Inventory management may be the single most important part of a business enterprise. After all, a large portion of the company assets may be in the form of inventory. Quick turnover, just in time management practices and managing optimum level of inventory are critical aspects which directly impact on the profitability of a company. For a distribution company inventory management may be all the more important. Inventory management software should be able to effectively manage, identify, locate, report and maintain inventory. One of the key features of inventory management software is to locate a particular product by different means. For example a product may be assigned an

identification number, part number, barcode or by a name. It should be able to identify a product by one or all the above methods. Another important reason for installing software is to reduce trained manpower and save on salaries. Inventory management software should therefore be able to

replicate the work of an inventory manager. It should be able to reorder products at pre-assigned order levels. As soon as the inventory falls below a certain level, the software should automatically place order for those items. In addition to keeping track of the inventory, inventory management software should have multiple pricing models around which different

configurations can be developed.

Desktop systems are no longer a viable alternative except for very small organizations. Multi user environment with web based interface allows access to inventory data simultaneously from all over the world. Multi national operations make such inventory management software more of an imperative than a mere tool .With distributed manufacturing ,where different parts of a product are manufactured at different locations and finally assembled at another location, an online real time inventory management software is the only solution.