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Beside the fact that it is certainly a bit early to call it quit, I'm having problems with the product and the site itself. I have dealt with stock inventory

by Renaud 13y ago

Beside the fact that it is certainly a bit early to call it quit, I'm having problems with the product and the site itself. I have dealt with stock inventory for years and it is one of these areas that looks deceptively easy to implement but ends up being a lot more complex in real life. The website makes many grand promises but there is very little information on what it actually does. The target customer should be someone knowledgeable in Stock Inventory, but there are not many specifics for them to even assess if the product is for them or not. * Who does this target? small businesses? retail? factories? * What is a "sheet" really ? It is a Form? a data entry grid? * Inventory data doesn't exist in a vacuum, it needs to be fed to accounting software, so at least a good import/export/reporting story is important here. * similarly, can I connect to the database to produce my own reports and plug custom software (even Excel for instance through a datasource) to it? * I can't find any information about cost management. Does the software only manage quantities or can it track cost as well? * How does the software manage counting units? Can I manage cable lengths in metre or in whole roll? Can I sell some oil SKU by the litre and other by the bottle? * What's the story for annual/continuous inventories (stock counts)? does it help me with that? * Cant I easily make transfers from one warehouse to another? * I can't find whether the software is able to manage FIFO, LIFO, batches, etc. * What's the picking list story if there is one? * Does the software manage part revisions? For instance factories may have different revisions of the same item (electronic or mechanical). * Does the software manage stock locations so I can easily find where product with SKU F7786 is located? * what's the story for receiving deliveries? Can I have a quarantine area where I receive my goods for inspection? It reads everywhere that this is a one-man labour of love. Why should I risk an important business activity to a one-man shop? What happens if the founder is sick and there's a problem? I don't want to be too negative, I'm only being harsh because I really like the concept; the design and the amount of work put into this is a short time is amazing. The tablet story is great too. On the other hand, it feels like this was made by a programmer who doesn't really know the business he's in and ends up with a products that seems to be targeting libraries and bookstores (2 very different businesses) and groceries, retailers, even factories maybe. It tries to be too much for too many. To save this, I would target specific markets and make appropriate versions of the software for those markets, using their business terminology, highlighting on the first page the pain points they are facing and how the software solves them, etc. Making a one product fits all is exactly the sort of problem small business face when they buy a cheap general purpose ERP: it's often too complex and it ends up not being what they need. The pricing is also fairly high: a 4-seat version of Sage Line 100 (a complete ERP for SMB) costs less than US$900 per year in license renewal. Yours cost about $700 for 3 users only for inventory management. That's quite a lot.

saosebastiao 13y ago
As a Supply Chain professional, this is exactly how I felt reading through the site. When you say Inventory Management, you could mean hundreds of possible types of inventory management, but I never figured out which type you were targeting. Even by narrowing it down to a "Small Business" target market, that still leaves a huge gap in understanding. You don't have a value proposition at all (let alone a good one) until you can answer Renauld's questions.
fauigerzigerk 13y ago
Thanks for listing all these specific questions. Here at HN you sometimes get the impression that software is exclusively about marketing and making something "beautiful".
merusame 13y ago
Dito, some of your mentioned issues also came to my mind - there def. is a lack of information on the site which would come in very handy!
middayc 13y ago
great questions. could you please please send me email to janko.itm at gmail. I would like to ask you something specific, but don't know other way to get in contact with you.
mgkimsal 13y ago
"Today's inventory management software has a fundamental problem. They're downright impossible to use. As much as engineers and accountants might love their endless menus after endless menus, they only make for a frustrating experience." There's a reason there's 'endless menus after endless menus' - all the points you brought up (and then more). "Inventory management" as an open-ended "solution" is... near impossible. Now... if we saw 'raka for automotive dealers', 'raka for gardeners', etc., it could be comprehensive enough for specific industries, but still able to be focused and simple. And perhaps all the flexibility could be there, but stripped away to leave focused UIs for niche markets. I hit all these issues and more with a project a couple years ago. They really couldn't afford the 'industrial strength' inventory systems - simply too costly for them as a company - but had too many variables like the one you mentioned above. Just one small example - they'd record receiving various chemicals by the gallon or liter, but would record the use by... (IIRC) how many 'uses' (sprays, in this case). Without knowing how service person A had mixed their chemicals, 'one spray' could not tell you how much of the liter was actually being used. But they had to keep track of their chemical usage (I think for local permitting if nothing else) - during a stock take, there was no way to tell if people were using too much, or if some had been stolen, or perhaps was never delivered properly. And that some of that stuff was pretty expensive. There's certainly a need for 'inventory management' for small business, but I think raka and others have to dive further and market focused niche versions to solve the needs of particular industries.

by Renaud 13y ago

saosebastiao 13y ago

As a Supply Chain professional, this is exactly how I felt reading through the site. When you say Inventory Management, you could mean hundreds of possible types of inventory management, but I never figured out which type you were targeting. Even by narrowing it down to a "Small Business" target market, that still leaves a huge gap in understanding. You don't have a value proposition at all (let alone a good one) until you can answer Renauld's questions.

fauigerzigerk 13y ago

Thanks for listing all these specific questions. Here at HN you sometimes get the impression that software is exclusively about marketing and making something "beautiful".

merusame 13y ago

Dito, some of your mentioned issues also came to my mind - there def. is a lack of information on the site which would come in very handy!

middayc 13y ago

great questions. could you please please send me email to janko.itm at gmail. I would like to ask you something specific, but don't know other way to get in contact with you.

mgkimsal 13y ago

"Today's inventory management software has a fundamental problem. They're downright impossible to use. As much as engineers and accountants might love their endless menus after endless menus, they only make for a frustrating experience." There's a reason there's 'endless menus after endless menus' - all the points you brought up (and then more). "Inventory management" as an open-ended "solution" is... near impossible. Now... if we saw 'raka for automotive dealers', 'raka for gardeners', etc., it could be comprehensive enough for specific industries, but still able to be focused and simple. And perhaps all the flexibility could be there, but stripped away to leave focused UIs for niche markets. I hit all these issues and more with a project a couple years ago. They really couldn't afford the 'industrial strength' inventory systems - simply too costly for them as a company - but had too many variables like the one you mentioned above. Just one small example - they'd record receiving various chemicals by the gallon or liter, but would record the use by... (IIRC) how many 'uses' (sprays, in this case). Without knowing how service person A had mixed their chemicals, 'one spray' could not tell you how much of the liter was actually being used. But they had to keep track of their chemical usage (I think for local permitting if nothing else) - during a stock take, there was no way to tell if people were using too much, or if some had been stolen, or perhaps was never delivered properly. And that some of that stuff was pretty expensive. There's certainly a need for 'inventory management' for small business, but I think raka and others have to dive further and market focused niche versions to solve the needs of particular industries.