Modern Inventory System Development

The global inventory management software market is projected to grow by nearly 10% CAGR between 2025 and 2032, according to various research studies. With a value of USD 2.31 in the previous year, it is continuously fueled by increasing such business needs as inventory tracking automation, real-time inventory visibility, stock levels, order management processes optimization, demand fluctuations predicting, etc.

North America had a major share of the inventory management software market of approximately 40% in 2024. Advanced technology solutions driven by machine learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and data analytics capabilities are in high demand by manufacturers and retailers.

Both SMEs and large enterprises appreciate the opportunity to integrate modern inventory management platforms with other business systems, such as CRM systems, Point-of-Sale (POS) software, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions, accounting software, or e-commerce platforms. That eliminates the need to process data manually and reduces human errors by automated data collection.

Mature companies invest in B2B inventory management solutions. In June 2023, the SaaS enablement platform Unicommerce released its system with real-time inventory synchronization that helps clients process maximum orders. In October 2023, the logistics SaaS provider Shipsy, which serves enterprise clients across various industries, acquired Stockone, an inventory management solutions and a cloud-based Warehouse Management System (WMS) provider.

Inventory management SaaS startups also attract investors' interest and gain funds. A Belgium-based company Ventory won the sixth European Supply Chain Startup Contest in 2023 with their field inventory management solution and raised €1.75 million in 2024.

Challenges a Modern Custom Cloud-Based Inventory Management Solution Helps Address

Businesses struggle with problems caused not only by outdated listing systems like paper-based databases and spreadsheets. Legacy inventory management solutions also cause a range of restrictions:

• The desktop-based system may have compatibility concerns with upgraded OS versions. Lack of needed updates for a long time leads to all sorts of bugs.
• Maintaining obsolete desktop-based systems may be a burden for support specialists. They need to access the client’s desktop remotely, which often causes difficulties due to security policies.
• Lack of real-time synchronization leads to situations when customers try to order merchandise that either has a different price or is out of stock
• Legacy systems don’t deal with handling objects in a large space, finding ordered products, and updating stocks in a timely manner. Delays lead to missed deadlines, unsatisfied buyers, and decreased order volume.
• Retail outlets may be managed by separate (stand-alone) inventory management tools and linked to local retail store databases. Therefore, inventory managers cannot gather, process, calculate, and visualize the data from independent databases in real time.

An out-of-the-box system is able to satisfy basic company needs and offers versatile plans. Implementing that solution might be enough for companies with small stock and a limited budget. But in which cases do businesses require development or migration to a custom cloud-based inventory management platform?

• First, when you run an international business with multichannel sales, manage multiple goods categories, and need to support many integrations.
• Second, when you have unique business processes and require custom functionality that is unavailable in ready-made solutions.
• Third, when you don't want to make regular payments for the subscription/license and the excessive functionality that you don't use, but pay for.
• Fourth, when you would like to design customized UX/UI to cover various team workflows, but off-the-shelf systems don’t provide you with needed customization options.
• Finally, when you are looking for advanced data analytics, AI forecasting tools, custom reporting, and improved security compliance.

Key Features of Inventory Management Software

Reports say that global firms lose 3,6% of annual profit due to goods overproduction and supply chain waste. The inventory management software provides companies with real-time stock updates, and extensive reporting enabling them to boost revenue growth up to $163 billion.

After implementing Power BI inventory management to prevent under- and overstocking, companies report the average monthly active inventory increased by 7,5%, and the inventory turnover improved by 2,5% in just a few months. These improvements allowed the business to increase the company revenue and boost the gross margin return on investment (GMROI).

Easily modifying according to specific business objectives and the high scalability of a custom inventory management solution enables companies to benefit from the following functionality:

Warehouse and Multi-Channel Management

• Stock synchronization by keeping the data from various selling channels and warehouses in one place
• Maintaining multiple warehouses to understand the company's total stock through multi-location support
• Providing the exact location of a product within the store or warehouse including a shelf or bin

Inventory Tracking and Control

• Product list visualization by organizing and arranging inventory according to SKU, stock status, price, etc.
• Parts availability tracking for custom product orders
• Items shelf life tracking by expiration dates registration and assigning
• Multiple images to a product assigning and setting a default picture for the item

Order Management and Fulfillment

• Creating order labels directly within the system
• Simple stock-taking and product identification by fast QR code and barcode scanning
• Quick order fulfillment by tracking delivery dates, suppliers' documents, and performance
• The order movements (location and timing) tracking with integrated logistics management software

Manual Processes Automation

• Alert setting to replenish inventory and avoid becoming overstocked or running out of goods
• Automated creating and sending of purchase orders with item details to vendors by setting reorder points for each product
• Inventory counts automation through setting automated reorders according to demand, helping to avoid stock-outs and overstocking
• Production process optimization by raw material availability monitoring

Reporting and Analytics

• Generating detailed audit reports to visualize trends, item flow, move summaries, etc.
• Identifying the products with the lowest and greatest turnover rates to plan future stock reorders
• Precise inventory estimation with embedded accounting tools

The custom inventory management solution also supports global operations with various price settings and multi-currency transactions.

