subject: Fishbowl Inventory Over Cloud Computing [print this page] Fishbowl Inventory Over Cloud Computing Fishbowl Inventory Over Cloud Computing
It is a fact that poorly maintained inventory can completely ruin a business. Efficient inventory where complete knowledge of items available, requested and items in transit are in the knowledge of a user not only increases the overall productivity of a company but it also positively streamlines the bottom line of the business. This application has been developed by the makers of QuickBooks which makes it easier to link it to QuickBooks application for accounting purposes. What is more useful feature for its user is that it can be hosted on a remote server maintained by application hosting service providers.
The time spent on the research work before developing this application has resulted in the development of an application which is simple to use and which offers a host of handy features for the users in their day-to-day operations. This application keeps record of stocks available in stores, stocks ordered by the customers and shipments made by the vendors. It also keeps record of stocks that are in transit. It is a useful application for manufacturer, wholesaler, dealer, distributor and retailer and for anyone who has to do some kind of stock taking for their business. Different tasks related to inventory management such as order management, stock flow, inventory control etc can be properly performed with the help of this application.
Fishbowl Inventory application, over a period of time has evolved as one of the most preferred inventory application for the business houses. The reason behind this evolution is that it addresses complex challenges of inventory control besides offering solutions for common problems faced by the concerned businesses. Before looking at the functional benefits of using Fishbowl Inventory application over cloud computing platform, it would be appropriate to discuss the solutions offered by this application. Few such solutions can be listed as:
Taking Care of Dead Stocks
Stocks that are not moving in a cycle that lay inactive and unattended for long can negatively impact the business. It is very important for a business to take care of all such stocks that are immobile or stuck at somewhere. All such stocks when they are not in the knowledge of the stockist, keep on piling up. These stocks fail to reach to the designated place on time and may end up as out of season stock or expired stock. Such stocks incur substantial losses to the companies. Fishbowl Inventory keeps track of such stocks and helps in facilitating the timely flow of such piled up stocks.
Customizing as per the inventory
There are different types of inventory in businesses. Some of the items generate uniform demands throughout year whereas some items are in demand as per the season. The seasons may be based on festivity or geographies of a region or a country. The demands for such items are high during the peak season and very low at off peak season. It is crucial for the stockists to keep track of such information in order to keep only those demands which are doing well.
Efficient Order Management
This application also helps in efficient management of orders based on various stock movements such as Last in First out (LIFO), First in First out (FIFO) or any other stock movement options. It also helps in making customized pricing or any other details such as customized packaging of products depending on customer's expected needs. It also helps in managing the Sales Order and compliments with the Accounting application QuickBooks.
Support for geographically scattered stock hubs or destinations
Fishbowl supports synchronization of information compiled from geographically different locations. All information entered from various locations of a firm can be compiled in one place and processed from anywhere. Besides supporting multiple location inventory tracking it also facilitates provision to include varied detailing such landing costs, bills of lading etc.
Support for bar-code readers & web orders' entries
This application also renders support for bar-code scanning which allows the user to see the details of an item such as Universal Product Code (UPC) and description. It also facilitates the customers of a firm to make order on the firm's website and its details are automatically fed into the Inventory Management Programme of this application.
QuickBooks Synchronization
Besides these merits Fishbowl Inventory application can perfectly work with the accounting application QuickBooks. Thus it becomes easy for its user to collate the data entered in this inventory application with that from QuickBooks. It saves a lot of time and effort of the user by helping them to avoid repeated entry. This support also helps the user in making financial projection on the basis of real time status of stocks received, dispatched and ordered. Such projections are good for a firm because these have greater level of accuracy.
Suitable for Hosting Through Cloud Computing
This application can be hosted through cloud computing which allows its user to access this application from remote places. It is one of the very helpful features of this application which helps the user to manage inventory operation of multiple locations from one place. This feature also unleashes a host of other facilities that are offered by Cloud Computing. Few of these facilities may be summarized as:
Secure access of applications by the users
Access to Fishbowl application by way of an ID and password helps to restrict the access only to those members who have been granted access by the management. It means that a person can not access any information even if he gains access to the physical computer unless he or she knows the ID and password to login into the fishbowl account.
Backup and Storage of e-information at several places
Information contained in the application can be stored at several places, which relieves the user from worrying about data backup and retrieval in future if required.
Painless recovery in case of disaster
The technical persons employed for providing cloud computing services promptly respond in case a disaster strikes. These professionals replicate the whole application in a short time so that user can run the business in comparatively lesser downtime.
Independence from hardware/software requirement for using this application.
In the cloud computing, it is the service provider who takes the pain of choosing right hardware, PC processor, RAM and also in choosing right operating system. The customers who are offered cloud computing services are not required to invest in these necessities. They only need to invest in purchasing simple computer with internet connectivity.
