No matter in which industry your business is in, it is the right time to start thinking about using inventory management software for your brand, before things happen that can irrevocably damage your brand. Things like losing not being able to fulfill a customer order as promised, track of inventory, and having no clear visibility can affect your customer base. If you don’t have an item, or can’t offer it, the user will go to some other place to get the problem solved.

In short, the time is now.

The good news is that cloud-based solutions has leveled up the playing field when it is about automating processes around controlling and ensuring cash flow, ordering inventory, and tracking where stock is.

What’s more, small and midsized businesses not only can ensure reporting and tracking capabilities measure up to industry giants and leaders, the flexibility and scalability of cloud-based systems actually lend an advantage. Cloud-based eCommerce software easily enables real-time visibility in inventory, with any time, anywhere access to critical information. It can function at an ERP system, integrating seamlessly with demand, and logistics.

While selecting software, it is important to define requirements with cost considerations. But there are a few key stock maintaining software features every company need to check when evaluating any system.

These include:

Automated Replenishment

It’s important to maintain the right amount of stock to support the service level expectations and to automate the process through tools. The software should automatically calculate preferred levels, stocking, re-order points and, lead times. For such organizations where distribution spans several locations, the system must allow for advanced parameters to help balance demand and supply across the organization. The stock management system should calculate key settings automatically, and it must manage stock across entire organization.

Cycle Counting

Even the most advanced solutions still need regular checks of stock levels for key items. By ensuring accurate item count, the stock manager may reduce levels of safety stock which can lead to operational savings. There are features in inventory management software available that ease this process, by enabling the manager to categorize inventory based on the volume of transactions and/or value. The software should also allow the manager to enter regular periodic counts of on-hand item quantities to maintain inventory accuracy. The software should automatically prompt for items to be counted, and categorize items based on volume/values, etc.

Traceability

Both increasing customer expectations, as well as increasing regulatory mandates, necessitate even greater visibility into the product lifecycle. A robust inventory management solution allows the manager to define inventory and assemble items as being serial tracked, providing a managed system of records to capture and identify all related information on all transactions to provide full traceability. In turn, the user interface should make it easy to search and drill down by a lot or serial number to access all related transactions.

Once these stock management software functions are in place, even brands with multiple warehouses will have the ability to see inventory levels end-to-end by adopting a few advanced features like multi-location tracking, and bin tracking.

Inventory management is an art. But the important thing is that you must make sure you have enough inventory on hand in the right locations to meet the demand — whether that demand is to supply a work order in a manufacturing facility or to meet customers’ service level expectations.

The right stock management system will offer many native features and tools to help you change this into a reality, including safety stock, tracking inventory in multiple locations, re-order points, demand planning, cycle counts, and distribution requirements planning.