Inform Software

Inventory Management Module

Your customers demand their orders filled now, priced correctly and delivered on time. Inform tells you what products are ready to reorder, how many are needed for the upcoming season and has advanced support for multi-branch distributors.

The key to profitability is balancing your inventory costs, and maximizing turns while maintaining the highest possible order fill rate. Inform lets you meet these goals, providing insight and control into every aspect of your inventory status, customer requirements, demand, sales and profitability trends.

Remarkable Insight into your Inventory

Inform’s Product Analysis screen reveals every aspect of any product, including stock, non-stock, service or labor items. Explore all the detail of your inventory’s ​‘in-transit’ information, including availability, open orders, purchase orders, backorders, branch transfers, and returned goods, for a complete picture of your inventory status.

Purchase Forecasting

Inform’s automated procurement system keeps stock levels optimized. System calculated stock minimum and reorder quantity provide sophisticated forecasting. Most distributors using inform begin to achieve effective inventory management within months of implementation. Inform automatically tracks product demand, demand trend, seasonality, sales exceptions, and lead times.

Inventory Analysis Monitors your Biggest Investment

Achieve long term improvements and effective inventory management with enterprise level inventory analysis. Inform automatically provides easily understood inventory metrics including Branch Overstock analysis, A‑B-C Ranking, Inventory Turns, and ​‘GMROI ’ (Gross Margin Return on Investment).

Effectively Manage Inventory for One or Many Branches

Inform tracks replenishment requirements, inventory rank and turns at all branches. Automate branch replenishment with flexible, parameter-driven stock transfers. Centralized and branch specific forecasting with purchase time alerts for branch overstock meet the needs of distributors with two locations or twenty.

Warehouse Management System — WMS Module

Wireless Warehouse Barcode Logistics System 

DDI System’s real-time RF (radio frequency) warehouse handling system provides all the features you need to achieve great efficiency and error free inventory handling. Pick and ship products, receive products, and manage your inventory levels with the same software you use for your daily accounting and front end operations. This complete state-of-the-art warehouse management system fully supports both single and multi-location operations with ease.

Remarkable Inventory Control

Inventory Management — Wireless Warehouse gives you greater control over your inventory by allowing for the breakdown of on-hand product quantities by bin location, more efficient physical inventory counting, and system-generated tasks.

Inventory Lookup

The Inform warehouse management system allows you to view inventory quantities for a product by scanning the product’s barcode, entering the product number, or by entering the product’s description.

Easy-to-Use Shipping and Transfer Capabilities

Sales Order Shipping

Inform provides two methods for picking sales orders, by individual order or by truck. Picking routes are automatically assigned based on the most efficient route to maximize productivity. Print ship confirmations directly from your wireless warehouse gun saving time and resources.

Warehouse Transfers

Simply and accurately transfer product from one branch location to another. Maintain accurate inventory and avoid transfer delays

Automatic Stock Receiving and Bin Assignment

Stock Receiving

Receive vendor stock or stock transfers directly through the handheld wireless warehouse gun to ensure accurate inventory and bin assignment at all times. Print product labels instantly for all incoming stock.

Bin Assignment

The inform warehouse management system automatically tracks bin contents and assigns new bin locations as necessary based on on-hand inventory as well as receipt date. Pick lists are based on bin assignments with the option of FIFO (first in, first out) logic when necessary.

Wireless and Paperless Warehouse Management

Paperless Job Queue

Automatic system generated task lists can include sales orders to be picked, user-specified spot checks and bin transfers as well as system assigned checks to resolve discrepancies.

DDI System employs the rugged Symbol Technology LRT 3840 Laser Radio Terminal, which interfaces with Spectrum 24 1Ghz RF wireless access point.

Customer Pricing Module

Inform delivers market-specific pricing models that are highly tuned to meet the unique pricing approaches of our selected distributor markets. Our detailed pricing data conversion benefits inform users with an almost immediate return on their technology investment.

• Margin-of-last-sale automation and sales history management for Paper, Packaging, and Janitorial distributors
• Price Matrix using list, discount, markup and multipliers for Electrical, Plumbing, and Industrial distributors
• LPA and rebated cost contract
  
• Lot pricing, project and room bundles for quoting, purchasing, and shipping groups of product.
  
• Quotation-based pricing and quote management

“Margin-Manager” Sales-History Based Pricing

Sales History based pricing automatically maintains sell prices based upon the previous sales’ profit margin. This pricing structure, critical to the operational efficiency of Paper, Packaging, Janitorial, and Maintenance Supply distributors, allows you to set up personalized pricing for each customer. Prevent margin leakage, and expect to increase gross profits by tens of thousands annually.

