The motto of the Maryville, Tenn.-based SkuFlow Inventory Systems is "Simplicity is Beautiful." For clients in the book industry, this simple solution means that they can track inventory worldwide, in real time, from one screen. In a recent interview with Bargain Book News, SkuFlow owner Chris Hendrix explained how the cutting-edge inventory control system he developed works and why it is making life easier -- and simpler -- for media industry companies large and small.

Q: What does the name of your company mean and how it is pronounced?

A: It's pronounced "skew-flow." The reason we named it SkuFlow is because what we do primarily is help people manage their inventory. People track stock by sku numbers, which is "stock keeping unit." Flow signifies that your inventory is always changing and we are a company in motion.

Q: How does SkuFlow work?

A: It is really a pretty simple concept. SkuFlow is an online business solution. The main function is to help a company better manage their data. That is really all we do. We don't inventory any product. We don't sell online as to not to compete with our customers.

            Let's say you have two warehouses. If somebody in Ohio, for example, receives a purchase order, then another person in Tokyo can know about it instantly. For the warehouse inventory portion, it is true real time. That means if somebody moves product, then you know exactly what is going on at all times.

Q: You are the owner of the company. Did you also invent the software?

A: I am the owner and head programmer. I developed SkuFlow with some of the top-notch programmers I have worked with over the years. I have been in computers for about 25 years.

            The reason that this software has been so successful is that I graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1993 with a degree in Logistics and Transportation. So it is not that we are programmers thinking that we know about warehousing, fulfillment and sales -- we actually have the education and training to back up what we are saying.

Q: What are some of the advantages of SkuFlow over other data management systems?

A: One of the advantages of our system is that it changes instantly based on customers' needs. For example, if a client needs a report, we can write that report and make it available without them having to download any additional software.

            There are companies that provide inventory software and it can be very cumbersome. For example, there are businesses right here in Knoxville that have spent a half million dollars on an inventory system. They got it and were very happy with it, but it didn't do exactly what they needed it to do. So they ended up basically wasting a half million dollars they could have spent on inventory and then had to go out and hire programmers to come in and customize their system. After all that, they are still having trouble with the system,

            The main advantage of our system is that we are not a group of programmers in an office somewhere writing code. I have eight programmers around the country who are out at clients' facilities in a real-time atmosphere. They are talking with clients to figure out exactly what they need and then they do the programming from the field.

            We're basically talking to the most overlooked people in these companies, the people who are actually doing all of the manual labor. We're getting all of their direct input on how to make this thing more efficient. Of course, we also bring in the management needs and points of view.

Q: How does getting that direct input onsite help you create more effective, user friendly software?

A: With most of the other companies that offer similar software, the systems are so complicated to use that you don't really know what you can or cannot do with it. We write all of our software around a fifth grade educational level with tons of easy to use features.  It can be used by anyone who has never even used a computer before. The system is pretty much "point and click." After a few days of use, people are very comfortable using it.

Q: You used to have SkuFlow Lite, which was for smaller companies, and SkuFlow or the full version of the system. Now you only have one version, correct? Can you explain why you decided to make this change?

A: The light version was for small companies that needed a basic inventory program. It had a couple of sales reports but was pretty basic information. It was running about $49.00 a month.

            The full version was for larger companies that were looking for more robust sales reporting, inventory management features, etc.

            What we decided to do this summer (2005) was to create something called Clickit. We're working on it right now. Clickit works on a per usage rate that is very nominal. What happens is that whenever you use SkuFlow it is going to calculate how much you owe. You have an account and as you use the system it works like a debit card and subtracts the usage fee from your account.

            For example, say you put $150.00 in your account. You can put it on your credit card or we do take checks. You pre-pay and as you use the system we will make little debits out of that total. As you use the system, your balance drops. When it hits $25.00, we notify you to tell you that your Clickit account is running low. You can then either send us more money or recharge the account with your credit card.

            What Clickit is going to do is even the playing field. It is going to enable small companies to have the same type of robust business systems that the larger companies do, but it is going to fit more easily into their budget. They will have all the bells and whistles, but they will determine how much they pay for it because the fee is totally tied to usage.

Q: So the cost of SkuFlow will be different for every company because it depends on how much you use the system?

A: Right. The reason that we are doing that is to let all companies have the full benefit that they need. This empowers the company to determine how much they spend for the technology.

Q: Is technical service included in the Clickit payment system or is that an additional fee?

A: We offer our clients free phone support, e-mail support, and during normal business hours (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.), online chat support.

            Most of our clients hit the chat room. For example, they might say, "Hey, I need to know how to do a product sales history." What we can do through the chat room is direct their computer to the correct page. As we are there, we can explain to them exactly what they need to do and we will wait for them to see if they are able to generate the report.

