DSI® Cloud Inventory® Provides Successful Inventory Management Solutions Across Industries

DSI®, a leader in mobile-first inventory management solutions, is implementing its Cloud Inventory® Software as a Service (SaaS) platform to provide innovative solutions for businesses across a wide range of industries. The Cloud Inventory platform provides cloud-based inventory management that empowers organizations to capture, share, analyze, and act on information from any mobile device, making real-time end-to-end inventory control possible. Cloud Inventory solutions are improving efficiency and helping a diverse variety of businesses account for increased supply chain complexities, while reducing the potential for errors associated with traditional approaches to inventory management.

Flexibility is key. The Cloud Inventory low-code platform allows users to enable processes without modifying the systems of record. In addition, the platform is designed for the precision and efficiency that are crucial in any industry with advanced inventory control needs, providing users with visibility into the exact state, location, and authenticity of inventory in real-time—from raw material to work-in-progress, to finished goods, whether in the warehouse, in the field, or on the way to the end customer. Recently, a number of businesses have successfully implemented Cloud Inventory solutions including Aegion, a leader in pipeline manufacturing; Briggs Healthcare, a medical equipment & supplies provider; and Cambridge, an industry-leading producer and distributor of paving stones and wall stones. The Cloud Inventory platform provides the sort of inventory control solutions that are sought by businesses across a wide range of industries.

Aegion Benefits from a Modern Approach to Inventory

Aegion has been a leader in the pipe maintenance industry for over 45 years. The business initially focused on sewer rehabilitation but has expanded significantly in the last ten years by acquiring oil and gas businesses. This expansion has led to a substantial increase in the complexity of business processes in the warehouse and the field across the company’s many locations.

Aegion’s use of manual, paper-based processes posed a challenge as the company sought to optimize the efficiency of their growing field operations. Aegion has approximately 400 crews in the field daily, and all these crews create field tickets by hand. Using this sort of paper-based process on a large scale meant a delay in capturing and using valuable information. The concern was that this delay had a detrimental impact on Aegion’s ability to meet its customer service goals. To achieve optimal efficiency and responsiveness in its customer service, Aegion sought to gain a more precise, real-time understanding of what was happening each day in the field. While a significant amount of data was being gathered in the field using the hand-recorded system, all this data was being recorded onto paper and stored in cabinets, where the information could not be accessed quickly and in response to the demand of an increasingly large customer base. Aegion needed the capability to share information with more people, and it needed to share that information in a more time-efficient manner.

This is where the Cloud Inventory platform came in. Cloud Inventory was able to provide Aegion with an adaptive and thorough transition away from its paper-based system. Aegion selected the Cloud Inventory platform to develop applications that were tightly integrated to its specific business needs as a pipeline manufacturer, enabling the company to implement a more efficient and time-responsive inventory management system that does not rely on the cumbersome paper-based data storage it had previously used. With the Cloud Inventory platform, Aegion can develop and deploy applications that solve specific business challenges while integrating into their JD Edwards back-end system. The increased precision of real-time inventory visibility in the field enables Aegion to be better prepared to provide accurate customer service in a timely manner, and to adjust to the increasing complexity of their operations without having to pursue increasingly complex and inefficient information storage approaches.

The streamlined efficiency and configurability of the Cloud Inventory SaaS not only reduces complexity, it reduces costs. Because Cloud Inventory is a single platform with few additional IT needs, Aegion benefits from a reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

“When it comes to the type of information that we capture in the field itself, there was nothing out of the box available to address those needs,” said Thys Lourens, Chief Information Officer for Aegion. “That’s where the reconfigurable development piece on the DSI side helped us tremendously.”

Using the flexible Cloud Inventory platform to build applications that met their specific needs, Aegion was able to streamline their processes across their business in both the U.S. and in Canada. Unsurprisingly, since moving to digital applications, Aegion has significantly decreased the time it takes to complete invoices. Using its previous paper-based process, this could take weeks, but with Cloud Inventory, completing invoices now takes only one day. In addition, Aegion has projected a 200% reduction in the time it takes to process daily field tickets.

