Are you a growing small or midsized company with inventory management challenges? If so, you could benefit from a modern inventory management system; their most commonly cited virtues include lowering inventory costs, wasting less money on expedited shipments, and experiencing fewer stock-outs.
You may be thinking, “But isn’t implementing an advanced inventory management system expensive and time-consuming?” That was true historically, yes, but fortunately, that’s no longer the case.
Cloud-based inventory management solutions offer advanced inventory management to small and midsized companies – even those operating on the tightest IT budgets.
What is a Cloud Application?
Cloud applications run offsite and are managed for you by the company that develops and sells the application. What you used to purchase as a software package is now a complete service known as software as a service (SaaS). When you purchase SaaS business applications, you don’t have to deploy, maintain, and upgrade the software – the software vendor does it for you.
So numerous are the benefits of SaaS applications that many companies have already made the move.
Benefits include:
- No more upfront costs – instead, you pay a monthly subscription fee that includes ongoing maintenance and upgrades, freeing up cash flow.
- No need for hardware – SaaS applications are delivered over the web, so all you and your employees need is an internet connection to use your SaaS applications anywhere, anytime.
Because SaaS applications free up your cash, improve your agility, make it easier for your employees to work (boosting morale), and make your IT systems easier to use, SaaS application purchases outpace traditional software purchases at SMBs worldwide.
Why SaaS is the Obvious Choice for Inventory Management
SaaS-based systems make inventory management faster and more efficient because while they have the same features/functions as traditional inventory management software, their user interfaces and dashboards are easier to use and more intuitive.
Such ease of use removes risk from your daily business operations. Before SaaS, you likely relied on the technical expertise of one or two IT experts to keep your inventory management system running, which left your other employees sitting idly when problems occurred and they waited for them to be fixed. In contrast, SaaS inventory management solutions are so easy to use that all your employees get up to speed quickly, removing the ‘expertise bottleneck’ and empowering your front-line staff to stay productive and feel more connected to the business and its goals.
ROI
What type of returns can you expect from your decision to move to a cloud-based (SaaS) inventory management system? Here are the most common:
- Reduced inventory investment of 20% or more
- A 35% reduction in the need for expedited shipments
- Improvements in inventory planner productivity of 60-80%
- Lower replenishment spending, typically 15%
- Reduction in stock-outs by 12-22%
- Improved employee and customer satisfaction
Conclusion
Given the combination of substantial business benefits and low upfront investment, there’s no reason to wait to modernize your inventory management capabilities. Inventory represents the lifeblood of your business, so managing it is far too important to leave to outdated, inefficient technologies.
To learn how easy it is to move to the cloud, contact us today.
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