Price Matrix

Unlimited flexibility with price grouping by customer category, price group and product line. Easily set up unlimited scenarios to provide the best possible customer service, reduce employee errors and achieve an optimal balance between stock levels and pricing. Adding new costs is no problem with automatic pricing updates.

Contract Pricing, Special Pricing Allowances, and Vendor Rebate Reporting

Keep your prices competitive by using price contracts to apply time-sensitive vendor rebates to selected customers. Contracts allow you to set and update net pricing, while also dictating product costs. Prices are automatically used in Sales and Purchase orders until the contract expires.

Product Import

Quickly and easily import hundreds or thousands of products, update list prices and costs, and let inform recalculate selling prices using our multi-tiered pricing system margin. Import manufacturers’ customer-specific pricing and contracts into inform’s price structure.

Lot Billing

When quoting contractors on projects, inform’s lot billing lets you provide one price on the entire lot, or create multiple lots to match building plan labels. Lot billing accommodates front-loading or back-loaded invoicing, hidden or exploded line-item detail, changes to lot quotations and orders, as well as line-item level procurement.

Order Fulfillment Module

Inform provides distributors with a remarkable order fulfillment system. On-screen views reveal every aspect of your customer’s Sales Order, enabling higher productivity and happier customers.

Improve Productivity

Your staff needs easily accessed, concise views of your customer orders, sales history, and delivery status. Inform’s unique sales order system displays every aspect of a customers order, showing linked PO’s and delivery schedules, backorders, deposits and payments, proof-of-delivery signatures, and UPS and FedEx tracking numbers.

Drive Out Costs

Reengineer and streamline every aspect of your order fulfillment by eliminating multi-part forms, clerical processing, and end-of-day and end-of-month closings. DDI’s inform requires no filing, permanently archiving customer invoices, journals and financial reports. Simply reprint, fax or email documents on demand.

Manage Special Orders

Procure every line on your sales order, selecting cross-dock, direct-ship, warehouse transfer, or split delivery fulfillment. Track order completion progress through integrated stock receiving updates and pre-delivery staging.

Create Large Orders

Quickly and efficiently create large orders using inform’s order pad. When a returning customer’s order is entered into your system, inform remembers what was ordered before and can build a new order based on past sales.

Point-of-Sale (POS) and Showroom Sales

Point-of-Sale (POS) Deposits

Simplify complex Point-of-Sale transactions with single-screen views of deposits, partial payments, pay-in-advance shipments, and more. Organized, easy to navigate tabs put payment history, order totals, and pending backorders at your fingertips, keeping your sales team and customer well informed.

Save your customers time at the counter with inform’s remarkably quick order fulfillment system. One screen reveals every aspect of the order, from inventory amounts and substitute products, to pricing details and customer sales history, resulting in higher productivity and happier customers. 

Barcode Scanning

Minimize counter transaction time by using barcode scanners to process large counter orders. Scanning automatically loads the exact product and correct price for the customer, saving your staff from accidentally confusing similar items or entering incorrect product codes.

Cash Sale Handling

Serve your customers better by easily handling split payments and deposits, in addition to streamlined cash, check and credit card processing. Single-screen access to complete order details allows your customer service team to easily accommodate customers’ last minute order changes.

Retail and Wholesale Features

Streamline your busy retail or wholesale operations with time-saving Point-of-Sale hardware, including cash drawers, receipt printers, integrated credit card processors, and signature capture devices. Serve more customers by completing transactions more efficiently and with less paperwork.

Accounting Overview

Accountants will love inform’s in-depth and easy to use accounting features. Organized, easy to read screens give you the big picture, then provide the ability to drill down into individual transactions with just a couple clicks. DDI System’s sophisticated reporting system makes it easy to find and customize your reports, then fax or email them directly to your accountant. Spend less time finding and creating reports and more time discovering ways to help your business grow!

Accounts Payable

Achieve more precise product costing and efficiently manage your vendor payments with inform’s easy-to-use invoicing and cash disbursement tools. Our logically organized A/P workflow makes it easy to take care of last minute invoices at the end of the day, as you can quickly enter it and print out a check in minutes! Lost or incorrect checks are easily voided with the click of a button.

Accounts Receivable

Improve profitability with instant, real-time access to all transactions. With organized, up-to-date information at your fingertips, inform makes it easier than ever to keep track of customers with open balances, apply payments, adjust invoices, and more. Integrated CRM empowers your collection, sales, and customer service teams by giving them a shared place to maintain and review a history of all customer interactions.

Bank Reconciliation

Reconciling your bank accounts is a snap with the help of inform’s detailed reconciliation screen. The color-coded reconciliation balance updates as you check off transactions, making it easy to match to your bank statement. The drill down function lets you view details of underlying transactions for any item.

