Deciding to purchase a Supply Chain Management (SCM) software is not just meant to solve an ongoing need, but should also solve for long-term supply chain dependencies. The first step towards making this decision is to clearly define the business requirements of your organization. Businesses must identify the specific supply chain processes that need attention and resolution. The next step is to examine the various SCM alternatives that are available in the market, and how they compare with each other in terms of pricing, potential ROI, and the ease with which they help streamline supply chain processes.As a rule of thumb, businesses can consider 3 overarching capabilities to help decide which SCM software to purchase. These include:Collaborative TransparencyOrganizations are vulnerable to volatility and potential disruptions due to the increasingly global nature and the complexity of supply chains. Organizations must have the capacity to map an existing supply chain, promote collaboration among teams, have an awareness of potential problems a supplier might face in real-time, and then proactively work to find solutions.Unbound ScalabilityA technology solution must have the capability to be scaled as the company grows, the number of suppliers rises, and supply chains become more complex. Solutions for supply chain management are becoming more cloud-based, which provides nearly limitless scalability in this regard. Scalability in the cloud can be implemented simultaneously at several sites and makes use of fewer resources.Scope of IntegrationSCM software must allow enterprises to seamlessly integrate it with a number of other internal systems for cross-departmental data management and better functional uniformity across the supply chain. One of the most viable options to make this possible is to opt for an Integration Platform-as-a-Service (IPaaS). Alternatively,  the following tools can be separately integrated with SCM software:Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)Warehouse Management System (WMS) Transport Management System (TMS)Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)Manufacturing Execution System (MES)