Streamlining the business set-up is the primary focus of any entrepreneur, regardless of the size of the corporation. This becomes much more important when discussing supply chain and logistics enterprise. Supply chain management software are the new age solution to ensure this smooth workflow. They supervise the working right from planning, implementing and controlling the operations of the whole supply chain to maximize the profit and minimize the cost at the same time. The best part of supply chain software solutions is that their ultimate target is customer/client satisfaction which is vital to gain customer loyalty. One might say that the functions of SCM are a lot similar to that of Operations Management (OM); however, where OM mostly deals with the company’s internal operations, SCM is primarily concerned with the outside interactions like dealing with suppliers, warehousing, etc.

With the evolving technology and growing market, significant growth in supply chain software companies is also noted. Hence, it is important to check which SCM tools fit for your use. The size of your organization, target audience and primary services play a peculiar role in determining this.

Let’s take a look at the detailed structure of services a supply chain management software provides:

a) Procurement
As the name suggests, the procurement stage involves the acquirement of materials, goods, and services that play an essential role in starting a supply chain in the first place.

This stage itself consists of multiple complex procedures like shortlisting vendors, analyzing them, negotiating terms, ordering, billing, etc. The SCM tools take care of these procedures and carry out the processes efficiently. The first process involves the analysis of data and records to create an algorithm based on the intake of the organization. This involves the amount of raw material being processed, the workforce involved, transportation cost and the quantity of the final product. This data helps further in forecasting the prices, overseeing budgeting, demand forecasting to avoid overproduction, planning and auditing.

Vendor Management, E-sourcing, Preliminary Data Collection, Automated Evaluation, Invitation To Tender, E-auction, Contract Management, Procure-to-Pay (P2P) Operations, Spend Analytics, etc. are some of the tasks SCM Procurement tools carry out.

b) Inventory Control / Warehouse Management
The second stage in the Supply Chain is Storage or stocking of the products and material. Now depending upon the number of products being stored, this might involve multiple storage facilities. Hence, it is important to establish a network for the coordination of these facilities. This is where SCM tools come into play. Multi-Location Inventory Tracking helps you in carrying out this task remotely and make the whole process a lot more transparent. Every product in the inventory is given a unique ID or bar-code to help in the tracking of every single product in the facility.

The supply chain software solutions provide you with a complete package of warehouse management and to ease the whole process, they provide you with a dashboard which essentially brings all the aspects involved in the inventory control. This dashboard will notify the low inventory alert, carry out auto-replenishment by analyzing the demand cycle and even create order receipts automatically and send them to vendors. Digital FIFO (First-in, First-out) Tools that track the product movement help you analyze the slow-moving stock. They provide real-time reporting that makes the process a whole lot transparent with an additional benefit of overall stock analysis.

c) Logistics
The supply chain software companies have turned the face of logistics and supply in recent years. This involves all processes that deal with the movement of products and information in the supply chain. The supply chain software solutions that are concerned with logistics are what ensure the balance between the demand and supply aspect.

Logistics are what connect the multiple fronts of a supply chain, right from the Supplier to the Consumer; hence, it is important to optimize the complete process.

Transparency in the shipment process is one of the primary concerns of any business. With SCM tools like GPS-enabled live package tracking software, this transparency is ensured to a great extent. The Transportation Management System also helps in choosing the shortest routes that help in faster delivery.

All these points highlight the importance of SCM tools in business setup and further emphasize how they reduce your costs and maximize the benefits. ESSPL is one of the leading supply chain software companies that provide customized SCM tools according to your needs and ensure the transparency in your Supply Chain at the same time.