By Kathlene Vercellino
Hicksville, N.Y.—One of the largest costs to any business is that of inventory or stock at hand. Whether a retailer, distributor or manufacturer, the amount of inventory held directly impacts your bottom line in more ways than can be imagined. Having too much cash tied up by not stocking up on items that customers need, can have a major impact on a business as well.

“Maximizing inventory is key to profitability,” said Dev O’Reilly, president and CEO of Rollmaster. “It’s important that the dealer know what he has and what is available, what is a valid reserve, valid order and what is not and he needs to know that quickly when he is trying to buy more material or replace it.”

In agreement, Bob Noe Jr., president of Pacific Solutions added, “Other than cash, inventory is the largest asset in most flooring businesses. Controlling that inventory and accurately costing inventory items is critical to job profit analysis.”

“In our business, tracking inventory is just crucial and QFloors takes care of that extremely well, from start to finish,” explained Ray Girard of CarpetsPlus Color Tile in Pocatello, Idaho. “It also saves us time and money. Without this software, we would have to have one or two more employees just to juggle paperwork and even then we wouldn’t be running as efficiently.”

A product that is in excessive demand is usually extremely difficult to manage. Supplying the right amount of products implies that an accurate demand forecast is essential. This impacts the entire supply chain.

SoftTalk software by Future Technologies keeps track of what a dealer has sold in an archieved file in case he needs to retrieve it in the event of a problem, noted Jim Webster, president of the company. “For instance, warranties usually last many years. If a customer comes back in three years with an issue, the retailer can retrieve her information from the archives and see the date she bought the flooring material, what product it was and what price she paid along with who installed it. To file a claim the store owner must have all this information.”

“Companies use business management software to not only efficiently run their supply chains but to streamline their entire business process, enabling them to offer a better customer experience and ultimately increase profitability and productivity,” added Ali Jani of Everest Software.

Inventory management can remove barriers between manufacturer and retailers and establish a closer relationship between them. Ideally it should be easy as the main aim is to reduce inventories. If items wanted are not at hand or even if merchandise wanted is reordered often, sales will be lost to competitors. Precise control of inventory is an essential ingredient for a successful company.

“We use Qfloors’ inventory management software and we feel it’s very critical to our business,” said Travis Fabrizio, president of three Ogden Carpet’s locations. Ogden’s is a 14-store, Utah-based chain that is part of the Floor To Ceiling buying group.

“At the end of every month, we print out a report and match it up to all of our inventory to make sure everything matches up,” he added. “The software saves us an enormous amount of time. It cuts out having to wade through stacks of paperwork and chasing down employees for information.”

Retailers must also take into consideration what kind of support a company can provide should a problem arise. This is important when making your choice. While the majority of software comes with initial training, once the client is running it and a problem occurs, where is he to turn?

(Editor’s note: Next time we’ll discuss the numerous support and training mechanisms provided by the various software companies.)

“I feel the level of support that we must provide for our customers has to be impeccable,” stated Edgar Aya, president of Comp-U-Floor. “When you call our company, you are going to get a live person and not a machine. You will be able to speak to one of our customer support people and most of the time we will have an resolution to your problem immediately.”

“I’m grateful you are addressing this because we see so many retailers who are misled in the support area by other flooring software providers,” added Ogden. “It is very common for a dealer to purchase a product and then find out, after the fact, that the product is too complex to learn without training, and the company is only too happy to train them for hefty additional fees. It is important for the retailer to know up front exactly what training is recommended with the system, and at what cost.

“Every purchase of our software comes with unlimited free trainings in Salt Lake City, Utah (travel expenses excluded) for as many employees as the retailer desires, and a year of unlimited phone and on-line support,” she continued. “However, many customers choose to have us come out for an on-site conversion and training. This typically entails four days of training the entire staff and converting the business over to QFloors. This quick turnaround time is mostly due to how easy the program is to learn.”

By providing timely accurate information pertaining to inventory location, movement and valuation, receipt of goods, sale and return of goods and profits a retailer can make sure his inventory is visible throughout a network. The challenge is to find a way to put these technologies to use and create value and competitive advantage.