The logistics and transportation industry is not limited just by big TUI lines and freight brokers’ services. Today, its principles are implemented in almost every business. And lots of business owners adhere to the principles of supply chain management aka SCM. Especially for this, it is reasonable to use digital solutions like ERP. Let’s discuss in detail what is ERP for supply chain management using the experience in the development of such products by RexSoft.
- ERP System for Supply Chain Management: What Is It and What Problems It Can Solve
Let’s start with supply chain management itself. What is it? SCM (Supply Chain Management) is a concept and management strategy, which consists of an integrated approach to managing the entire flow of information about raw materials, products, services that arise and are transformed during the implementation of logistics and production processes at the enterprise. The goal of this strategy is to obtain a measurable cumulative economic effect that includes cost reduction, the satisfaction of demand for final products, etc.
For its implementation, there are three main types of systems that can be developed and used:
- SCM system as-is.
- On-shelve ERP system that includes some features for SCM.
- Custom ERP systems that are adjusted for the goals of a certain enterprise.
With a proper ERP, you can easily gain the following goals:
- Create a safe and transparent environment where all the logistics processes are controlled.
- Provide customers with up-to-date information about transportation and delivery.
- Implement all the chain links of SCM in a logical way.
Besides, you can set your own goals when you apply for supply chain management ERP development services. In RexSoft, we start with collecting the maximum information about your expectations from ERP and the specifics of your company to adhere to them.
- Essential Features for Supply Chain Management ERP System
What features should ERP for supply chain management have in its essence? There are several of them we consider to be significant.
- Providing fast and precise tracking of every vehicle.
- Collecting information about all transportation processes.
- Providing analytics for the company’s CEO.
- Using both web and mobile applications to provide the full-fledged working process with ERP.
- Providing high usability and performance.
- Possibility of scaling the ERP in the future.
- Integration with other software products used in the enterprise i.e. CRM, HRS, etc.
- Supply Chain ERP Software for Logistics: Ready-Made vs Custom
When it comes to the choice of ERP for supply chain management, the owner of the company faces two options to select from. These are ready-made products and custom ones. Each option has its own advantages and disadvantages. So let’s go deeper into this question.
- Ready-Made ERP SCM
Some development agencies and big IT companies offer on-shelve solutions for the logistics and transportation industry. These ready-made products can be useful in case you have to solve quite a common problem with your supply chain management strategy.
- Advantages
As for advantages of ready-made products, they are as follows:
- Standard interface that suits all businesses at once.
- Simple integration with other software products.
- All-in-one functionality.
- Lower price than for custom ERP products.
- Disadvantages
There is a fly in the ointment as well.
- Ready-made products will be useless if you have some specific problems to solve with your ERP for the supply chain management.
- As there are lots of functions developed at once, some of them will be useless for you as well but you’ll pay for them.
- A unified interface is sometimes not a win-win solution.
- Custom ERP SCM
As usual, medium-scaled and small businesses avoid applying for custom ERP development. The main idea for this is the high price for such customized software. Yet, when we talk about supply chains, it is custom ERP for SCM that will be the most efficient solution.
- Advantages
- Custom ERP will meet all your expectations as well as the problems you need to solve with its help.
- It is easier to scale up a custom ERP than ready-made ones.
- When you need to integrate your supply chain management ERP with other products you use in your enterprise, the custom option will be easier for integration and implementation.
- Disadvantages
As for custom ERP disadvantages, there are only two of them to consider.
- It requires more time for its development.
- It costs more than ready-made solutions.
Let’s focus on ERP costs to get more information on whether it really costs too much.
- Custom ERP for Supply Chain Management Costs: a Real Case Example
As in RexSoft, we have already faced several projects connected with ERP for supply chain management development, we can provide you with the most accurate info about calculations of its estimate.
When we worked on the project for second-hand vehicles transportation it took us over 3 to 4 months to provide our customers with turnkey services.
The team that worked on the project consisted of the PM, the architect, UX/UI designer, front-end developers, back-end developers, and QA. Their total work lasted for 1110 hours. Besides the number of hours spent by a dedicated team, we should also take into account the following features:
- The type of technology used,
- After-care services (support and maintenance),
- Teaching the staff on how to work with the ERP.
In total, a product of that kind costs $40,000. That is not the ultimate rate as everything depends on the specifics of the product you want to get.
- Bespoke ERP for Supply Chain Management Examples by RexSoft
There are several more cases of bespoke ERP development for SCM we’ve developed in recent years. Let’s take a brief look at them.
- iMover
The main goal of that ERP product we’ve worked on was to ease the communication process between moving company’s employees and their customers. We decided to use video content as the way to provide a mover with the necessary info about the future work. The customer is welcome to shoot short videos and send them via an app to the mover. Based on them, the customer gets a quote on his future move. For the company itself, ERP provides more functions. It allows to aggregate customers’ communications and orders as well as to control their performance and provide documentary support by generating contracts, reports, and bills.
For that project, we’ve combined on-shelve solutions with our custom ones to get a perfect match. In that project, web and mobile apps were designed to work similarly. Besides, we’ve managed to use 4 technologies at once including Laravel PHP and React JS along with Amazon Web Services and Cloudflare DNS.
- Brokcars
One more product we are proud of is Brokcars ERP for the supply chain management. That service is intended for the transportation of second-hand cars to a customer. Its features include the communication between the customer and the dispatcher, including signing up a request, tracking the transportation by a driver, checking out all the processes by a dispatcher, planning future transportations as well. To implement all these chain links in the ERP, we use three main technologies that are Flutter, Node JS, and React Native. Due to the thorough work of the dedicated team, the product gained success and today it saves time for a business owner. It took over 1110 hours to launch the product yet this time was required for a thorough implementation of all the functions as well as testing it for all the possible drawbacks to exclude them.
The same product in the field of ERP for supply chain management you can get for your unique business goals. You are welcome to apply for RexSoft’s services of SCM ERP development at any time you wish.
- FAQ
Q: Can I manage supply chains without any ERP?
A: Today, it is hard to implement the whole SCM process without digital solutions. Maybe, in terms of small businesses with a few logistics operations per month, it is real, yet in medium-scale and large businesses, it is unreal to cope with all the processes without ERP.
Q: What impacts the cost of SCM ERP products?
A: There are several features that impact the total cost of the product. They are both inner and outer. We consider being inner features the following ones: the technology we use for SCM ERP development, its scaling abilities, and the number of processes you need to be performed by the ERP. As for outer features, these are salaries required by the ERP development team, the pack of services you may need along with SCM ERP development, etc. To get a quote please, contact the RexSoft team.
Q: Do you provide maintenance and support services for your SCM ERP products?
A: Of course, we do! You are welcome to get them when ordering ERP for supply chain management development.
