subject: Managing Stock Need Not Be A Drag On Business, Thanks To Online Inventory Management Tools [print this page] Small and mid-sized businesses are typically challenged when dealing with the issue of maintaining good and accurate records of their inventory. Whether working with raw materials, products being manufactured or stock of finished product awaiting sale, the inventory management process often eats up a great deal of valuable time and creates a lot of tedium. Its also a process where mistakes can be made and inaccuracies in product counts recorded. But with the development of online inventory management tools, business owners now have a relatively low cost and efficient new way to eliminate all of these headaches.
Unlike the large, enterprise information technology systems in place in larger corporate settings, small business owners dont have the luxury of pouring funds into sophisticated hardware and intricate software programs. They make do with small, individual copies of programs like Quick Books, or even resorting to entering all of their data into cells in Microsoft Excel, or even documenting in Word. Some even forgo these, and continue along the oldest of paths - writing it all down on paper.
The advent of cloud computing, however, gives rise to the convenience and relief that these business owners crave. That ability to access a software application via the internet without needing to load expensive programs and maintain lots of hardware on-site means that powerful inventory management tools are literally just a few clicks away - whether youre on a PC at home, at work, or over a mobile device.
Numerous programs have sprung up and are available for trial runs directly over the web. Much like the best online CRM (customer relationship management) cloud-based online packages that help companies manage the sales pipeline, record and display histories of interactions with your customer base and archive documentation and contracts, these inventory programs allow businesses to input and manage all of the critical data relevant to the flow of product inventory at one or even multiple sites.
But these powerful systems are much more than mere online repositories of statistics about how many crates of product are sitting in your warehouse. The data inputted into the programs can be manipulated and organized any variety of ways so as to instantly churn out, store and print documents commonly associated with the inventory process, like packing slips, invoices and purchase orders. Its also not uncommon for programs like these to be bundled into larger CRMs that integrate other critical business functions like the sales process and accounting.
Perhaps the best aspect of the programs is that the data you have taken the time and effort to enter into the system is constantly being built up, creating a growing database of information about your operation that can always be seen in real-time. All of that data can be manipulated and grouped in any number of ways to create a number of valuable reports that can show you snapshots of your inventory, or help you forecast and plan by reviewing your data by any criteria you choose.
And unlike cumbersome paper records or spreadsheets that are sitting on the hard drive of one computer, information is instantly accessible and always available, either to one person or it can be shared among many users across several locations, if necessary. And when data is inputted or inventory counts updated, everyone sees it, right away, instantly.
Some concerned business owners may worry that without their inventory data sitting in their possession on paper, or on a disc or hard drive, it may not be secure, and could easily get lost forever in this virtual cloud and its out of their control. However, any reputable inventory management technology vendor - or anyone who deals in these increasingly convenient and popular cloud-based applications - has all data secured on servers that are backed up. Its also common that there are extensive disaster recovery protocols in place so that client data is made redundant or in other words backed up a number of times, and in a number of ways to ensure data integrity and access..
