Top 10 questions to ask when choosing stock management software
Equipping yourself with stock and sales management software can really optimise your business and help it to grow. This is true for any size of company. Today's entrepreneurs have a choice of several solutions that can be a real lever for growth thanks to the automation of stock management.
Improving, simplifying and controlling in real time are the objectives of properly integrating stock management software. Gone are the days of Excel! Welcome to the age of new technologies. As an entrepreneur, you have better things to do than program inefficient and time-consuming solutions.
You're now in the process of finding the ideal solution for your business. But given the countless results on the Internet, you're thinking that it could be a daunting task! Let us guide you along the path to choosing the right software for your business. Here are the factors to consider and the questions to ask yourself first:
1. What is your company's profile?
The first step is to draw up a profile of your company, because each software package responds to specific profiles. You can group together the following information:
- B2B, B2C or both
- Type of activity: services, industry, crafts, etc.
- Distribution channels: shops, mail order, e-commerce, wholesalers, etc.
- International and/or national dimension
- Number of currencies to manage
- Number of products and references
- Number of suppliers
- Number of warehouses
- Number of simultaneous users, etc.
2. How big is your company?
Nowadays, whether you're a start-up, a very small business or an SME, you don't need to be a large company to benefit from the features of stock management software. There's something for every size of business.
So, by considering the size of your business (volume and number of employees), you can refine your search. The budgets allocated to this software vary widely, and you don't want to choose an oversized solution that will cost you too much! Make sure you know who the software is for, and whether it matches your business volume.
3. What are the challenges of stock management for your business?
Determining your objectives will help you to identify the software features you need more easily and more quickly.
Here is a list of challenges you may face in your company:
- Optimising and automating stock and sales management: to prevent errors and save time.
- Improving your purchasing strategy: to avoid stock-outs or overstocking and achieve better negotiations.
- Increase visibility across all your activities for more effective decision-making:
- Identification of costs and margins on your sales in detailed reports
- Real-time stock status and valuation
- Product traceability and location
- Collaborate with your team: your team's productivity and efficiency can be improved thanks to a collaborative platform in the Cloud.
- Increase service quality and customer satisfaction: stock-outs and pricing errors are costly, especially in terms of customer service quality.
- Manage an omnichannel distribution strategy : you sell via different distribution channels (e.g. e-commerce, shops, events, etc.) and you want to have a clear, real-time view of your stock.
This is obviously not an exhaustive list, but it will help you in your thinking.
4. Open Source vs SaaS (Software as a Service)?
You may be wondering what all the jargon is about! Without scaring you, it's best to familiarise yourself with some of the terms you're likely to come across during your research.
Open Source: this is software incorporating technology whose source code is available to programmers. The solutions offered are fully customisable, but require technical skills, high maintenance costs and frequent updates.
SaaS: SaaS software technology makes it possible to offer complete solutions in the form of subscriptions with shared hosting on an external server, with no maintenance costs or technical skills required. Updates are regular and carried out remotely. There are generally more functions available.
5. Hosted or installed software: what are the differences?
Installed software: The software is installed on your company's server after you have purchased a licence. You don't need the Internet, but you will have to outsource technical support and updates and then pay for the updates to be purchased and carried out within the company. Back-up is carried out in-house.
Hosted software: this is a solution installed on remote servers that can be accessed via the Internet. Payment is by subscription. These mobile solutions enable you to work remotely and from several systems: mobile, tablet, computer. Maintenance and data updates are carried out by the publisher. Finally, outsourcing data can provide greater security.
6. What's the budget?
Depending on the choice, the budget can be totally different. The key is to establish a budget envelope that corresponds to your finances and to study several proposals.
If stock management is crucial to your business, be careful not to minimise the budget. Some solutions are free, but are often not very scalable and have limited functionality.
Similarly, there seems to be no point in buying oversized software and spending huge sums on a tool that you will only use to 30% of its capacity. Especially as you'll find it hard to get to grips with because it's so complicated!
The budget can be envisaged as a single initial investment in the case of installed solutions, but beware: you need to plan for all the costs that will be added on: maintenance, updates, team training, etc.
In other cases, as with hosted solutions, you take out an annual or monthly subscription, with no surprises, which will give you a precise idea of the overall annual cost. The subscription packages on offer vary according to your usage. Before choosing a package, make sure you're well advanced in your thinking.
7. What functions do you need?
In general, software packages give a detailed list of the features they offer. Often, the list seems long and difficult to read. Learn to read between the lines, because often the same functionality appears in several places in different forms.
The software should obviously take care of the majority of your needs, but it's not the quantity of features that makes it more suitable. First make sure it 'sticks' to your objectives.
Here is a list of features, again not exhaustive, that will help you list your needs more precisely.
Sales management:
- Centralisation of contacts and customers,
- Easy product creation and barcode management,
- Quotations, order forms and invoices generated from one another at the click of a button,
- Real-time payment tracking,
- Support for multiple currencies,
- Price lists: different commercial conditions depending on your customers...
Purchasing and supply management :
- Centralisation of contacts and customers,
- Creation of purchase orders,
- Setting up an alert stock to avoid stock shortages,
- Monitoring order status, etc.
Stock management :
- Stock status and inventory in real time,
- Management of multiple warehouses,
- Stock adjustments: stock movements in and out, movements between different warehouses, etc.
- Product returns; dropshipping.
Statistics, reporting, dashboards: at any time, you need to be able to identify which products are selling best, which sector is the most buoyant, etc.
You should also take an interest in the software's potential for development. Your business is going to grow, and the solution you choose needs to be with you for at least a certain amount of time. Even if you don't need all the features immediately, think in the longer term. Check that the solution is dynamic and offers regular updates and new features.
8. Which integrations are essential for you?
Accounting, e-commerce, CRM - there are many interconnected applications that can optimise your organisation and working methods. For example, if you have a Shopify e-commerce site or accounting software such as Quickbooks, you'll need to ensure that they are compatible with your stock management software.
9. Quality of support and after-sales service?
Check that technical support is rated highly by users.
Some software can be tested free of charge for one or two weeks, so don't hesitate! This is the best way of finding out whether the software is right for your business and whether it will support you for as long as possible.
10. Ease of installation and use?
Finally, and certainly the most important point, is the software's user-friendliness and ease of installation. For example, some solutions allow you to import your data quickly and directly. In just a few minutes, the software is up and running.
On the other hand, ease of use is essential, because you're not necessarily a technology expert and you don't want to waste time. The more intuitive the software, the more useful it will be. What's more, if you have other users in your team, you'll need to train them so that they get to grips with the features as quickly as possible.
You're now well on the way to choosing the right, high-performance inventory management software. Take the time to study several solutions, and once you're convinced, you'll see just how much inventory management software can change your life, optimise your working methods and accelerate your growth.
Sponsored article. The expert contributors are authors independent of the appvizer editorial team. Their comments and positions are their own.
Article translated from French