IBM Sterling Order Management vs. Thrive Technologies

It's perfect for medium to large retailers

Incentivized

No solution is perfect, but I would say that Thrive is a particularly robust and complex solution that's intended to tackle major demand management and inventory forecasting problems. Smaller companies simply won't need a solution that's so all-encompassing. I would recommend waiting unitl you know that you need it before moving forward with a solution like Thrive.

Incentivized

• Centralizing data.
• Instantaneously updated data.
• Ad hoc reporting.

• Cloud-based, accurate forecasting system saves lots of time and can tangibly boosts ROI
• Robust demand management down to the SKU level
• Optimized replenishment prevents too much money from being tied up in inventory

Incentivized

• RCP Based deployment
• Wider variety of sourcing configuration
• Product Documentation
• COM Features need to better so that Customer case handling is facilitated

• Although it's simpler than many alternatives, it's a highly complex system and at times we felt lost during the transition period.
• We didn't get the results we had imagined when looking at their case studies and marketing materials. I understand many factors go into those things, and their case studies are not necessarily indicative of typical results, but your mileage may vary.
• Inventory replenishment alerts about potential stockouts weren't always reliable.

Incentivized

The package of Sterling Order Management / Sterling Store / Sterling Call Center works very well and it supports the expansion to Geographies like US/EU/JP/China, some of hottest markets for e-commerce.

Warehouse Management System which is mainly focussed on warehouse fulfillment but not on the routing and availability tracking

Incentivized

Abas ERP was what we had used previously, and though it did its job adequately, it lacked the forecasting, demand management, and inventory replenishment sophistication of Thrive. We reached a point where we felt it was untenable to supplement the previous system on our own which necessitated the switch to Thrive.

Incentivized

• Optimal inventory management resulted in more orders per minute and good ROI and customer experience

Incentivized

• We were able to reduce the amount of resources tied up in inventory
• Forecasting tools meant significantly less time spent trying to wrangle spreadsheets
• The transition was painful, causing initial doubts, but it was certainly worth the growing pains

Incentivized