Custom Inventory Management Software
Capabilities, Benefits, Costs
Since 2012, ScienceSoft designs and builds reliable inventory solutions that help companies automate and optimize their unique inventory operations and facilitate inventory planning and control.
Inventory Software in a Nutshell
Inventory software helps businesses better align inventory levels with the production demand, optimize inventory carrying costs, and mitigate internal and external inventory-related risks. Custom inventory software provides real-time visibility and comprehensive analytics on inventory levels and costs and automates inventory management processes, such as planning, purchasing, and tracking.
Custom Inventory Management Software: Key Features
Inventory software development helps create a solution with unique functionality to serve specific inventory planning, purchasing, and control needs. Below, we have summarized fundamental inventory management software features based on ScienceSoft’s experience with custom inventory software projects.
Inventory control
- Inventory tracking and real-time updates (based on barcode or RFID scanning).
- Automatic reorder points calculation.
- Bill of Materials (BOM) creation and management (for discrete manufacturing).
- Inventory transfer request management (for multi-location optimization of inventory levels).
- Inventory valuation (based on FIFO, LIFO, or other methods).
Item management
- Inventory items cataloging.
- Inventory kitting (for retail & wholesale industry).
- Filtered item search (by SKU name and description, expiration date, etc.).
Supplier and purchase order management
- Rule-based supplier assignment to purchase orders.
- Purchase order creation and approval, status tracking, history overview.
- Automatic inventory replenishment orders (triggered by reorder points).
Customer order management
- Sales order creation and status tracking.
- Automated invoice generation and approval.
- Automated package slips generation.
Inventory database management
- User permission configuration.
- User activity logs.
- Automated and manual inventory data upload.
- Bulk inventory data processing (e.g., data import/export).
- Inventory data backup, versioning and recovery.
Reporting and analytics
- On-hand/low-stock inventory report.
- Inventory turnover report.
- Days sales of inventory (DSI) report.
- Inventory discrepancy report.
- Average days to sell report.
- Aged inventory reports.
- Customizable dashboards.
- Alerts configuration (e.g., for low-level inventory, shipment delays, prompts for cycle counting).
Advanced AI-driven analytics
- Inventory optimization (calculating optimal inventory levels based on multiple factors, from sales data to weather conditions).
- Demand forecasting.
- Lead time forecasting (using historical data to predict lead times by items and calculating an optimal safety stock based on it).
Full Visibility into Inventory Processes with Inventory Management Software
Important Integrations for Inventory Management Software
ScienceSoft recommends integrating inventory software with other enterprise systems to boost company-wide operational efficiency (no manual data entry efforts, immediate information delivery), avoid errors (e.g., accounting discrepancies, lost orders) and functionality duplication.
Common integrations for inventory software include:
- Inventory management software + ERP (core integration, which connects inventory software with other function-specific software listed further): automated transfer of inventory data to ERP in real-time, which gives other business departments instant and accurate visibility into inventory-related details.
- Inventory management software + accounting software: automated transfer of inventory transaction data for accurate financial statement and shareable inventory carrying costs reports.
- Inventory management software + CRM: automated transfer of stock information to sales teams for quick customer order confirmation and order details from CRM to inventory software for a streamlined sales order and invoice generation.
- Inventory management software + a supplier portal: shared data with a summary and an in-detail overview of products/materials provided by each supplier; automated transfer of supplier current capacity information to inventory software (e.g., min and max order quantity); automated order placement for timely inventory replenishment.
A high level of workflow automation
Automated inventory data uploading from barcodes or RFID systems, automated inventory replenishment orders, invoice templates, etc. To increase the productivity of inventory and purchasing specialists and warehouse workers and decrease human error.
A predictive analytics module
To enable data-driven demand forecasting to minimize both stockouts and overstocking, detect shifting customer preferences and seasonal trends, and optimize inventory processes in accordance with overall business goals.
Intuitive UI
Tailored to each inventory workflow of the company to make user adoption easier and drive employee productivity.
