A New Way to Look At Inventory
There are a lot of exciting, new cloud based solutions for Sage ERP. After many years of working with Sage ERP solutions, Sage Inventory Advisor has really caught my eye. The power of the inventory processing has always been a major strength of the Sage ERP solutions. A large amount of valuable and important data is captured in the day-to-day processing, within the distribution and manufacturing modules. The challenge has been organizing the information in a way that provides a clear picture of the state of your inventory and the vision of what you need to do to plan for future needs. Accessing that data and seeing it in a meaningful way usually requires multiple reports to be printed, data exported to Excel, or the creation of custom reports. That’s why I was excited to see that you can use Sage Inventory Advisor to get a modern, concise and comprehensive view of your inventory. Sage Inventory Advisor is a cloud-based solution that is affordable, fast to implement, and accessible on mobile devices via a Web browser.
It is a solution for mid-market companies looking to:
- Reduce excess inventory
- Reduce working capital
- Reduce stock-outs
- Improve fill rates
- Improve forecasting
- Reduce time spent on forecasting
Sage Inventory Advisor integrates with Sage ERP systems and analyzes inventory data, to identify where the biggest improvements can be made, along with producing quality forecasts and suggesting optimal replenishment recommendations. There are standard connection to Sage 100 ERP, Sage 300 ERP, Sage 500 ERP and Sage ERP X3 systems. Data is synched automatically with the cloud. It eliminates manual data import/export and dynamically transmits inventory data for analysis, forecasting, replenishment, order and supplier management. It is available anytime, anywhere for you to see the state of your inventory! Sage Inventory Advisor is valuable in many ways.
Diagnostic Tool
It is a very powerful Diagnostic Tool that allows you to clearly see the items that are important to you:
- Stock classification – focus on the items that are critical to your business
- Inventory valuation
- Excess inventory
- Stock outs, lost sales, surplus orders
- Supplier delivery performance
Forecasting Tool
The dynamic, graphical forecast engine assists user in forecasting and planning for future replenishment orders.
- Sales analysis and desired stock availability
- Risk of surplus
- Risk of stock-outs
- Early warning/alerts
Management Tool
No more printing multiple reports and trying to sort through the data.
- Optimal replenishment recommendation
- Ordering schedule
- Inventory planning and supplier management
- ERP Integration (sales, purchasing, inventory, finance)
- Exception Reporting
Another factor that made me realize Sage Inventory Advisor would be ideal for clients is the ease of implementation and the low cost. Implementation is relatively quick and can take anywhere from 2 hours to 2 days, depending on the level of complexity involved. Aside from some guidance or telephone consulting, no significant time is required from your staff. Sage manages all aspects of the implementation, maintenance and any future updates.
Sage Inventory Advisor is implemented at a low one-time set-up fee. Customers who have been using the solution have indicated that they realized their ROI approximately within the first 3 months based on the savings they achieved. The $299 per month ongoing fee is easily justified by the money saved by managing your inventory more efficiently.
Inventory is the largest business expense for a distribution, retail or manufacturing business. Many companies with inventories on hand are reactive to their product demand rather than being proactive. They really don’t know what product to order and when to order it. Therefore, they run into stock-outs or excess situations. If you would like to build upon the powerful ERP system you already have, I highly suggest you take a look at Sage Inventory Advisor. You will be glad you did!
Written by Trish Gardner, Account Manager at DSD Business Systems
