How Much Does Warehouse Management Software Cost? (2023) | Mintsoft

Hidden costs to plan for in your budget

Hidden costs to plan for in your budget

Be aware that with a WMS, there may be hidden costs that aren’t included in the monthly subscription cost with a provider.

Training staff

You should factor in around 3-5 days of training your staff on a new warehouse management system. This will allow for you to run training sessions in shifts and give teams time to practise and come back with questions or feedback while training teams and services are available.

Adopting a new WMS might coincide with a period of growth, so be sure to budget for training new team members, as well as providing additional training each year to existing staff.

Improving infrastructure

It is worth assessing whether your existing equipment is suitable for use with a new WMS. Old IT infrastructure may cause issues or not allow you to use your warehouse management software to its full potential. This is especially true for old scanning and barcode equipment.

On-premise solutions could require a full upgrade of database servers, networking hardware, and the PCs running the WMS. The newer the software, the higher level of equipment requirements you can expect it to have.

Hosted models such as cloud-based solutions may not require additional server hardware, but will require at least mid-level spec computers as well as a reliable, fast internet connection. Large additional costs can be incurred from backup systems that are layered on top of cloud storage. Most warehouse operators want to have a local copy of data to make sure operations aren’t ground to a halt if connection is lost.

IT staff resource

Much like infrastructure, the additional cost of IT staff and maintenance is hard to predict as it is largely dependent on the system you are using, the scope of your licensing or use, as well as the capabilities of your IT team.

IT staff will need time to maintain and update the system periodically which can include consulting fees and additional business costs to educate the team on proper maintenance.

The key thing to remember here is that your IT staff will have new responsibilities with your WMS and require adequate time and resources to see to these duties.

Using data

Storing and analysing data is essential for businesses looking to operate more efficiently. It is a big part of many warehouse management software systems, from optimising inventory and picking, to choosing shipping lanes and consolidating shipments. However, some WMS users employ additional software or staff resources to run advanced analytics and generate reports and insights.

Typically, you will need to increase your budget for analytics capabilities, either as an add on to your WMS service or as a separate system.