The Cloud Inventory platform’s highly configurable has been a key for Aegion. The Aegion IT team is now able to self-sufficiently develop applications tailored to their operations, meaning that they can turn applications around very quickly since they do not have to rely on an outside resource. For example, using the Cloud Inventory platform Aegion is currently developing a safety application on a mobile device designed to be used by every employee to capture safety observations. Using this application, Aegion will be able to analyze information about safety in the field to create more effective training materials and programs that address the most common safety issues that Aegion employees encounter.

But Aegion has not just improved the process for their own team using Cloud Inventory. They have also significantly improved service levels for their customers. The Cloud Inventory platform enables Aegion to report and bill work as it is completed in a timely manner, effectively addressing the company’s initial problem of facing the increasing competitive demands for timely service from a growing customer base.

For Tim Bremer, Director of IT Applications at Aegion, the choice of the Cloud Inventory platform came down to the platform’s intuitive ease of use, which enables widespread implementation that can have the array of benefits seen throughout a company like Aegion since making the switch to a cloud-based approach to inventory control. In deciding to choose DSI’s Cloud Inventory solutions, Bremer asked three critical questions. “Is the tool friendly, is the solution practical, is it something we can put in the hands of any user, and it is. It has been that type of tool. Whether it is people out in the field, or a project manager in the office, it’s all very practical and easy for them to use and understand in a common way.”

Briggs Integrates with Cloud Inventory Throughout the Supply Chain

Briggs Healthcare is a leading provider of a variety of products and services to the long-term care, assisted living, home care, hospice, hospital, physician and clinics, and other health care markets. The company chose to implement Cloud Inventory as it transitioned from its on-premise Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to a cloud-based system.

Briggs was able to utilize Cloud Inventory with integration to NetSuite to increase productivity and efficiency across multiple warehouses. Using the Cloud Inventory platform, Briggs achieved complete inventory visibility and compliance with a single inventory system of record. The key is that the Cloud Inventory platform allowed Briggs to access real-time inventory availability with a cloud-based solution that boosts productivity while integrating into their back-end system. The result is a solution that supports machine-to-machine (M2M) integration, reduces operational costs, and improves picking accuracy.

In addition to integrating with NetSuite, Cloud Inventory was able to integrate with other software systems already in use at one of the company’s primary distribution centers. For example, using the Cloud inventory platform Briggs was able to implement M2M integration with a carousel control system that increases order fulfillment speed and accuracy. The benefits of such a system are twofold. First, it significantly reduces costs associated with problems stemming from inaccuracy. Second, it enables an increase in warehouse resources to handle more order volume. This is a prime example of how a company can benefit from a variety of efficiency gains across the supply chain using a single, cloud-based solution that integrates with its shipping operations software. This single platform, cloud-based solution with applications throughout the supply chain, is precisely the solution that DSI’s Cloud Inventory platform provides.

“Briggs is a great example of a company that’s really leveraging cloud-first and mobile-first technologies throughout the supply chain,” said Mark Goode, the President and CEO of DSI. “They’ve recognized the value of enhancing their backend system and supply chain performance with a single cloud-based solution for everything from label printing to receiving and distribution to data analytics.”

Cambridge Utilizes Real-Time Visibility

Cambridge is an industry-leading producer and distributor of paving stones and wall stones. The company has a dealer network in over twenty states and operates a centralized manufacturing, distribution and customer service complex that is one of the largest of its kinds in North America. Its team includes 250 experienced technical, manufacturing and customer service professionals. Cambridge made the decision to seek Cloud Inventory solutions due to its need to monitor and manage inventory outside of the walls of its warehouses.

Cambridge, although operating a large, industry-leading company, had not been able to adjust its inventory management processes to keep up with upgraded production methods and capabilities within the industry. The company had a demand for access to real-time, reliable data that traditional inventory management strategies cannot provide, especially on the scale at which Cambridge operates. Cambridge needed to keep track of a high volume of inventory and materials in yards, and they needed to satisfy a sales model that requires rapid fulfillment. The goal was to pick, pack, and ship an entire trailer load of inventory in as little as 90 minutes. Cambridge faced challenges keeping up with the pace of this sales goal using their existing paper-based approach to managing inventory. The greatest challenge was that, using a paper-based system, the status of inventory would not be updated until a day or more after the physical activity in the warehouse occurred, meaning that the company lacked the ability to track inventory in real-time. This lack of real-time monitoring of data hindered sales and was an obstacle to efficient and responsive customer service. Many of Cambridge’s dealers rely exclusively on Cambridge to supply them with outdoor living products, which means they also need access to production, inventory and sales in real-time to meet customers’ needs. Unfortunately, using a paper-based system with limited capacity to track sales in real time, Cambridge was challenged to provide this sort of access to its dealers.

