Frequently Asked Questions About SkuFlow Inventory Systems

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What is SkuFlow Inventory System?

SkuFlow Inventory System, or SIS, is a hosted application which resides on our servers behind a firewall and SSL encrypted transmission. Physically, the servers are locked and monitored 24 hours per day with a 99.9% up-time track record to help insure that your assets are fast and responsive whenever you need them. We believe in total customer support and unsurpassed software technical support and training.

SIS benefits companies by providing on-line real-time tracking of products, inventory, process batches, people... whatever your company does, SIS can handle the situation. If an employee in Taiwan moves an item from one location to the next, an employee in Seattle, Washington, knows where to locate that item - instantly. Managers can monitor the business from the road or home and track production in multiple locations at the same time.

There is no software to buy and there are no patches or upgrades to install. You do not have to hire technical people to keep in-house servers running. SkuFlow Inventory Systems is remotely hosted and can be customized for your business as required by your needs. If your company does not have a professional web presence, we can take care of that as well and integrate our ecommerce application so that people can order your product as soon as it is received into your warehouse. You can save money by selling product right off the dock before you spend money on labor to stock the items in your warehouse. SIS is a flexible and powerful data processing platform which is sure to help you save both time and money.

What modules are currently available?

SkuFlow Inventory Systems constantly grows and morphs into a more powerful application based on the needs of our clients. We rarely charge clients for customized programming as long as they share the solution with the rest of our clients. Our philosophy is that many minds make light work. Likewise, shared solutions for common needs allows us to keep our monthly usage fees down. However, if your business does require a proprietary application, it will be dropped into your local access bin and only your company will have privileges to use that module. Currently we offer the following modules:

Real-time inventory control
Wireless Sale Generation
Sales Reporting
Total Order Management
Inventory Management and Reporting
Employee Record Management
Upstream Vendor Management
Purchase Order Creation and Management
Complete Product Cataloging and Management
Packing Lists and Invoices
Warehouse Order Selection Pick Tickets
AutoPilot Wireless Order Selection System
Warehouse Mapping
Employee Time Clock Management
Intra Company Online Communications
See our full list of features here!

What type of payment plans do you have?

We have several types of payment plans including:

Single Payment (pay once for life)
Pay as you go (pay per click)
Monthly usage fees (with contract)

Single Payment allows large companies to invest in a software application for a single premium and then benefit by receiving free updates and new applications as we roll them into production at no additional cost. Some companies prefer not having to make monthly payments and we are happy to offer this method.

Pay as you go is a convenient way to ease into the application. With a minimum investment of $100, the money is put into your account and then deducted each time you use the system. Simple transactions bill out at $0.015 each while reports range from $0.05 to $0.10 per run. This payment method is the equivalent of a prepaid cell phone plan.

Monthly usage fees are the most popular payment method we offer. Simply buy one of our packages and agree to a 12, 24, or 36 month usage contract and pay by check or paypal each month. Sometimes as companies grow, they spend more on the pay per click method than they would on a contract plan which offer level usage fees regardless of how much your company uses the system.

The benefit of being an agile company is that we are flexible to your needs and you can switch from prepaid to monthly or from monthly to single premium depending on your needs. You have total control as to your payment plan with SkuFlow Inventory Systems.

Where are you located?

SkuFlow Inventory Systems is "in the cloud". We are a virtual company with no brick and mortar office. In today's economy, with employees being able to telecommute from their homes, a headquarter building would only add to monthly fees and we do not want to raise the costs for our clients. We are happy to exist fully in the mode of SaaS, or Software as a Service. We are always available to answer questions by phone, IM or email and that flexibility works well for our company as well as our family of clients.

How hard is it to migrate to SkuFlow Inventory Systems?

It's relatively painless to migrate to our inventory systems and usually takes from one to seven days to complete depending on your data set. If you have access to your customer, product, inventory and sales data in electronic format, we can usually import it for you in advance of using the system. Once we import the data, you're free to use the system as you see fit. However, you are also welcome to enter the data yourself. Most of the time, we do this at no cost to the client but in some cases when the have either very complex data, or simply a huge amount of data to import, we will negotiate a fair service fee to import the data.

What do you mean by wireless ordering?

Today's economy is on the cutting edge of technology. Companies which embrace technology will exceed and those which run from technology will fold. It really is that simple. With the popularity of the iPhone and tablet computers, your sales office and sales team can visit your customers and enter orders in real-time from the road. SkuFlow lives on the Internet and as a result, your employees can conduct business from anywhere. You can deploy your sales team out in the real world and orders can be entered from anywhere with an internet connection. If your customer wants to meet a sales employee at Starbucks, feel free to do so. Our goal in 1996 when we launched was to cut the reins which hold businesses back from real growth in real-time.

How does SkuFlow work?

As said earlier, SkuFlow lives "in the cloud". There is no software to download. You don't have to keep up with installing patches or upgrades. You don't have to pay network administrators to keep expensive computers running. You can use your existing computer equipment or have the flexibility to go high-tech with mobile wireless barcode scanners in your facility. We provide the platform for reasonable access and usage fees. This allows you to control your IT budget because we've really taken a lot of the high costs out of acquiring a high-end enterprise class inventory and sales system. Since we do not have a brick and mortar headquarter and are diligent to keep our own operating costs down, we have never increased usage rates from the day we opened our doors. However, economies and needs change so all contracts and usage fees include a right to raise those rates by 10% per year as needed. However, we're pretty good at keeping our own costs down and our rates remain stable just as they did when we launched so many years ago.

Using our SaaS (Software as a service) has several key benefits you need to consider when choosing an inventory and sales system. These include:

On-Line personalized support from 9am-5pm Monday through Friday
Emergency, weekend, holiday, or after-hour support available at low rates
No IT cash outlays for expensive in-house networking or servers
No further expense in bridging data over multiple facilities
No sticker shock for a large purchase price
Backups and comprehensive data history is included
Inventory experts can help you liquidate old inventory and help you find alternate selling avenues to increase your revenue
Outsourcing the application helps you concentrate on growing your business rather than the technology needed to usher in that growth
Automatic receipt of new modules as the roll onto our production platform

Will I need additional computers?

Yes and No. It depends on your application. We suggest using WiFi equipped wireless barcode scanners in your facility. Although we do not sell the hardware we are current on the technology offered in that field and can recommend several types of scanners depending on your need. However, as long as you have an internet connection, you can use any device with a modern web browser regardless of the operating system.

Contact us anytime if you have questions. We'll be happy to provide you with detailed and easy to understand answers as well as a cusotmized quote for service if you wish to sign up.

Your company is what your competitors and customers perceive you to be. Let Skuflow Inventory Systems optimize that perception today!

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