Sign Up for Free

What is Supply Chain Management Software?

Supply chain management software is a bundle of tools or modules where each of the tools are being used for different supply chain transactions, managing supplier relationships and controlling associated business process. A supply chain management software includes some unique modules with some common features available on other logistics software. And, even can include a new mobile according to your business requirements. Some of the common functionalities are:

  • Purchase order processing;
  • Customer requirement processing;
  • Sales and distribution management;
  • Inventory management;
  • Products receipt and Warehouse management;
  • Supplier management; and so on

If your business needs something that is only for your business purposes and not available on common modules, you can add a custom module in Linbis Logistics Software. Supply chain management software allows you to manage bookkeeping for the organization with ease. A securely integrated sales module allows the organization to handle day to day activities with less effort.

Need special workflow for you enterprise no problem we can help. Our team of innovators and developers work fast to implement you needs in your organization. No matter how big the project is WE CAN DO IT!!!

Contact Us 

Key features of supply chain management software:

There are many types of supply chain management software available, and lots of them are popping up from nowhere. In a situation like this, where your efforts and investment towards SCM system are connected to your industries, you should concern about choosing the best tools that fit with your needs. Most of the available software comes with standalone features, some of them comes with broader solutions, and some of them even come with enterprise resource planning systems. The most common features of supply chain management software include:

  • Inventory Management Module:

    Inventory management is the features that act as a tracking and managing module of raw materials, quantity of stocked products and spare parts that are ready to resell. This feature helps employees to manage assets more efficiently and future inventory and price forecasting as well.

  • Order management:

    For automated order process and completing the purchase with less effort and less error, there’s no alternative to order management feature. Order management also offers to track purchased orders, scheduling of product deliveries and creating product and price lists.

  • Logistics and shipping status:

    Logistics and shipping status features are being used to successfully coordinate transportation channels, improving delivery performance and boosting customer satisfaction. With the integration of Warehouse management features inside, it can also help with storage optimization, labeling, labor management and more.

  • Forecasting:

    Forecasting allows businesses to highly appreciate customer demand and generates a successful planning procurement and production processes accordingly. Efficient forecasting can help remove the need to buy unnecessary raw materials or store excess finished goods on warehouse shelves, hence reducing costs and increasing productivity.

  • Return management:

    Businesses always runs as smoothly as we expect. Accidents can occur anytime and anywhere. Your products can be damaged or broke before even reaching out to its destination. However, that doesn’t mean you don’t need to complete the delivery, while a person could be waiting for the goods on the other side. In this case, return manage feature keeps track of the damaged and returned goods and helps you determine which you need to redeliver. It increases customer satisfaction and improves customer relationships with your business, hence increases repeat consumers and increase business stability.

Above aren’t the only available features of a supply chain management software. Those are just a few of the important and most common features. However, you can always integrate custom features on your SCMS. And, the different publisher offers so many customers modules based on the type of Businesses. At this point, you might start wondering that is it really important to use SCM software for your business? What can you get from it and what’s the potential it offers for your company? Let’s get into this as we already discussed the key features.

Contact Us 

How to develop a supply chain management software?

If you want to use the potentials of the SCM software for your business prosperity, you must need to develop one first. There are few processes requires to follow and man-powers to hire to build a fully functional and a robust software, however with Linbis Logistics Platfom is easier and cost effective for your organization.  Following are the requirements to get it done and Linbis can help make this easier:

  • Process: Developing a secure and reliable supply chain management software involves six necessary steps as follows:
  • Planning: Everything starts with a better planning and drafting a development blueprint outlining the basic purpose and finalizing the goals of the work. Developing an SCM software is nothing different.
  • Research and analysis: A detailed market research and analysis is important for understanding the requirements or demands of the audiences and learning about your competitors who are active on the market.
  • Design: A wireframe or demo which will showcase all features of the software is prepared and presented to the consumers.
  • Development: This includes all coding and programming to build a secure, efficient and robust software from both front and back-end perspective.
  • Testing: This step involves the testing of already developed software to see if it meets your business requirements. And, it is also bug-free, secure and fully functional without vulnerabilities.
  • Deployment and maintenance: When the software is bug-free and fully functional, it’s time to deploy it to your company. Everything isn’t done when you deploy an SCM software because it also requires enough maintenance while functioning. So, you need to prepare for the certain maintenance and upgrade if necessary to get the full potential from a supply chain management software.

Required Team structure: Developing a SCM software requires potentials members in a perfect team, who are capable of handling risk management, code secure programs and keeps track on delivery schedules. Members can be divided into some smaller group such as:

  • Project Manager: A talented project manager should possess excellent administrative skills as well as extraordinary communication skills. This will help him demonstrate the features to the members working on the project. The more he explain, the easier it will be for the programmers and designers to do the task. In order to do that, a project manager should have project-oriented thinking and solution-based approach towards the employees.
  • Developers: Developers are the people who write codes to implement according to the project managers detailed instructions. Developers are divided into small groups to handle different platforms such as Android, iOS, WEB development, etc.
  • Designers: Designers will usually designed and draw stuff to make your idea into life. Your business application for different platform will be designed separately by these people. The more they experienced in designing, the better UI/UX you will get for your supply chain management software.
  • Tester:  Testers will test and find problems when your software is ready to use. If the package passes their eyes and testing process, it will be ready for deployment. Otherwise, it will go back to developer for necessary fixes.

All these associated members to develop the software are important than you might think. Lacking presence of any of them might make your software unusable and dry out the investment you have done so far. Each one of them polishes their experience to make a perfect SCM software so that from the very first day, you can get the benefits.

Contact Us 

 

Supply chain management software 

The supply chain is very important for any business. Without that, you will not be able to create products and sell them to the customers. Which is why you need to manage the supply chain professionally and with great attention. That’s why it makes a lot of sense to use some of the best supply chain management software out there. However, finding what type of features you need and how you can use this type of software can be a bit tricky. But we are here to make the process as simple and as seamless for you as possible.

What is a Supply Chain Management Software?

When you hear about supply chain management software, you should know that this is not a simple type of software tool. In fact, it’s either a combination of tools or modules. These are used for managing supplier relationships, executing various supply chain transactions, controlling business processes related to the supply chain and so on. Just about all related to supply chain transactions is extremely important, and the supply chain management software will help you make that happen. Handling this is super important and with the right software you can do that.

Most of the time this software has to include forecasting. That’s because not only do you have to study your current needs, you also have to think about upcoming needs too. In this manner you can avoid potential problems and stay away from challenges that can and might appear.

That being said, you also get to identify any supply and demand disparity. You are always in the know in regards to what the supply can be. And you can also check the demand, to the point where results can be really interesting and unique in their own right. They also help use algorithms and you can study consumption analysis too. That makes it a lot easier to figure out any potential needs and from there you will not have to worry about any challenges or problems in the long run.

What features does a SCM Software have?

Every supply chain management software will differ when it comes to what features you can acquire from them. But more often than not you will also have some very specific features. Here you will find some of the most important ones. You can easily figure out how you can tackle and handle everything.

  • Customer requirements processing is a must-have feature. The reason why you need it is because you always want to know what customers expect from you. With its help you will be able to adjust and adapt everything in a meaningful way, and the results can shine for sure. In addition, you will know what changes you have to make to keep people happy.
  • Purchase and order processing is a feature that all supply chain management software needs to have. That’s because you need to have a system where you can access and process all the orders. Usually this can be very time-consuming, so being able to track and manage everything without any hassle and problems really helps a lot.
  • Sales and distribution. These are crucial features for supply chain management software. The reason is simple, you want to see how many sales you generate, because based on that you know the demand. And then you know if you will need more or less products. Same with distribution, you want to know where the products are located. If the customers ask, you want to be ready with a reply. That offers a more professional allure to your business. And that’s what you really need.
  • Inventory management is super important for supply chain management software. The reason is simple, you want it to be customized, adapted and adjusted to your own requirements. You also want to have a way to track the entire inventory and see what items you have and where they are located. You might need an item right away for production, so this feature can help you locate it fast. That alone can save a lot of time and eventually quite a bit of money too.
  • Goods receipt and warehouse management. Having to manage a warehouse is very challenging and complicating, so a tool like this can help. The supply chain management software will also let you know when/if the goods you requested from the supplier arrived, which is crucial here.
  • Supplier management and sourcing is extremely important too. If your business has multiple suppliers, things can be very confusing. That being said, you really need to take your time with this kind of stuff. Use the supply chain management software, track shipment progress and study every piece of info to ensure that you always receive a fair service from the supplier, then you will be more than ok all the time.

Basically, supply chain management software will help you with a lot of stuff. It will handle supplier info, raw materials you use, manufacturing and distribution info, as well as retail location management. You can even use it for customer management if you want to. This really goes to show the complexity of it all and the quality that you receive as a whole. Yes, it’s going to take a bit of time to adapt and adjust it to your own pace. But it’s going to work quite nicely once you get it up and running.

Benefits of using a supply management software

Now that you know what supply chain management software is, the question is whether you really need it. Or you just need to have it there from time to time in case it’s necessary. Actually, supply chain management software is one of the pivotal tools/apps that you can have for your business. And it’s easy to see why.

If you have a lot of demand for a particular product, you always want to see the actual numbers. You also want to see a forecast of what materials are needed and if you have enough suppliers for the manufacturing process. Basically, the supply chain management software offers a good insight into the production process. You always know if what you have is enough, if more stuff is needed and so on. Every minor detail matters and that is obviously going to be quite the challenge since you want to adapt everything. But it’s going to be worth it.

Thanks to scm software you can boost company efficiency. You can optimize the production process and that will lead to more items being produced whenever you need them the most. Not only that, but you can also lower costs too. You will avoid overspending on production by finding and using the right suppliers. Or you can have multiple suppliers at different prices.

Moreover, supply chain management software helps you handle demand a lot easier. By knowing how many products are preordered or people are ready to purchase, you can obtain some amazing results and it can work quite well. That being said, this type of software also boosts collaboration. It makes it easier to connect with other people and it can totally bring in front some pretty good experiences and results all the time. Also, they also make it easy for you to raise profits simply by cutting down costs and improving the production process.

But the benefits won’t stop here, as you might imagine. If there are disruptions in the entire process, you will get to know about it and that can really shift things to the next level all the time. It’s totally worth it and you will be incredibly happy with the results. Also, you can also carry the right amount of inventory and not overspend on having too much inventory. Sometimes your inventory will not sell, so knowing the demand via this software can really come in handy.

You can even meet customer demands a lot easier this way. By knowing what customers need and how many units they require, it will be easier to fulfill all their needs naturally and the return on investment can be second to none all the time due to that.

The modern supply chains are very complex. And more often than not it can be super difficult to handle and manage such a complicated thing. Which is why it makes a lot of sense to use supply chain management software. This software will offer you the tools needed to handle and manage everything naturally. It works the way you want and you can adapt and adjust it to your own requirements. It’s one of those things that really matter a lot and you always need to take them for the way they are. Yes, there will always be challenges, but the rewards can be astonishing.

Which industry uses a SCM software?

Usually every business that creates products and manufacturers them on their own will need supply chain management software. That’s because it has its own suppliers, customers, production process and so on. When it comes to what industries cover this, any industrial or mechanical focused business will need something like this. Freight businesses also need supply chain management software because it makes it easier to handle and manage every shipping detail that they need.

Wholesalers and retailers also need supply chain management software, because they will have people ship items to them. And they also need to handle a whole lot of items, which can be super tricky to do. That’s why you need to consider all possible options and the results on their own can be extremely interesting and unique all the time due to that.

And since SCM software can be used for a ton of things, it’s super easy to adapt to requirements. It can be good for logistics, procurement companies, manufacturing, maintenance management, Internet of Things applications, supply chain planning and order management. Every industry and company that handles or deals in this kind of stuff will find using such software very good.

New technology used on supply chain systems

Nowadays the focus for supply chain management software is to go to the cloud. That’s because cloud features make it accessible from anywhere. Company owners don’t have to be within their business in front of the computer to see all information. They can access the supply chain management software online. That means they can share instructions with their team, see what’s missing and if they have an overstock for example. All of this is very exciting and it really brings in front some nifty results and experiences all the time due to that.

In order for any business to grow, it has to evolve and come up with great new ways to improve. And that’s why using supply chain management software makes a lot of sense. Opting for the cloud based solutions is particularly helpful, and the ROI can be huge in that situation.

Supply chain management software trends

Right now there are 3 main trends for supply chain management software. The first one is ecommerce supply chain support. The ecommerce world has evolved a lot in the past few years, and being able to handle distributors, inventory and fulfill orders is a lot more important. Then there’s the corporate social responsibility which means supply chain management software needs to incorporate regulatory compliance. And of course you have on-demand supply chain management software. This one means customers expect to use it on a per-necessity basis. They don’t want to deal with infrastructure or anything like that, they just need a low-cost way to manage their inventory and clients or suppliers.

It’s safe to say that supply chain management software is extremely helpful and it has the potential to do wonders. It works amazingly well, you can also customize it for your business if you want. And the best part is that with help from such software you can grow your business naturally. Even if it does take a bit of time to optimize and customize everything, the supply chain management software is well worth the investment!