Cambridge decided that the Cloud Inventory platform was the ideal solution to this problem. With Cloud Inventory solutions, Cambridge now uses a real-time, cloud-based platform and has been able to convert its inventory data collection processes to be entirely mobile. Cloud Inventory provided Cambridge with a solution that addressed its specific needs in terms of real-time inventory tracking and complete visibility at all stages of the inventory management process. Using the Cloud Inventory platform, Cambridge has mobile access to information about all physical activities related to inventory, including picking, packing and shipping as well as the inbound receipt of goods. Cambridge uses Cloud Inventory solutions to gather real-time data from any point where its inventory resides using only a tablet, and they can easily record the physical activities of inventory movements of both inbound and outbound inventory.

The transition to a cloud-based inventory control system was smooth. Cambridge quickly and easily integrated the Cloud Inventory platform to its ERP software system, NetSuite, and they are now positioned to perfect a supply chain model for their existing markets. Furthermore, because Cloud Inventory has full integration capabilities with NetSuite, Cambridge can leverage investments they have already made and extend their cloud-based approach to a much broader geographic area.

The result of Cambridge’s implementation of Cloud Inventory is that the company has addressed the challenges it faced in meeting the time goals of its sales model and the demands for real-time responsiveness from its customers. In addition to this improvement in sales fulfillment times, Cambridge has improved the accuracy of its inventory tracking processes. Cambridge has seen an increase in the speed and accuracy of receipts of purchase order and transfer orders, giving the company an overall boost in productivity. Cloud Inventory’s ability to provide thorough, real-time visibility at all stages of the inventory management process is the engine driving this increase in efficiency and accuracy.

“Cloud Inventory achieves our goal of real-time, mobile data capture of physical activities,” said Steve Oberfield, Senior Manager, Cambridge. “No longer is NetSuite being updated after the activity has happened. Instead, data is entered in real time so that we can make production and sales decisions quickly and accurately. By knowing what inventory we have, where it is and in what condition, we can satisfy customers’ orders in less time, which increases inventory turnover.”

Using Cloud Inventory, Cambridge stands to continue to see their customers’ experience improved by reducing stockouts and increasing inventory visibility, both of which will lead to increased sales and improved customer service. In the future, DSI’s low-code Cloud Inventory platform will give Cambridge the ability to develop and deploy custom applications themselves as their business evolves. This configurability and usability are key components of why businesses in a variety of industries can effectively utilize Cloud Inventory solutions.

The Future of Cloud Inventory Across Industries

Clearly these stories of successful cloud-based inventory management solutions point to a trend in increasing productivity and efficiency in inventory control by favoring flexible, intuitive, and accurate mobile solutions rather than the paper-based solutions of old. The DSI Cloud Inventory platform is at the forefront of this trend because of its ability to offer flexible integration, configurability, and usability, as well as its ability to provide accurate real-time visibility throughout the inventory management process in a way that is simply not possible using traditional approaches. As companies such as Aegion, Briggs, and Cambridge transition to the DSI Cloud Inventory platform, they can quickly and effectively address frustrating problems that stem from years of using a dated model of inventory management. Now, using Cloud Inventory, these companies can then effectively meet the demands that come with the increasing complexity of managing inventory as their business expands and becomes more reliant on mobile technologies.

It is important to note that these businesses operate in a wide range of industries. Yet, they all benefited from Cloud Inventory. The diversity of industries that benefit from Cloud Inventory speaks to both the general need for the cloud-based real-time inventory control that this platform provides, as well as to the attention to detail, customer focus, capacity for integration, and emphasis on configurability that are at the core of Cloud Inventory.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes