Background

My idea for this project came when I used to work for Laura Ashley, a retail store. Our method of inventory control, shipments, and ordering was all done by paper and this was a very time consuming method. Therefore I decided to use an online method to speed up the transfer of information between the Company and the stores. This would help improve the business because it would give an upperhand to both levels of the company - the Distribution Center would easily be able to see which items are needed (demand) and then provide them immediatly (supply) while the Stores would be able to order items and also check shipments easily, improving customer relations.

One company that actually exists, Lawson Software, markets systems that are very similar to my project. These systems are web-based and allow their customers, smaller businesses, to effecitively manage their data, including inventory, shipments, orders, personnel, payroll, etc. The programs efficiently manage the data in simple, effective tables in HTML format, to help the users as much as possible. They have an advanced inventory management system that helps their customers manage data between levels of their company (distribution center, stores, administration, etc.) Their customers are usually smaller companies that have outdated methods for managements, such as using manual invoice checkin. They also used an "instant alert" system as well as databases. Therefore this company has the same goals as I did for my project and they use many of the same procedures and have similar actions. Therefore this is a good basis for research as it is very interesting and helpful to learn from a company that actually exists and actually has customers and a market for their product.