Your customers are becoming more discerning, your competition is a lot more-fierce, and there’s pressure on you to bring new products to the market. How do you keep up? You might be surprised to see that there are at least six ways an inventory management system can help. Let’s take a look at inventory management software is so vital, especially business keeps changing and changing fast.
IT ENHANCES YOUR EFFICIENCY
If you tend to notice slowdowns at certain times, but don’t adapt your ordering processes, then you’ll be in trouble. The inventory management system allows you to make a plan far in advance by analyzing historical trends. That’s ideal if you want to ensure that you never make the same mistake twice. The amazing thing about identifying efficiencies is that it allows you to deploy your resources more effectively. No need to invest in new hardware or staff. You just make better use of what you have.
IT IMPROVES YOUR PRODUCTIVITY
This point follows naturally from the first. When your staff and other resources are pulling together in the same direction, your productivity will skyrocket. Because you have identified what you actually need all year round, you can be proactive in your approach to allocation. Clearly, if you want to succeed, boosting your productivity has to be set as your main priorities. Tracking inventory in real-time allows you to make it happen.
YOU’LL KEEP YOUR COSTS DOWN
The stock that doesn’t get sold is just dead money. This will take up space in your warehouse or on your shelves, space that could be used for products that sell. You will end up cutting the price to clear your inventory, eliminating your margin. Not only that, but you will still be paying the cost to hold that stock as long as it sits in your inventory. Even worse, products that become obsolete may end up as a complete loss if you can’t even sell it at a discount rate. Something which could have been easily avoided if you had the benefit of an inventory management system that helps you to know what stock is aging and helps you make the right decisions of purchasing.
INTEGRATION GIVES EVERYONE THE BIG PICTURE
As your business expands, it may be very hard to keep key stakeholders in the loop. Different staff members may well be investing money and time in things that others are more suited to do. And they may be duplicating their efforts. This not only wastes time and effort but it also ties-up working capital and is a guaranteed way to eat into profits. The is secret ensuring that everyone can see the big picture. By keeping all of your data in a central location, an inventory management system can integrate processes to allow your staff to do the jobs they are meant to do.
YOU’LL DO AWAY WITH MANUAL TASKS
Manual administration work involved in processing products and dispatching orders takes on a life of its own. With so many different suppliers, channels and customers, manual work makes it difficult to keep track of where in your supply chain an order sits. Moreover, when staff manually update information in different places that don’t connect to one another, your business as a whole will be blind to what is going on. These problems can disappear when you move to an automated inventory management system. This is ideal if you want to free up your staff so that they do not have to devote anywhere near as much time to manual repetitive tasks as they currently do.
YOU WON’T DISAPPOINT CUSTOMERS EVER AGAIN
The most important way an integrated and automated inventory management system will help your business grow is your customers. In the age of Amazon and 24-hour fulfillment, consumers won’t wait 7 days for products anymore. If you can’t quickly fulfill their orders, then you’re surrendering ground to your competition. If you want to streamline your operations and give your customers the best possible experience you can, an integrated order and inventory management system can make it happen.
For more information and a tailored demonstration, please contact us at MetaOption