Assignment 1: Inventory Management Systems
Pedro Pereira
Strayer University
CIS 210 Systems Analysis And Development
Instructor: Rick McMaster
November 2, 2015

Assignment 1: Inventory Management Systems
There is nothing more frustrating than going to a store to purchase a product to find out that they are out of stock. This not only generates frustration for customers but it is a missed opportunity for the retailer to make a sale and earn a profit. Lack of an effective inventory management system can lead to business owners to buy too much or not enough which in both occasions with lead to losses. Inventory management systems ensure that customers always have enough merchandise and that retailers have the sufficient goods to be sold in a determined timespan. Some companies such as Walmart have really excelled with its inventory management systems as they offer a just in time policy where suppliers are notified when the company is about to be out of stock of certain goods. This allows Walmart to save money on having a more robust inventory and the company is able to negotiate prices better with its suppliers.
However, having an efficient inventory management system is crucial for all types of business, whether they are large or small. To better illustrate that, my family and I usually have dinners together on Sundays when we caught up about any recent updates in everyone’s lives. Recently, my sister told the family that she was experiencing a little bit of trouble at work. She mentioned that she needed to become more efficient with her inventory tracking for her small clothing store. She noticed that managing the stock of her small clothing store manually is getting on her way to expand her business. My sister complained that manually managing her inventory is time consuming and she does not have enough capital to hire more help at the moment.
According to a Houston Chronicle article written by David Ingram, a small-business owner who regularly confronts modern issues in management, marketing, finance, and business law at his company Ingram, “inventory is the most valuable asset in a large number of small businesses, and it can also be one of the most difficult assets to keep control.” He asserts that “setting up an inventory control system can help [small-business owners] to maximize the value of the inventory by keeping costs under control” (Ingram, 2015). Having that in mind, as my sister is having current issues in manually keeping control of her inventory and business expenses due to the size of her business which does not allow her to hire additional help, I have advised her that using technology and new portable inventory and credit card solutions provided by mobile applications can be an alternative to save costs and maximize her earnings.
A June 10, 2013 Forbes article commented on the 5 best inventory management applications that have been used by multiple business owners as a way to maximize their profits, including Inventory Tracker, SOS Inventory, Retail Inventory, Lettuce, and jumpStock. The first one serves as a comprehensive inventory tracking system to be used in tablets such as an iPad. According to the article, “it works excellently in synchronizing your inventory and comes some really amazing features that you would not expect from a desktop app.” (Burg, 2013). One of the best features for his app is that it has a free version and its pro version only costs about USD 3.99, which is excellent for an upcoming small-business owner such as my sister. Following are the screenshots of InventoryTracker provided by GooglePlay store. These provide an overview of how the app can be used by my sister and it outlines its main features, including inventory tracker, options to add new inventory, review current inventory, manage inventory, balance sheet, metrics options to review summary charts, and other options, including automatically back up database to portable media devices, link and unlink the app from Dropbox account, and others.

During our discussion I also recommended that since she is going to start using this new approach to her business, she should also considering another application named Square, which is a mobile app, which provides credit card processing, and business solutions. The company was founded in 2013 and its software can be downloaded in any portable device, including smartphones, tablets, and laptops. The company appears to provide its magnetic stripe card readers to its users for free. With technological developments in the recent years, small business owners are turning to mobile technology to help manage their work flow and using Square would be not only a cost effective decision for my sister, but also a way to save money for other company developments. Following is a diagram for my sister’s clothing store’s inventory management system:

The great thing about working with mobile apps is that it decreases the needs to invest a lot of money in database development, training, implementation, and maintenance, as Square provides all of the ones mentioned as part of its subscription. In order to use Square, my sister would only need to purchase an iPad or other tablet device to operate with the Square Stand which costs about USD 99. Once she acquired Square, she can then use some of its partners which provide inventory management apps. Square has recently developed a better customer service that has been approved by many to be great. The idea of having an automated system by simply using a tablet or other portable devices may seem to be rather unusual. However, the amount of small businesses and entrepreneurs, which are investing in mobile technology to save money, become more efficient, and grow as a business continues to increase on a daily basis. Since my sister will be automating the inventory management of her company by using applications on portable devices, the costs associated with her overhead will decrease as managing such systems require minimal initial investment. The reason is that these applications are mostly free and fees associated with their use are lower than the ones charged by major credit card providers. Furthermore, the maintenance required to her clothing store is also low. For example, the customer service for the applications that she will start using are mostly through the phone and users have already provided excellent feedbacks on service. The way to go in 2015 is starting business with the usage of portable devices and the various types of tools that will make your business launch in style.

References
Burg, N. (n.d.). The 5 Best Inventory Management Apps. Retrieved November 2, 2015, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/ups/2013/06/10/the-5-best-inventory-management-apps/
Ingram, D. (n.d.). Setting Up an Inventory Control System. Retrieved November 2, 2015, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/setting-up-inventory-control-system-2236.html