            Like I said earlier, the only thing we really do is help companies better manage their data. For instance, we might have a client who needs a sales-history report. It is a one-time thing. They are not going to need this type of report all the time. We'll actually run that report for them and e-mail it to them at no cost.

Q: SkuFlow specializes in media industries, correct?

A: Our main focus is the media industry. The reason why is that is where we are the most comfortable. That is the biggest opportunity. We have been helping book companies since about 1997. We know books even though we don't buy or sell them personally. We know the remainder business inside and out. With the technology that we have we can provide a very thorough database with very little effort.

Q: Can you give us an example?

A: If a company deals in books and they are getting tired of sitting there doing data entry over and over and over on books, we can help. With SkuFlow they scan in a book on the dock and if there is no data entry we will automatically do that data entry right then and there.  We're not going turn away any customer, but we are definitely catering to the book, music, and movie industries. We hope to be able to offer sound clips on music before the year's end.

Q: You've mentioned some of the advantages of SkuFlow, but are there any additional benefits that would be of particular interest to people in the bargain book business?

A: From the book distributors point of view, SkuFlow offers real-time data anywhere in the world. So even if you have 1,000 employees and sales reps all around the world, they can monitor your available for sales inventory in real-time. That means that if a sale rep in Washington state sells 300 copies of a book and somebody in Florida is trying to sell the same merchandise, your system is going to tell the person in Florida that the inventory has already been sold.

            You limit your double sales. You also increase your sales because, with SkuFlow, there's a very powerful, built-in e-commerce Web site that we can help you customize. We help market the books, the music, the movies, etc.

            Likewise, for those who do have SkuFlow, as soon as they receive merchandise into their warehouse, it updates the product catalog. So from a book distributor's standpoint, they get a technical edge because there is no time waiting for all sales to be keyed in to know what you have on hand. You know your available product-for-sale inventory at all times.

            Now for the book buyer… Let's say that I am a small company. I have an Internet operation. How can SkuFlow benefit me? Well, for the smaller businesses, they get to have the same technology as the people that they are buying from. When buyers and sellers both have this system, it becomes more integrated.

            For example, for a book buyer, the advantage of having SkuFlow is that since all we do is manage data, they can more aggressively pursue purchasing. Why? If the vendors they purchase from use our software, they can monitor their inventory in real-time. They know company XYZ just received 50 of a certain title. I know that book sells well for me, so I am going to buy some copies.

            Also for the Internet dealers, we do offer a wide array of support tools. We analyze prices and handle all of the marketing in a professional way online at Amazon and several other Web sites. We also have worked with UPS Mail Innovations to develop a shipping system that is online and part of SkuFlow, It has built-in e-mail shipping confirmations and you can search all of your Internet sales records and monitor your outs.

            We've tried to cover all bases for any size business in the media industry.

Q: How difficult is it to switch to SkuFlow from an existing data management system?

A: Out motto is "Simplicity is Beautiful." When we bring a new client on, we ask them very simple questions. Do you already have a system? If they say, "yes," then we ask them to get us a spread sheet or data base or something in a digital format that has all of their customers. We then input that into the system.

            We can import sales histories, product information, and sometimes we can import current inventory. The advantage is the speed that we offer in not only our service but our support. If they want to open a new account and we get the data like we need it, we can actually open an account and have it set up and ready to go in about four to five hours.

It is a very quick, very easy process. We do all of the input and the account setup. We even troubleshoot the data to make sure that it is working correctly. And again, it is in real-time. Once we have the account, they can actually log-in to their brand new SkuFlow account and watch us load the data.

The most important thing is that for any client that signs up, we do require them to sign a confidentiality agreement. It is a two-way confidentiality agreement. That means that what we see as far as their business goes, including customers and sales, is totally confidential. It does not get shared. It is not accessible by any other company. We do need access for technical support but we don't use that information.

We have multimillion-dollar book distributors who feel very comfortable using SkuFlow and they definitely appreciate the respect and confidentiality that we provide.

Q: Is there anything else that you would like Bargain Book News readers to know about SkuFlow?

A: What this system can do for them is automate their business. I am not saying that they need to fire people whatsoever. But as people leave their company, SkuFlow will make them efficient enough that there will not be a need to hire additional people. I have seen that happen over and over again.  There are about 400 different programs that make up the SkuFlow inventory system and that is changing daily as our customers need new things. We are always writing new programs. We're finding out that our clients are definitely on the cutting edge. We live in an information world today and if you're not managing your information you are losing sales.

Q: If and when you ever get a chance to read, what is your favorite book or who is your favorite author and why?

A: It's really pretty funny. I work with all of these media companies, but I don't read that much. My favorite author at the moment is probably Dean Koontz. He is an out-of-the-box thinker and our idea here at SkuFlow is that we don't even have a box. We are way out there anyway.

Q: How can our readers find out more about SkuFlow?

A: The easiest way is to go to our Web site, www.skuflow.com.