If you ask any business owner what the most challenging part of managing their company is, nine times out of ten they will say inventory management. This is because inventory management affects many different parts of a business – from warehouse management and on-shelf availability to loss prevention, financial audits and customer satisfaction. It only gets more complicated as more product SKUs and locations are added.
As your business grows, how do you ensure you are maintaining the right amount of stock? Hold too much, and you may tie up working capital and inhibit growth. Not enough, and you may disappoint customers. A rock-solid inventory management system becomes even more critical when scaling your business.
Here are some common inventory management challenges:
Often, businesses use multiple systems to help manage their operations, including QuickBooks and Microsoft Excel. Initially, they find that the systems become insufficient to manage their operations. However, with any potential expansion locally or globally, smart business leaders are taking the time to re-evaluate internal operations and combine all systems into one fully integrated solution.
With information residing in different systems, reconciling data to a central location can be an impossible task. There is limited visibility of business performance, including inventory, expenses, cash flow and a clear picture of revenue coming from multiple locations. These challenges can affect the executive management’s ability to make strategic decisions.
As a company expands into more locations, the complexity of access to data grows enormously. To be fully productive, employees need to be able to get the information they need on any device they choose and at any location, without frustrating security or usability roadblocks. They also need the data to be accurate so they can trust the information they are passing to customers.
A great example of a company that has reaped the reward from smart inventory management is Vision33 customer, David Leadbetter Golf.
In addition to running golf academies, the company also sells training aids and golf merchandise through their online store across the globe. As the authority in golf instruction, David Leadbetter Golf chose SAP Business One to ensure a good position to grow and build a sustainable brand and business that will live beyond David’s legacy.
Because David Leadbetter realized that their record-keeping was not as precise and detailed as they needed it to be, Vision33 introduced them to cycle counting with SAP Business One. They found it to be a great asset as they can now value their inventory correctly. Several valuation adjustments were also made to inventory as they could not quantify the value of their total inventory prior to SAP Business One.
Since implementing SAP Business One, David Leadbetter has been able to gain better transparency of their inventory, revenue streams and expenses. They can now identify areas of the business that are profitable to further monetize their products and services. So far, they have seen a 15% uplift in revenue, an estimated 10% reduction in operational costs and 17% reduction in inventory to optimize stock; and this is just the beginning.
To learn more about SAP Business One and how it has been a game-changer for David Leadbetter, access our David Leadbetter resource page. Watch their video, read their success story, and listen to their feature in the Connected Enterprise podcast to understand how they improved their operations and prepared for growth by moving away from QuickBooks.