Right Traq Blog

Welcome Mari

Posted by acts_as_flinn Wed, 30 Aug 2006 14:58:00 GMT

The past few weeks have been exciting, and we’ve had some new developments. We’d like to welcome the newest member of our team, Mari!

Mari will be working on our marketing projects, and I hope to get her on the blog soon. Mari has a background in marketing and accounting, and she’s already started on a few projects that we’re thrilled about.

Posted in Misc., Business Development | no comments | no trackbacks

Ruby on Rails Inventory Management

Posted by acts_as_flinn Tue, 22 Aug 2006 01:29:00 GMT

When we founded Right Traq I had tons of experience doing custom PHP Inventory applications. Some of them were plain old function based, and others MVC based. About a year before we got started I had a prototype asset manager that I did in rails-0.12.1. This project was my first go at a rails application and I was astonished. It was relatively easy to develop, and in about 2 weeks I had about the same features as a huge PHP project I worked on for 6 months. Ruby on Rails really made development simple. Most of routine tasks needed for my projects were already taken care of in Rails, and better yet I could easily add features that really separate it from the competition.

TRAQInventory is a Ruby on Rails Inventory Management application.

After 6 months of development TRAQInventory is the result. We like to call it Inventory Management 2.0 because TRAQInventory brings Web 2.0 features that drive social networking, user generated content, and semantic web content to inventory management. Inventory Management 2.0 means your inventory data can actually tell you something, send you messages, integrate with other apps and be more of an information tool than a cumbersome liability that underperforms, and wastes time and money.

So I am pleased to announce that we’re opening the signup for the TRAQInventory Beta program.

Click Beta Signup to sign up for the TRAQInventory beta program.

Posted in Inventory Management, Rails Development, TRAQInventory | no comments | no trackbacks

Online Inventory Management

Posted by acts_as_flinn Mon, 14 Aug 2006 02:16:00 GMT

So you’re looking to implement online inventory management. Here is a checklist for getting started with a web-based online inventory system.

• When choosing an online inventory management system you should know what features you absolutely need and what you can live without. Web services provide different sets of functionality especially companies offering a product specialized for a niche industry.

• Know what programs does your inventory management application need to talk to. QuickBooks, Peachtree, and other accounting applications have their own data formats for importing. Exporting data to office applications like Excel make handling data simple—I consider this a must.

• Know what programs the inventory application can accept data from. This is similar to the above bullet, find out if you can upload information from your accounting system, or office programs like Excel to the online inventory management system.

• Figure out how many accounts you will need. Who will use the system, how many offices, or warehouses will need access to the system.

• Find a provider with a clear scalable path for expanding your capabilities when the time comes. You’re a growing company, and someday you might grow well past an online inventory management service provider. Find out if you can run the system in-house with a support contract when the time comes.

• Last but not least, have your inventory ready to be uploaded. If your online inventory management application has an Excel spreadsheet template, use it. This can save you time getting started. Uploading a list of 10,000 parts at a time instead of filing a form one by one is a no-brainer.

About the author: Flinn Mueller (acts_as_flinn) is the President of Right Traq, Inc. a Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania based online inventory management service provider.

Posted in Software As A Service, Inventory Management | no comments | no trackbacks