Tired of managing your inventory with an Excel document?
You want to update your inventory management methods, but you don’t yet know if you want to invest in the development of a customized software or in an off the shelf software?
When it comes to setting up an inventory management system, a company has two choices :
How to make the right choice?
Before choosing, it is important to demystify some of the myths surrounding in-house development solutions, to better understand why an external solution is probably more beneficial to your organization.
A company that decides to implement an in-house inventory management solution tends to believe that it will reduce costs because the developers are in the company, so if there is a problem, they can fix it directly.
However, it takes a lot of time and money to build an effective inventory management system.
In addition to paying for hardware, licenses, and employee wages, you will often face unforeseen expenses.
Often, an organization chooses to hire interns to assist in the development of a system.
Keep in mind that when a trainee or employee leaves, they leave the job with their knowledge. Therefore, you will have to invest in the training of another.
The advantage of a turnkey solution is that the initial costs include installation and training period.
Then, payments are made monthly or annually, depending on the company.
In the medium and long term, it is a system that remains much more profitable.
Just because an in-house solution is more accessible doesn’t mean it’s quicker to implement.
An in-house solution can be extremely time consuming to develop. First you have to find competent developers, which can be a real challenge.
Once the team of programmers is composed, they have to think about the structure of the software (functional mock-ups) and then start development.
With a turnkey solution, the provider supports you in the implementation of the system. As the software is already developed, the implementation delays concern training, configuration and deployment.
A turnkey solution is up and running faster than custom software. You won’t have to worry about availability or accessibility of the software, everything is already thought out by your supplier.
If a company wishes to produce software in-house, it must ensure that it has not only a good team of developers, but also IT specialists to ensure data security and accessibility.
Of course, having a technical team on site may allow you to solve your problems more quickly.
On the other hand, the language and code structure used may differ from one developer to another. If your team does not have the expertise to solve certain problems, it can become very complex and waste a lot of time.
With an off the shell software, you won’t have to worry about the team of developers behind the product. They will be there to assist you when you need help.
No matter if you need support the first month and 5 years later, the development team of an external provider will always be there to answer your questions.
As external vendors are continually working to improve their solution, feedback from their users is very important.
It may be that the main goal of the development team is to build a solution that will meet the needs of the business. That doesn’t mean it will be the easiest solution to use.
A developer does not necessarily have a background in user experience, he can focus exclusively on developing the product.
Regardless of the degree of complexity, the user experience remains crucial in the development of an inventory management system.
After all, it’s your company’s employees who operate it. This side of development is often overlooked due to a lack of time and expertise.
Also, by leveraging a custom development solution, you don’t really get any feedback from customers, for example. This makes it more difficult to improve your system later on.
When software is used by different types of users, their recommendations will be used to improve the functionality of the software and the user experience.
Often, an external vendor’s programming team will be composed of staff dedicated to the user experience.
Their primary objective is to put forward a product that the user will be able to manipulate with simplicity and speed, regardless of his informational ease.
The user experience is at the center of developers’ interests. If you’re looking for easy-to-use software, get a turnkey solution.
Did you know that there are turnkey solutions that can be customized?
Inventory management software like Hector offers you the best of both worlds. A simple and efficient system designed to meet your needs.
Hector offers specific developments, in addition to assisting you throughout the deployment process. The price is also calculated according to your request.
Are you interested in this option? Visit our website to gather more information and request a quick demonstration.
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