Controlling access to sensitive data by assigning user roles and permissions based on their responsibilities ensures its security.

AI-Powered Functionality of a Modern Inventory Management System

At Belitsoft, we power inventory optimization with AI to help businesses maximize the efficiency of their inventory management software.

Faster and easier inventory segmentation

We implement AI tools to find new correlations among the goods based on their value, demand, profitability, and return rates. Businesses get data-driven insights about which segments to prioritize and how to manage certain products. It is important because different categories require different conditions like storage and shipping.

Better goods allocation and storage

Our experts know how to analyze data about an item, such as its demand, expiration date, size, and weight to identify the best location and exact place for stocking it in a warehouse by AI-driven algorithms.

Improved risk management

The Belitsoft team provides expertise on how to benefit from AI-powered tools to find disruptions in the supply chain, monitor regulatory compliance, and track documents. With this feature, we help companies avoid extra fees and fines.

High forecasting accuracy

We know how to leverage AI algorithms to predict demand and volume based on the available historical and real-time data. This feature assists with automatically reordering inventory at proper times and in sensible quantities.

How Belitsoft Can Help

Belitsoft offers 20 years of expertise in supply chain software development to design reliable general-purpose inventory solutions (custom inventory database, custom stock control software, inventory optimization software, custom inventory counting software, inventory automation software), and industry-specific inventory software (digital inventory system for manufacturing, custom hospital inventory management system, ecommerce inventory management system, and more).

The duration, number of dedicated software engineers, and approach depend on the project scope and scaling capabilities. The typical inventory software development process, that we at Belitsoft plan to release a robust inventory solution, includes the following stages.

Requirements Gathering

Inventory Management System Development begins from the discovery phase. A seasoned business analyst (BA) communicates with the customer to gather detailed functional and non-functional project requirements.

They negotiate integrations with other systems (such as an accounting solution, CRM, ERP, POS, and WMS), discuss data migration activities, and define user roles.

Prototyping and Design

According to the requirements, the analyst designs interactive wireframes to demonstrate to the customer how their future platform would work and receive feedback from the customer.

Software Requirements Specification

The BA prepares the accurate Software requirements specification (SRS). Once the client approves the wireframes and the SRS, dedicated software developers get to coding.

Choosing the Proper Pricing Model

The IT outsourcing industry is predicted to reach a $425.19 billion market value by next year.

Companies that outsource software development projects cut their expenditures by up to 40% on average, but only by opting for the proper pricing model.

In the Time & Material (T&M) model, the final cost will be counted de facto based on the number of assigned specialists and the hours they spent delivering the project.

Choosing the Cost plus pricing model, the client gets fully controlled dedicated developers with fixed salaries de facto, but they stay being employees of the vendor de jure.

A fixed-price contract is based on a fixed project cost approved before the development starts. Clients expect that a hired team will strictly follow an agreed Statement of Work (SOW) without ongoing changes.

Developing Inventory Software and Conducting QA

Belitsof’s software development team delivers the back end of the inventory system with a chosen tech stack. They engineer a user-facing web application and a mobile application.

Additionally, we may implement custom features, such as a demand forecasting module based on machine learning.

Finally, our quality assurance team validates inventory solution quality compliance to fix bugs before production.

Inventory Software Modernization for the Cloud

Our expert team can employ strategies such as database structure adaptation, active geo-replication, containerization, transfer to a microservice-based architecture, and operational database modernization to ensure security and maximize ROI.

Database Cloud Migration

We start this stage with designing a migration scenario, data mappings, and scripts for data transfer automation.

Our experts can automate data migration to BigQuery, use managed Cloud SQL, or choose to run Microsoft SQL Server on Compute to minimize infrastructure and licensing expenses.

Deploying the Inventory Solution

The Belitsoft’s team starts this phase with configuring software infrastructure. We conduct backup and disaster recovery scripts. Also, we implement required security protocols: DDoS protection algorithms, authorization controls for APIs, IDSs / IPSs, firewalls, etc.

If needed, the team installs the following software: RFID tags and readers, barcode readers and printers, computer vision cameras, and more.

Then, the project team deploys a pilot run to one of the facilities, such as a warehouse or a distribution center. We monitor how the software works in real-life conditions and manage additional change requests and concerns. Eventually, we deploy the final version in the whole facilities network.

Partner with a reliable custom software development company to create an inventory management system that scales with your business—whether you need RFID integration for real-time warehouse tracking, AI-driven demand forecasting to optimize stock levels, or HIPAA-compliant encryption for healthcare inventory. Contact us today to discuss your project requirements.