When we last checked in with entrepreneur Matias Zeledon, he was building an integrated inventory management system for Down to Earth, his Costa-Rica based coffee and gifts mail order company. “The challenge in the creation of this system is to be able to integrate the different order/reorder time periods, ranging from 12 hours to two months,” Matias wrote in the Advisor on Dec. 21. “The software system that we are designing needs to also keep track of the promotional materials and the packaging materials.” A tough goal—but not one that’s impossible to achieve, says software expert Ron Hounsell of Cadre Technologies. Ron sent us the following suggestions:
“I had a few thoughts on Matias’ fulfillment article. As he seems to have rightly observed, he needs more than the traditional WMS suite, but does not need an ERP. His design, if he’s building it himself, should rely on a single database, regardless of the range of functions involved. This is the best path to flexibility, speed, and data visibility—all premium features for any mission-critical application today.
“Cutting-edge software developers know this and are already building applications that work this way. (I read recently in a Forrester report that 56% of all software developers now use .NET as their primary development platform). Depending on where he is in the process, Matias might want to ask (or revisit) the “build or buy” question: Why not take advantage of what’s already been learned?
“Also, whatever he invests in, the scope of the WMS suite is blurring boundaries in the same way fulfillment/distribution/wholesale operator category boundaries continue to blur and overlap. Thinking strategically, he will want to be able to integrate order entry (including Web access), voice, RF, activity costing and billing, and maybe even RFID into the fold—this is where the WMS package product is headed.”
Do you agree? What advice would you give Matias? Let us know! Write to [email protected].