Over the years, we’ve worked with countless partners and customers implementing the warehouse management module within D365 Supply Chain Management. As advocates and evangelists for the module, we have been pulled into every stage of an implementation you can think of: from the start of a sales cycle 18 months to close, to the middle of a problematic go-live, to a year post go-live to help optimize the solution. Every one of these implementations have been different, have had different software components, their own challenges, but one thing has stayed consistent - the customer’s IT landscape was Microsoft platform-based. They bought into the cloud; they are on the biz apps stack; they bought into Dataverse; they get it. When you were either already a Microsoft-based organization or you were moving down that road, implementing the WMS within SCM was a no-brainer: it was an embedded module with no extra licensing costs (aside from the user or device licenses) and integrated seamlessly, and it could go toe-to-toe with any tier 1 WMS on the market which would have otherwise suited an org deploying D365 SCM. We’ve seen a few things throughout the years consistently disqualify the WMS:
- If the customer is not already on the platform, and if they have no intention of adopting it.
- If the customer is looking to modernize their WMS within the Microsoft landscape but is not ready for a full ERP implementation.
- If the customer is facing a complicated rollout over several legal entities, facilities, countries, etc.
With the introduction of warehouse management only mode, Microsoft has opened the door to everyone who fits the bill for needing a midmarket plus WMS with a straightforward licensing structure and a simple integration methodology on top of an already-robust ecosystem. And if you previously fell into one of the above categories, you have options now.
Are you on SAP and see an ISV from the D365 partner community that would solve a huge need of yours (see Blue Horseshoe, Part of Accenture’s TRANSPORT/DELIVER modules) but because you would have to implement SCM in its entirety, it’s not feasible? The door is open now. Of course, this requires partners to uptake their solutions to warehouse management only mode but think of the possibilities that exist now.
Are you a single-warehouse organization with between $50-$100 million in revenue utilizing Business Central for your base ERP and looking to modernize your warehouse capabilities? This is a perfect fit. You get the simplicity and low overhead of Business Central with the power of the D365 SCM warehouse module, positioned strongly on the Gartner magic quadrant, ready to take you to the next level.
Or perhaps you’re a $6 billion organization with 50 distribution centers of varying complexity across 20 countries, each with their own legal entity, looking to standardize your warehouse operations and solutions. In the past this was such a complicated journey, as it’s nearly impossible to find a WMS that fits for everyone while also standardizing the ERP. Now you have options. Now, if you choose, you can take the WMS live first across all countries: modernize and unify your supply chain without impacting other business critical functions.
The same goes for an organization who maybe spent years developing and deploying their previous AX instance. Complex trading organizations put serious time and money into the non-logistics components of their systems. Having to uplift all of that to gain the benefits of the WMS in D365 (of which there are many) is a tough pill to swallow. But now, you can delay that by deploying the WMS first and seamlessly integrating back to your existing AX instance. Slow-roll the deployment of D365 SCM in the business and get quicker value out of your implementation.
The most dreaded words a partner would have heard in the past if you were in the business of implementing the warehouse management module were “shared warehousing.” The concept of several legal entities utilizing a single warehouse for their distribution. Seemingly a simple enough concept, but because of the way D365 SCM and the warehouse management module were architected, it just wasn’t doable in a simple fashion. Now it’s possible. Now you can deploy two instances, one for your warehouse operation and one for your trading companies and transact several legal entities across a single warehouse much simpler than beforehand.
The move and timing by Microsoft was perfectly orchestrated. Right after the WMS was placed on the Gartner magic quadrant, Microsoft announces this game-changing operating mode, opening the doors wide to the market and inviting them to hop onto the platform. As of release 10.0.36 the feature is available in Preview mode. There are a few limitations as it stands, some impactful in a way and some not, so let’s see what happens between now and general availability of the new Warehouse management only mode
In the meantime, if you have questions or want to work with our team on finding out how to best implement this, reach out to us to have a chat.
For other partners and WMS enthusiasts, we have prepared a step-by-step guide on how to use and test the new Warehouse management only mode. Go back to the learning center to see the guides.
