Atlas worked with the Hayley Group to create an Inventory management system incorporating elements of their existing system
Atlas worked with the Hayley Group to create an inventory management system incorporating elements of their existing system.
Customer Benefits
- Automation – Many manual tasks have now been automated saving time and money across the business.
- Control – The new system allows customers to manage their own stock, stock levels and stock room with ease.
- Efficient – Web based and instantly available, no longer do customers and staff have to rely on old paper catalogues.
- Reporting – Data on stock is instantly available, which lets stock levels be finely tuned to reduce ‘dead stock’ and waste.
- Simplicity – Matching the new system to the way the old system worked makes it easy for staff to use with no learning curve.
The customer
Adopting innovative solutions to complex and logistical problems is the core driver of growth at Hayley Group Ltd. Established in 1976 the business has gone from strength to strength, and now boasts an inventory of over a million products, 4 UK branches and a global client base.
The problem
On from the amazing growth Hayley Group have experienced, their existing customer based stores management solutions were starting to strain under ever increasing demand. The existing systems were somewhat inflexible, used outdated technology, and were in danger of stunting the growth of the overall business.
The solution
Atlas was asked to carry out an audit of the existing inventory systems and make recommendations on how best these could be upgraded or replaced. Atlas found that the existing technology and hardware was outdated, no longer in warranty and difficult to maintain. On this basis a complete re-write was proposed, but rather than start from scratch we should incorporate elements of the existing systems that hundreds of users knew and loved.
A UX led agile design approach
Atlas embarked on a complete replacement utilising modern browser-based technologies and an agile delivery. The emphasis was on ensuring end users were comfortable with the proposed new system well ahead of delivery. To this end Atlas provided HTML prototypes of all of the crucial workflows at the outset, providing hand picked end users the opportunity to provide feedback and guide the design process.
Despite using an agile methodology our customer was still keen to have some idea of cost for the overall build. Atlas used a points based estimation technique, and tracked all project time in order to keep tabs on spend versus progress at a sprint and overall project level.
Powerful user permissions
Given the distributed user base across dozens of sites, and the variety of access levels required, a powerful yet easy to use permission system was required. This provides Hayley Group administrators an incredibly granular permission module where they can set down users and associated groups to fine tune who can access various business critical features.
Integrated ordering
Hayley Group use a proprietary ERP system for the placement of orders. The new system integrates with the existing system using SFTP to transfer order information regularly. This automated process ensures that orders are regularly generated and client stock is maintained at preset levels.
Going mobile
Atlas recommended that Android based hardware be used as a direct replacement for the existing proprietary scanning technology. This allowed Hayley Group to use a wide range of hardware from a range of vendors as they saw fit. Moreover, the Android platform provided an extensible and robust platform to create a new inventory management system for the future.
The mobile devices are capable of creating pick lists from the millions of items in stock. However, Internet isn’t readily available across all customer branches and so an offline mode was required. This allows users of the mobile device to generate pick lists and then synchronise their orders when they come back online at a later time.
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Widening company adoption and ongoing support
The launch of the inventory system was well received by users and is now being rolled out across the company. In response to the positive roll out of the new software a range of additional related modules are currently being designed and built. Atlas’ relationship with Hayley Group, like many others, builds on the success of this project and we look forward to working with Hayley Group for years to come.
Technology stack
- Microsoft AspNetCore MVC on .Net 4.5.1 and Microsoft SQL 2012
- Entity Framework
- The Atlas Framework
- jQuery
- Knockout
- MomentJS
- Native Script
- SQL Lite
The Atlas difference
Atlas are expert software developers who can help you with new Inventory Management software based upon the design and function of your original inventory management system, like we did for the Hayley Group, to enable you to have more control of the inventory in your warehouses and to empower your warehouse staff to be more accurate and efficient when picking and packing stock.
How Atlas can help you
If you’re interested in finding out how Atlas could help you with with new Inventory Management software or an update to an old inventory management system, call us now on +44 (0)800 033 7569 for a free no-obligation consultation on how we can help you.