Slashdot Mirror
Inventory Tracking & Purchasing
nimr0d writes "I work for a company is subcontracted entirely to the county government. We write the software in-house. We have approximately 100 different locations we service, and don't expect that to change much, for better or for worse. Currently, we have an archaic, DOS-based, ICOBOL inventory system which tracks every piece of digital equipment we have, by a individually unique serial number, which is further tracked by a 'SystemID', which is a container for each individual workstation. We then have another container for the location where the equipment resides. We currently track around 30,000 individual parts. Problem is, our system is very bug-ridden and is constantly prone to 'losing' equipment. We desperately need a new system for PO's, RA's, and inventory/cost/depreciation tracking desperately. Does anyone have any advice?"
"We need to be able to ship an exact copy of the system we originally sold them, in the event of a failure. Some stations serve different functions, so the ability to classify system's and parts by type is also very helpful. We also currently have flags for leased or purchased equipment, and whether that part is covered under warranty or not.
We have looked into several companies that write custom software, but they are looking for upward of $35,000 for a SQL or Access application, which is insane for a company of our size (approximately 25 people) to buy into. There has to be something out there reasonably priced that can do what we need it to, we can't be the only ones."
We have looked into several companies that write custom software, but they are looking for upward of $35,000 for a SQL or Access application, which is insane for a company of our size (approximately 25 people) to buy into. There has to be something out there reasonably priced that can do what we need it to, we can't be the only ones."
He's looking for ONE piece of software, not a handfull of cobbled together code snippets.
Steve's Computer Service, Hobbs, NM
How will such a system manage depreciation? Amortization of assets? Automatically deal with purchase orders? These things are mentioned in the requirements. And you simply can't have someone sitting there manually editing the inventory amount every time something gets sold. And what about integration with POS?
Your "solution" MIGHT work for a mom-and-pop shop, but even then, it would be an error-prone, tricky-to-use, work-intensive hassle.
$35,000 is not expensive for something like that.
Asset Tracker, a system which integrates wonderfully with Request Tracker is worth looking at, definitely. It has something of a learning and configuration curve, to be sure. Once you're over that, though, it works like a charm. Oh, and the price is right, too: Free.
GPL made simple: What was my stuff is now our stuff. If you improve our stuff, please keep it our stuff.
How will such a system manage depreciation?
$ ncol -2 | join -l, | sed -e 's/^,/$/g'
duh.
Amortization of assets?
vi won't work, but vim includes a macro.
duh.
Automatically deal with purchase orders?
in emacs 'PO' mode, use ctrl-meta-R ctrl-meta-Q crtl-meta-C ctrl-meta-P ctrl-meta-ASDF ctrl-meta-option-alt-command-F5.
duh.
If you can't be bothered to learn how free software works, you have no business on slashdot.
Don't take me for a troll, but I'd like to politely say that this seems like a rather inane question to make the front page of Slashdot. After all, anyone who has taken a programming class has been made to write software like this as a gentle, easy introduction to programming. Naturally, this is a real-world problem that is a bit larger and more complex than simple practice problems (ie larger data set, possible need for network code), but the fundamental idea is very similar.
The fact that the original system was written in COBOL and ran on DOS is a little telling. Back when my father used to work for Radioshack, he coded an inventory transaction system in BASIC in his spare time, and it was used by quite a few of their shops. His programming experience is quite modest, and he's always been more of a user than a coder.
My point being this: You can produce this software in-house a lot more effectively than by seeking an outside solution. Other people may have written programs (or systems of programs) that do what you want, but they aren't tailored specifically for your company. Also, I imagine that it would be a lot cheaper (sure, there is freeware, but somebody still has to work on it to make it fit).
Produce DETAILED requirements of ALL the processes that need to be performed and all the reports that are required of the system.
Step 2.
Determine what each part of the application is worth to you. How much business would you lose without it, how much easier would your job be if the software did it for you.
Step 3.
Find any existing products free or otherwise.
Step 4.
Compare the features against your requirements.
Step 5.
Offer to pay someone to implement those feature you want, that the software doesn't have. Possibly the original vendor / author of the software or for free software you could offer the job to someone internally if they're up to it, or well anyone really.
Step 6.
Look at what you've now got, realise that it's totally unworkable, just a buggy if not more so as the last software you used, and pay the $35k to someone else who works in the industry and knows what they are doing to sort out the mess.
Here's some free advice. Getting software to work exactly the way you want can be quite complicated and costly. Don't underestimate it.
09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
FAS Website
If you were thinking in spend $35.000 to get an specific app, you will be happier if you need to spend a lot less ... :)
Take a look at http://tinyerp.com/ if does everything you want and a lot more, maybe you will find it interesting. Yes it is an almost full featured ERP+CRM but the stock modules are pretty complete. They have the multiwarehouse you need, the backtrack and some aditional niceties.
You can use too http://compiere.org/, but from my experience with both packages, Compiere is heavier, harder to configure and uses Oracle, TinyErp uses postgresql is writen in python and is very easy to get a test bed working.
Hope it helps you
I think everyone here who has a programming degree is rolling their eyes. This is a no-brainer:
1. Find and hire a young CS student
2. Pay them well for the summer
3. Discuss exactly what you want the software to do for you
4. Watch the kid build it in record time before your eyes
5. Give them a 1000$ bonus in the end and enjoy the app.
Seriously, this sort of app is the every programming student's first major project. Most "custom business solutions" are basically the exact same thing, but with a glorified interface and extensive, bullshit-ridden documentation to please the bean counters. Let's face it, at least 75% of "business solutions" involve storing all your customer/product/service/billing data and retrieving it later as you need it, then running stats on the aggregate data to help streamling your business processes. It's all just a database with input dialogs and reporting facilities.
-Billco, Fnarg.com