Even after you’ve reconciled, the Bank Reconciliation Report saves your work, allowing you to review your reconciliation for later adjustment.

Financial Reporting

Sophisticated reporting that is remarkably easy to use! Eliminate time consuming end of day and month postings and maintain access to all of your historical accounting data. All transactions post to the general ledger in real-time and can be sorted by G/L source, branch, or profit center, giving you data that is accurate and organized.

Customer Relationship Management Overview

Inform’s CRM provides a single integrated solution to help you solidify customer loyalty, improve service, and increase efficiency. Group calendars improve office and inter-branch communication with shared calenders, group events and joint tasks. Deliver professionally designed email directly through inform. Send direct-mail campaigns utilizing inform’s customer database. Salesperson and Sales Manager dashboards provide deep insight into territory, customer base and pipeline opportunities. Create a customer loyalty program quickly and easily based on your customer’s needs to increase ongoing future orders.

Business Intelligence — Interactive Analysis

Inform’s Business Intelligence provides unprecedented insight and analytics into the strengths and weaknesses of your past, present and future business metrics

Dynamic Dashboard

An overall view of business performance on one screen to provide optimal functionality, and ease of use.

Single Screen Overview

At a glance comparisons of sales, inventory and gross profit trends strategically organized in one overall showcase.

Measure and Achieve your Goals

Easily define company level metrics based on key performance goals, compare them to current trends and act accordingly.

Track Sales & Profit Trends 

Dynamic sales and profit tracking allows you to capitalize on current trends to maximize your business’s profitability.

Unmatched Sales Tracking

Discover the core causes of lost dollars. Analyze your business by line volume, GM percent, GMROI and more.

Get Down to the smallest detail

Drill down by warehouse, product lines, individual products and more to increase sales on top ranked items and identify those needing assistance. Make the Most of Your Inventory Investment Automatic inventory ranking, turns and overheads are updated daily on your dashboard screen to provide up to date inventory analysis.

Unique Calculations for Better Projections

Inventory Overhead compares the cost of sales, current inventory on-hand, and average inventory numbers over the past 12 months providing unique product performance tracking to better gauge future needs.

Eliminate Slow Moving Items

Simple easy to use charts quickly identify D and X ranked stock for closeouts.

Watch List

Identify a list of items to watch and quickly identify, monitor, and improve problem business areas.

Capitalize on Opportunities

Follow vendors, products, salespeople, and more. Evaluate and adjust your business strategy as trends form to discover and streamline opportunities.

Easily Track Issues

Set goals for each item added to your Watch List. Business Intelligence will quickly identify and color code poorly performing items according to severity.

Electronic Document Solutions

Inform immediately improves operational efficiencies, drives out clerical processing, filing, paper reports, archiving, and proof of delivery hassles saving you thousands of dollars annually.

Electronic Signature Capture

Utilizing the latest technology, DDI’s electronic signature capture works with your iOS mobile device to capture delivery signatures and wirelessly sync with your inform software system. Easily link these signatures to invoices to show your proof-of-delivery.

Document Attachments

Quickly attach MSDS pages, specification sheets, product images, stock receipts and more. Link these attached files to product, vendor, customer files, etc. Increase customer service by accessing these documents as needed — avoiding flipping through paper catalogs!

Event Messaging

Provide unprecedented customer service with inform’s automated event messaging. Never miss an event or follow-up task, and manage your inventory closer than ever before!

Monitor A/R Collection Issues

Trap orders for customers who are becoming credit risks with automatic, real time aging and credit limit checks during order entry. Lists of customers with overdue balances are automatically sent to your collection team on a daily basis, making it easy for them to solicit payments and preventing even the smallest open balances from slipping through the cracks.

Automatic Gross Profit Notification

Avoid accounting and financial reporting issues by catching orders that don’t meet your gross profit goals. Inform proactively suspends these orders and sends messages to designated managers for immediate correction. Customize this feature to reflect your gross profit goals and notify as few or as many users
as necessary.

Control Critical Inventory

Real time low stock messaging empowers your purchasing staff to respond quickly and accurately. Prevent the accumulation of dead-stock by creating informed purchase orders based on stock minimums, purchase quantities and other critical factors. Inform’s sophisticated branch replenishment system automatically analyzes branch stock levels, generates transfers, and notifies warehouse personnel that the material they need is in-transit.

Quote Follow-up Reminders

Never lose a sale. Inform helps busy sales personnel track sales opportunities and bids, demonstrating on-time professional follow-up. Even after the sale, messaging reminds them to notify the customer of completed orders, shipping delays, and backordered item status.