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Software developed with Inventas |
One of the more important areas of business that Inventas are able to offer clients is an experienced Business Analysis team. Able to firstly understand how an existing system operates they can then marry this information with future business plans and opportunities to produce whitepapers explaining how Information Technology can be used to bring these plans to fruition.
As part of the overall analysis of business requirements, Inventas have shown that they understand not only the need for hardware based solutions but also how software solutions are able to move a business plan forward, either by opening new market opportunities or by consolidating existing functionality with improved data manipulation to increase productivity. This may involve using existing software packages or where the software currently doesn’t exist, by writing a suite of programs to do the job.
The following examples show examples of the work we have done recently.
 PWP Limited, Reigate
Retail Stock Management
The first system is a stock management system for a combined Internet and multi-site retail business.
Stock is ordered from suppliers based on minimum stock levels and any existing back-orders from Internet sales. When it arrives it is booked in and the system will immediately flag up which of the stock is required to fulfil existing orders. This stock is then sent to customers and the correct payment is debited from credit card details held for that order. The rest of the stock is distributed to the various retail outlets.
Whenever an item is sold a record is made. This is recorded against customers when details are available (loyalty card or internet sale) which will provide management information for targeted sales (special offers etc) as well as a record on how quickly any stock moves (including sales cycles…higher sales near Christmas or the beginning of a school term etc). All this information would obviously be useful when it comes to future ordering patterns. At the moment of sale, the stock levels are adjusted to ensure that stock cannot effectively be sold twice and reordering can take place as soon as is required.
Customer details are recorded and a history is built up allowing loyalty recognition (special offers for recurring sales, or high value sales) as well as specific targeted sales (a customer who regularly buys a specific item may be interested to hear when that item is on special offer.
Stock returns (for breakages or unwanted sales) are recorded and again any trends would be highlighted as part of the weekly/monthly management reports. This would allow prompt notification to a supplier if a recurring breakage was witnessed.
One of the major areas the system deals with is accounts; value of stock held, value of daily sales, handling costs, profit and loss, credit card transactions, transportation and postage costs etc. The system integrates with the major accountancy software (Sage etc) ensuring that data does not need to be replicated which would cause errors.
 Finch of Bookham
Job Quotation
The second system was designed for a specialist transportation company who needed to record details regarding enquiries for their services. This involved creating a record for each client and then building a history against that particular client for the type of work they were interested in.
The first step would be to take down basic details of the job, what needed transporting, when the job needed completing and where the item was coming from and going to. Next an appointment is arranged for someone to go and check how the job may be achieved. Due to the nature of the work (transporting giant engines, moving locomotive rolling stock, aircraft fuselage etc) a report is created to ensure that when it comes to the actual job all facets have been covered.
Next a quote is raised along with a copy of the method of work which is sent to the customer. Each contact with the customer is diarized (including email) ensuring that conversations are not mistaken and quotes are not left to go dormant by not allowing quotes to go unchased etc.
Once a quote has been accepted, the job is then scheduled and the staff and plant are allocated to ensure that neither is double booked.
It is possible that for certain jobs, special permissions are required to have cranes on the highway onto take oversized or slow moving vehicles on roads. A set of application templates will allow for the automatisation of applying for these licenses and when they arrive again they are stored against a particular job so that a pack of relevant paperwork can be created and given to the team who will carry out the work.
The final part of the application will generate an invoice which will then be shown as paid when payment is received. Including an accounts section will also mean that relevant profit and loss reports can be generated showing not only how much money is made on any individual job but also over any time period, how many incidental costs (congestion charges, low emission charges, traffic fines, road tolls, licence costs, road tax, fuel etc.) have been paid to allow for more accurate quoting and management accounting.
 Banana Park Consultancy, Dorking
360 Appraisals
In many organisations, it is important that staff are monitored to see how they are performing, but also how they are perceived to be performing. This system of appraisal is commonly known as a 360, which involves nominated staff answering a series of questions concerning a fellow member of staff. Marks are given (typically between 1 and 5) and when all the nominated respondents have completed their surveys a report is compiled showing the results. This is used as the basis of a meeting between the HR department and the member of staff undergoing the appraisal so that they can see areas that they need to improve upon to move forward within the company.
The system is based on the internet, whereby each nominated respondent has an account created whereby they are able to log into a website and fill in the questions on-line. They may complete the questionnaire in one visit or over a period of time (previous answers are stored), and once they are happy with the answers, flag that questionnaire as complete when the data is then sent to a server for analysis.
The final report is created and sent stored back on-line so that it can be accessed during the appraisal meeting, and referred back to at any future time.
The three examples shown above give an indication of the diverse areas that Inventas have become involved in and also indicate the just some of the various technologies that they are able to include when developing a specific application for clients.
Our client list includes
Bristow Helicopters
Skipton Building Society
Hitachi Finance
Painshill Park World Heritage Centre
Guys and St Thomas’s Hospital Trust
Moleside District Council
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