Inventory Management Software for Herbal Medicine Manufacturer
- Monitoring the herbs stock at the stages of harvesting, internal packaging and storing.
- Solution integration with an electronic scale for the automated upload of weighing information.
- Easy inventory database navigation.
Customer’s benefit: more convenient and efficient control over inventory data and operations at scale.
SaaS Module for Food Inventory Management
- Managing and storing data on raw food items, final products, recipes, manufacturers, and more.
- Assigning user-defined SKU values.
- Real-time inventory level monitoring.
- Automated updates of stock data upon inventory utilization for production and selling.
Customer’s benefit: optimized inventory levels.
Restaurant Inventory Management Software
- Permission-based access for restaurant executives, managers, barmen, etc.
- Web and mobile access to the up-to-date menu for restaurant guests.
- Drill-down dashboards to track, manage and transfer stock items.
- Inventory order management.
Customer’s benefit: streamlined inventory management, enhanced team productivity, improved client experience.
Supply Chain E-Collaboration Network for 1,700-Store Retailer Auchan
- An auto-updateable, scalable inventory database.
- Real-time aggregation of inventory data from relevant sources.
- Advanced inventory analytics and automated report generation.
- Role-based access control.
Customer’s benefit: high quality and relevance of inventory data, minimized risk of stockouts and overstocking.
1
Business needs analysis and requirements engineering for the inventory management system.
2
Designing the functionality, architecture, and tech stack for the solution.
3
Project planning: scope, deliverables, timelines, budget, etc.
4
Inventory software development.
5
Quality assurance in parallel with coding.
6
Inventory data migration (from spreadsheets or a previously used inventory database tool).
7
Integration with the required corporate and third-party systems, including hardware systems.
8
User training.
9
Continuous support and evolution of the inventory management solution (optional).
For more information on the specifics and duration of each stage, please visit our detailed guide to inventory system creation.
Investments and ROI: Custom Inventory Management Software
An expected payback period for custom inventory management software is 5-8 months with 120-190% of ROI.
The implemented system may bring the following financial outcomes:
- Inventory costs savings due to optimal volumes of on-hand stock and stockout costs eliminated up to 100% due to accurate demand forecasting and real-time inventory control tools.
- Revenue growth due to a higher fill rate with automated and optimized inventory operations.
From ScienceSoft’s experience, the cost of custom inventory management software ranges between $90,000 and $400,000, depending on the number and complexity of functional modules and required system integrations.
$90,000–$250,000
For a midsize company.
$250,000–$400,000
For a large enterprise.
When Custom Inventory Software is Your Best Choice
ScienceSoft recommends opting for a custom solution in case:
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Inventory Software Development with ScienceSoft
In custom software development since 1989, ScienceSoft is ready to design and build advanced inventory solutions tuned to business specifics. Whether you need to create custom inventory database software, custom inventory counting software, or an all-in-one inventory management system, our team of 750+ IT professionals is at your service.
Consulting: custom inventory software
- Defining inventory software functionality based on business needs analysis and outlining technical requirements for it.
- Choosing the best-fitting tech stack.
- Preparing a project plan with estimated costs and time budget for implementing inventory software.
- Designing a secure software architecture.
- Creating UX and UI mockups reflecting inventory workflows.
Development: custom inventory software
- Analysis of inventory needs.
- Inventory management software architecture design.
- UX and UI design.
- Development of inventory management software (web and mobile).
- Integration with other internal software (accounting, CRM, etc.) and hardware (RFID system, if required).
- End-to-end quality assurance.
- Post-implementation support and evolution.
About ScienceSoft
ScienceSoft is an IT consulting and software development company headquartered in McKinney, TX. We provide technical guidance and develop inventory management software that helps meet customer demand while optimizing inventory levels and reducing related carrying costs. Being ISO 9001 and ISO 27001-certified, we rely on a mature quality management system and guarantee cooperation with us does not pose any risks to our customers' data security. Check our offer on custom software development to learn more about our development approach.