Saving Time and Money with Cloud Inventory Management System

There are few things that can be more destructive to your distribution business then inefficiency throughout all stages of the process. In particular, inventory management is a big part of your day-to-day operations. As a result, cloud inventory management system included in cloud data applications can save your business a lot of money. It can also save you time and aggravation as well. This is energy and hours that you could allocate elsewhere. Here are a few of the ways that cloud inventory solutions aid your business.

Simplified Inventory

Instead of having to spend all either uploading inventory personally, or else having employees or contractors do it, inventory cloud systems let you handle this in just a few steps. Generally, all you have to do is first type up an inventory list or else transfer it from whatever old system you’re using. Then, you just quickly scan the barcodes of your items. If you don’t have a separate device for this, you can often do it with a smart-phone. And that’s it; everything will then be available on your account through the service you use.

You will then have full access to reports and every manner of information manipulation. This includes exporting this information to a number of different mediums, depending on the application used.

Straight-Forward Setup and Use

Many of these systems simply require a monthly rate which is not generally that expensive. The advantage here is that you don’t have to worry about a license or an extra fee for setup, or even for a lengthy setup process with a lot of extra equipment. It’s often just download and go. In addition, many of these systems are completely flexible about which device you use. If you have a high-level business computer, this will work. On the other hand, if you have the lowest grade smart-phone available on the market, this will usually work as well.

You’ll have access through both in-house equipment and any handset that you need to use it to ensure portability. This way, you can stay on top of your inventory no matter where you are, not just in town, but anywhere in the world.

Traceability with Cloud Inventory Management System

The point of having inventory as a business is to move it to where it needs to go when it needs to go there. The longer it stays put when it needs to move, the more money you lose. The same also applies when it goes somewhere it shouldn’t, or if it stays where it is when it’s supposed to go out somewhere. All of these outcomes are more likely if you’re trying to do everything manually.

But, on the other hand, if you have a cloud system to alert you to the movements and present locations of all of your inventory, you’ll have a good idea of where everything is at all times. Many systems also allow you to be alerted to discrepancies between what an inventory item should be doing and what it actually is doing. So, for example, you’ll often be informed of delayed inventory ahead of time. This will make it much easier to avoid bad situations that can cost you money. Since you can access this information 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, you’ll never be in the dark. This may not be the case with more manual approaches since some of the services you deal with that way might be subject to the business hours of whatever country your inventory is on.

Security Advantages

Since your system is on the cloud, you don’t have to worry about your hardware being broken into physically as much. If someone steals your phone, they will just have your phone. Without the password to your system, they won’t be able to access it. If you use a laptop to keep track of all of your inventory manually, loss of the laptop could be fatal.

This is also the case if your physical devices fail for whatever other reason. If you drop the laptop or phone and break it, your inventory data could be entirely lost, for example. You would have to hope that the hard drive survives and it may not. That’s why cloud inventory is so beneficial. No matter what disaster befalls your equipment, all of your data is stored elsewhere and will be kept safe. You don’t have to worry about constant backups. If you store your physical backups at the same location, this is only of limited value anyway.

This also means that your data can’t be leaked because someone gets physical access to your system. The password will keep them from locating the data where it is on the cloud.

Reports and Customizability

Cloud inventory data systems allow you to customize how your data is displayed. If you have a particular layout that you find makes it easy for you to understand information and act on it quickly, then you can do this easily within the app. The time it takes to update other people within your company or working with your company is also reduced since you can share data easily across as many units as your service allows.

Flexibility is often the order of the day in these modern times. Cloud inventory systems give you more flexibility than you could ever possibly need. No matter what business you’re running in the distribution field, you’ll be sure to run it better with some automated inventory cloud services.