web deployment.

WLN – What developments or upgrades have you made to your core products and services in the last 12 months?

We have improved the core system with more ERP integrations and connections to courier labelling systems, along with some very exciting work on faster implementation methods like ‘Agile’. Late this year and early 2015 will see our clients migrated to the most powerful corporate level data centre platform we have ever used.

Few businesses could justify the use of a large scale, virtualised data centre, with hundreds of processor cores, SSD disks 24 hour security, diesel power generator backup and load balancing business servers dedicated to the provision of the WMS, but with the SaaS Model, this investment of Tens of thousands of pounds per month is shared across the user base, effectively delivering a high powered IT platform for far lower cost to the users.

Cloud-Computing---LargeWLN – How do your customers know a pay-as-you-go operating expense model will not prove more expensive than a fixed cost capital-intensive business model over the long term?

This is a common myth, but often fails to take into account all of the real costs of owning a WMS. When a company purchases a perpetual licence, this often requires on-going maintenance and support. If that rate is 20%, then the company is effectively purchasing the licence again every 5 years. This 5 year term will often require an upgrade to the IT Server hardware and hand held devices, which can create a new investment requirement of same magnitude as the initial costs for deployment and more..

Finally, as many people will tell you from bitter experience, the business ‘cost’ of choosing the wrong system can far outweigh the financial costs involved. If a business chooses the wrong on-premise system, it was misrepresented during the sale process, or poorly delivered by the project team then no matter what, that business is stuck with that poor system for many years and the ‘savings’ will soon disappear.

If that system circumstance occurs with a subscription model, the vendor will be highly motivated to resolve the issue or they will lose money when their client simply selects another SaaS system.

As Benjamin Franklin once wrote “The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten”

WLN – What makes you the ‘go to’ supplier in your area of expertise?

Customer Service. With the software as a service model, we have to focus on service or our customers will leave us. Our major competitors focus on sales and implementation revenues, especially those owned by VC backed businesses. As the client has invested huge sums of money, or signed up for long term agreements, the service levels can fall off, Snapfulfil is different! We focus on the success of our clients, as we share in their achievements with increased users numbers and more renewals.

WLN – Have you launched any new products and services in the past year? How are they performing?

We previewed our new PTL trolley, taking the power of pick to light and combining it with multi-order picking trolleys to provide the order pickers with almost hands-free, ultra-accurate picking.

The full launch isn’t until next year, but the interest has already been very high and several existing clients are keen to begin pilot programs very soon.

WLN – Which industry sectors are your customers in?

Our main sectors are Retail (mainly consumer goods via the eCommerce and high street channels) Wholesale Distribution and Third Party Logistics, but we have clients in Manufacturing and even a ‘Big 6’ Public Utilities company.

Applause

WLN – What was your company’s single biggest achievement in the last year?

The biggest achievements in the past year have been helping SSE to increase their operational efficiency by over 45% and still with more to some, rolling out Snapfulfil across one of the country’s largest home furnishing retailers busy warehouse locations, with more to come in 2015 and helping VAX move from two sites to one purpose built 400,000 square foot site, including real time integration with Linde’s latest VNA trucks.

WLN – What are your plans for 2015? Are you planning to bring out any more products or services, move into new markets or enter new countries?

We have some very exciting developments due out in 2015, allowing our clients to increase their business intelligence, use the WMS across virtually all platforms/tablets and to fully launch the new PTL trolley. With a number of more secret developments too, 2015 promises to be our best ever year in the UK and the US.

Phone: 0845 463 7627

Email: sales@snapfulfil.com

Web: www.snapfulfil.com

Twitter: @Snapfulfil

Facebook: Snapfulfil-SaaS-WMS

LinkedIn: Snapfulfil-SaaS-WMS

Comments are closed.