Cloud-based WMS creates opportunities and efficiencies for 3PL

SCI Logistics is a supply chain solutions provider whose logistics business is expanding rapidly to smaller clients that occupy between 25,000 square feet and 500,000 square feet. Managers found that typical e-commerce clients often require quick implementation.

Previously, the warehouse management system (WMS) had to be configured and modified according to clients’ requirements for each unique use instance. Patrick A. Ressa, CIO of SCI Logistics, says the previous system required lots of back-end transactions that required detailed setup of the warehouses, plants and hierarchies. The new software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution (Logfire, logfire.com) requires an initial setup taking six to 11 weeks, and multiple clients may be added to one usage instance—whether they are in the same building or not.

“In the e-commerce space,” Ressa says, “you want to get to small clients, since that’s where the growth is. We can now group tens to hundreds of clients.”

Each subsequent onboarding takes no more than two weeks. By transitioning to a cloud-based WMS, the company is able to use the system with no additional hardware or infrastructure, while substantial process improvements were a result of the ability to blend orders from multiple clients. Previously, a facility with two clients would run two instances of the WMS, meaning it could not send pickers to both customers at the same time.

“To launch something of that magnitude could take three months,” Ressa says. “We wanted to onboard customers quickly, but it ended up being even easier than we had hoped.”

Ressa says that by the end of the year, SCI aims to have 10 facilities across Canada operating under one instance of the new cloud-based system. It will also continue to use the legacy WMS for facilities serving larger clients.

“They’re kind of reinventing an old world,” Ressa said of the software supplier. “WMS has been around a while, but they’ve added a new flavor. That was a pleasant surprise. And the fact that it’s SaaS takes a lot of headaches out of our business in terms of back end hardware while improving execution times.”