The warehousing market is estimated to be valued at USD 329.79 billion in 2021 and is projected to reach USD 562 billion by 2026 at a CAGR of 11.25%. Warehousing is the foundation of the global logistics sector, with a crucial contribution to product storage and management.
Socius24 was incorporated in 2013 by Craig Jones and Ray Williams, who had for 20 years previously, been deeply involved in the development of a best-in-breed Warehouse Management System (WMS) – Dispatcher WMS. The company is now an award-winning reseller of that software – Dispatcher WMS – and the preferred sales partner of the company that currently owns it Blue Yonder.
Socius24 implements Dispatcher WMS (alongside its own, complementary software) all over the world, and uses the extensive industry knowledge of its employees to ensure customers achieve optimal returns on their investments. Socius24 is known for its straightforward, honest, and effective deployment, training, and post-implementation support. “We are problem-solvers.”
The differentiating factor
Socius24 employs many of the people who originally developed and deployed the software that the company now implements. Many employees have worked with the system since the 1990s. It has had many reincarnations over the years, due to its effectiveness and has just been updated again with a new UI.
“No one knows the software better than we do. As well as this, all our project managers used Dispatcher WMS extensively in their previous jobs. We offer a unique combination of technical and operational insight into this WMS to our customers,” says Craig Jones, Managing Partner and Executive Director, Socius24.
The initial challenges
“We work within the supply chain and we’re not immune to a worldwide trend of trying to minimize costs and maximize profit. The software we sell is a best-in-breed, highly functional system that can (and does) run anything from a small family business to massive international corporations. Because of this, it’s sometimes not the cheapest option available.
When we lose out to lesser options, it’s typically because businesses have decided to implement a shorter-term, less scalable solution. And often, it’s one that then goes on to choke their expansion because the product they chose isn’t scalable or functional enough to support their growth goals. It can be frustrating at times to watch businesses go through the disruption and expense of a WMS implementation, only for them to have to do the whole thing again a few years later, but with the additional costs brought to bear by having to implement the right solution, second time around.
Strategies to remain ahead of the competition
“Having worked in the warehousing and logistics industry for such a long time, Socius24 has been able to look at where things were headed and then create additional, mobile apps that can be bolted onto a traditional WMS to expand its reach.
Additionally, when Socius24 was originally incorporated, the partners decided to make the company entirely remote as we have no offices. They did this to support their sustainability goals (no commute). However, the infrastructure that this way of working needed was already in place when 2020 came around, and because of it, the company was able to implement four projects remotely when the world needed the Supply Chain the most and many other providers had to shut operations down,” added Craig Jones.
Adaption to the contemporary demand
“Since 2020, a lot has changed in the supply chain industry, and Socius24 has evolved to facilitate those changes. Warehousing businesses used to work on a ‘just in time’ basis, meaning that they kept as little stock on hand as possible, to keep down costs. Things would be delivered and then shipped out as quickly as possible.
With the supply chain disruption brought about by the pandemic (and then through various other influences on the world supply chain such as the war in Ukraine, issues with moving container ships through the Suez Canal etc.), this ‘just in time’ methodology has transformed into a ‘just in case’ one. This means that businesses spread their inventory over a much larger area, often using third-party logistics (3PL) companies to keep additional stock on hand local to customers, in case there are additional disruptions.
Post 2020, Socius24 anticipated this movement to decentralized storage and developed their own WMS-independent and database-agnostic e-billing software – something that can quickly and easily be deployed for 3PLs to keep track of their customers’ stock,” elaborated Craig Jones.
Future vision
“The partners decided to change the structure of the company to become an Employee-Owned Trust (EOT) last year. This means that every employee now has an interest in the company. Socius24’s move into Employee Ownership was designed to secure its independence and empower its employees as co-owners,” concluded Craig Jones.
