Supply Chain Technology

Heard in the Channel: Buyers Say They Need to Automate, Organize

July 21, 2014

New study on supply chain management software trends points to growing demand for warehouse management solutions and the need to automate and organize business processes.

Global Purchasing Staff

Many buyers are looking for supply chain management software solutions that better manage their warehouse functions and automate other key business processes, according to a recent study from software research and reviews service Software Advice. The study asked buyers in a range of industries about key supply chain software trends, including top reasons companies are seeking new software and the most desired features. Key findings include:

Warehouse management was the top requested application among buyers (50%), followed by transportation management and procurement.
Most buyers are looking for a best-of-breed solution, but remain undecided on deployment model.
Nearly 40% of prospective buyers said they were evaluating systems because of their need to automate and organize processes within their businesses.

The study found that buyers are using a variety of methods to manage their supply chain needs. Fifteen percent of buyers said they currently use an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and another 14% reported using a warehouse management system (WMS) that is either outdated or lacks the functionality they need today. Accounting software alone (18%) or in tandem with a spreadsheet application (7%) was the next most-cited method for managing supply chain operations.

Another 18 percent of buyers said they were using manual methods—which often referred to pen and paper—to manage their supply chain operations. And 14 percent of buyers said they were using another software system, such as a database management or point-of-sale (POS) system, to manage operations. Nine percent of buyers said they were using spreadsheets alone—the least common method—to manage their supply chain operations, while less than 5 percent said they were not using any tools for supply chain management at all.

More than half of the companies Software Advice surveyed were small companies, with fewer than 100 employees. Visit the Software Advice website for more information.

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