Ever-increasing customer expectations are forcing distributors to take a more intelligent approach to putaway, picking and labor management, says Allan Kohl, president and chief executive officer of KOM International.

Even the best software package won't yield results unless companies engage in detailed operations research prior to implementation, says Jean Belanger, chief executive officer of Reddworks Corp.

Why has it taken so long for warehouse-management and warehouse-control systems to move to the cloud? And which of the two is more likely to survive in the years ahead? Kevin Reader, chief marketing officer of Invata Intralogistics, has some answers.