Database & Inventory Management Services

As mentioned by definition on our Web Services page - a database is a collection of integrated records or files stored together providing data for one or more uses. There are many different models of data structure but for the purposes of this explanation suffice it to say that a database appears to be a very powerful and organized way to store business data - like your entire product list, the houses or cars your company sells, the information you are organizing online as a service like weather, maps, business directories, etc.

There are many uses for a database and can you imagine how great it would be to integrate your company's database with your website? How handy would it be to be able to organize for your customers your products by type, or colour, or size, or cost? A database would then allow searches too, right? Right!

Many companies nowadays have database driven websites. Think of Kijiji or Amazon, think of your local car dealership or Trader online, think of Google! that is a database.

Perhaps your company only sells one item or performs one service... Not much need for a database, right?

Wrong. What if while promoting your service, you decide that you want to solicit feedback from your customers, say you have a testimonials page that collects comments from your customers, or say you want to start sending monthly newsletters and you want to collect email addresses to send them to. Well those collected emails can be directed straight into a 'database' for your ease of use later. Think of an organized chart of your online customers, their phone numbers, email addresses, etc...

Wouldn't that be an excellent tool? And wouldn't it be more and more valuable as time went on? Slowly collecting names? Growing bigger and bigger...

Or - what about your corporate databases? The information your employees use in the office like client lists, employee information, suppliers. These can all be made accessible online and protected behind a login system.

The developers at SynergyPro Solutions are experts in the field of database design and online implementation. We started off as data-driven website providers. And we can help you get a system like this working for your company, all you need do is give us a call.

Now, this page is titled "Database & Inventory Management Services", so what's the inventory management part you ask?

Well, your inventory can be stored, as mentioned above, in a database organized along with detailed item characteristics row after row. And if you have the ability to add new items and delete items that you no longer stock then you are "managing" your inventory - in a database! And in database form we can help you display this data online - so it looks nice, reads easily, is organized intuitively, and is searchable or easy to find items based on their characteristics.

Basically, if you have products, or items you sell, and they vary from item to item, we can organize them in a database for you, give you control over adding new items, deleting old items and editing current items, put them online for you so your customers can find the items they need quickly, hook in a shopping cart feature so you can sell them, if you want, and then, store it all on secure servers so you never have to worry about them again, and all you need do is handle the management part...

Database driven websites

For our database driven website example we'll use the property RVHotlineCanada.com. The following screens outline the various 'views' of the data contained within the database. This example is of a relational database model and it allows the end user to access all aspects of the members' businesses - like the recreational vehicles for sale by each dealership, their service centers and storage facilities as well as the dealership details like their locations, hours of operation, email addresses and web addresses. All this data is stored in one large database and can be accessed in a variety of ways...

1. Product Search Results This screen shows the results of a general product search and includes all relevent data item by item - year, description, length, price, province and status. There were 256 items that met the search criteria so this screen also includes controls to help the user organize these items by any of the above attributes.

2. Product Details This is a typical product detail screen which includes all the characteristics of a particular product. For most users this is the most important screen in the array. From here a client can either go back to the results screen or dig deeper and locate the relational dealership.

3. Dealership Profile Now the user has searched the products, found one of interest and located the dealer selling it - all through relational tables of data. From here the user can find more vehicles from this dealership, call them, email them or visit their website for more information. There is also a link to the dealer's Service Centre information - yet another data relationship.

4. Dealership Inventory The user can either search only the inventory of this dealer or return to the Search Form and start another search of the entire database. All these units are related to this dealership by a dealer ID number.

5. Service Centre Listing This screen is yet another set of related data on the users dealer of choice - details about their Service Centre. Some of the data on this screen is pulled from the same table as the data on the Dealership Profile above.

So we hope this serves to make the concept of a relational database a touch easier to understand. It can be a fairly complicated structure but the end result should be easy to navigate and, in the end, quick and efficient.

Now, finding data is one thing... How does one manage a system like this?

Inventory management systems

If you are going to implement a system like this on your website it's only natural to want to learn a little more about how you manage all that data, or inventory.

The following screenshots are taken from the inventory management system that runs the website in the examples above. We'll approach them as if we are an RV Dealership and we want to add some inventory, change the price of an existing unit and remove a unit that SOLD.

1. Login Screen To manage your inventory you would first need to login to the system using your ID and Password.

2. Administration Console From this screen the user can "manage" data. From here the user can View Inventory, Edit Dealer Profile, Check Statistics or perform any other of a number of tasks.

3. Inventory View This screen lists all the dealer's units. From here the user adds, deletes and edits units as they are bought and sold or reduced in price. It allows the user to search and organize the listed units and uses icons to tell the user what characteristics are being utilized by each.

4. Add a New Item This screen would allow the user to add a new item to their inventory. Once uploaded the item would be included in the inventory listing page above.

5. Edit an Existing Item The following set of screens access existing items for editing, like price reductions, quantity availability, purchasing discounts or any of the other fields utilized in the "Add Item" screen. This particular screen edits the most important characteristics.

6. Edit [Options] This screen accesses the item options for editing, things that don't change often.

7. Edit [Images] This screen allows the user to change the product images. It visually displays the existing images so the user can see how many there are, what order they're in and which images are active. Delete one, add one or change one.

8. Monitor Statistics This screen shows the popularity of this particular item on the website. It shows the number of views per month.

9. Dealer Profile This is the master dealer profile screen and allows the dealer to edit all relevant data about their company. You'll notice there are the contact numbers and mailing address, a text editor for adding general information, a logo upload module and a place for pictures. This screen can contain any type of input fields a company needs and all collected info goes into the database.

10. Statistics Dashboard This screen is a very basic type of analytics. It displays the user statistics for all inventory items. As a manager or owner this type of information can be very valuable so with most inventory management system we build there is some type of analytics software included.

So we hope this helps you better understand the world of database driven inventory management systems and how they work online. If you or your company are in the market for a system like this you can contact us for either a quick quote or a complete proposal and DMA (digital marketing analysis).