By Jim Lewis, CEO Enhanced Retail Solutions LLC

Every business operates differently. They are at various stages in their lifecycle. Studying efficiency, especially related to inventory planning, generally uncovers processes or workflows that could be greatly improved if automated. We often see clients spending hours on something that can be done faster and cheaper. But they are not always confident a new solution will work for them, or they may feel the price of implementation is prohibitive. In many cases, that is simply not the case.

Customized Solutions

Depending on the scope of the need, a solution may be simple or complex to implement. For example, if a data file downloaded from a web portal needs to be re-formatted, then copied and pasted into a template, integrated into a database and refresh a report- that can all be automated using Microsoft Excel Macros and Microsoft Power Automate. Many people are proficient with macros but less comfortable using Power Automate. Power Automate can be set up to retrieve the file, save it, open it and then run the macro- without any human intervention. The few hours it takes to set it all up will save an enormous amount of man hours every week.

AI built into Microsoft’s Power Automate (CoPilot) can create most of the routines on its own- a practical use of AI. But the devil is in the details. You can’t rely 100% on AI (yet). So, you need someone to create it who really understands the tools, the data sets and the business need. Human powered intelligence and experience are still required.

This business requires very specific inventory designations, criteria for determining item performance and recommended actions. All can be customized, saving the team hours of work.

Custom Reporting

Here’s an example of a more complex example. A large company with hundreds of thousands of SKUs needs a way to manage them, plan and forecast. They need the ability to track items and tag them in different categories, so they can prioritize action. We curated a performance report to do that. With 9 specific categories, this report very quickly enables them to determine inventory health, prioritize action and find items that are opportunities or liabilities. The large dataset is managed at the back end and advanced algorithms and scoring system do the hard work. To visualize it and provide interactivity for the user, we customized a dashboard in Power BI. The result is a management tool that updates itself and uncovers opportunities and liabilities that may otherwise go undetected.

Curating reports based on a business’ specific logic criteria and the experience of each user showcases how customization can save time, reduce friction and provide users more intelligence to make better decisions.

Other Considerations

Many companies would look to reporting in SAP or another large-scale ERP system, but they are not affordable and require intense resources to implement. Using their web-based ERP system, ERS was able to integrate the data needed and customize a more streamlined solution that focuses just on the most needed information and tools.

Other larger scale examples include a financial planning tool for private brand sourced products, fabric planning tools, an image warehouse for designers and Amazon forecasting. Each of these were tying employees time up doing a lot of manual work, and less time on making smart decisions. In many cases, they couldn’t even get to the data they needed to make decisions.

Does your company have a specific challenge? Is the team spending too much time on a particular task? Let us see if we can help you.