What hurdles will my company face in implementing inventory management software?
Integration, data quality, and training will take the lion’s share of your attention. Separately-sold inventory management software must often be integrated into existing ERP and SCM systems, often at great expense — and that’s just the IT systems. Typically, separate inventory management and demand planning departments must also come together in collaboration. A formal sales and operations planning (S&OP) process, perhaps with supporting web portals, can facilitate this. You might need to reformat legacy data or develop custom applications to collect new information to allow the inventory management software to do its job. Users often need training in inventory management methodologies before being handed the software. “The ‘training the trainer’ philosophy is usually what works best,” said Noha Tohamy, an AMR Research vice president. About the author: Freelancer David Essex has covered information technology for BYTE, Computerworld, PC World, and numerous other publications and web
