Functional Overview for Business Decision Makers

Application Template: Inventory Tracking

Description of Template

The Inventory Tracking application template for Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint® Services 3.0 helps organizations track inventory levels by capturing manual input of sales and new inventory purchases from suppliers. The template enables users to track the cost and sales value of each inventory item separately as well as categorizes each item into user specified groupings. Through a main dashboard, users are provided easy to use transaction forms such as ‘Log a Sale’ and ‘Create an Order’. The dashboard also lists low inventory and which items need to be reordered through a supplier as well as the day’s sales so far.

Sample Activities Performed in this Application Template

The following examples show the various ways Microsoft anticipates this template will be utilized in a typical organization. If you wish to add additional features, please ask your IT provider to research Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007.

Jim Daly is owner of Tailspin Toys, a toy and hobby shop that primarily sells remote control toys and board games. Last year, his store installed Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 on his Windows Small Business Server system so that he could use the inventory tracking application provided by Microsoft at no additional charge. Over the summer, Jim entered information about his suppliers and inventory items, including inventory levels that would justify a reorder.

On Monday, one of Tailspin Toys’ best customers purchased a remote control car for his son. Jim first clicks on the ‘Customers’ tab to enter his customer’s information and then clicks on the ‘Log a Sale’ link to enter details about a purchase. On this form, Jim selects the item, customer, quantity purchased and sales price, and also elects to enter that the customer is purchasing the toy for his son. From the same view, Jim can also see that there are 5 remote control cars left in inventory and that he actually purchased this toy from his supplier for $99. He clicks submit and the sale is entered.

At the end of a busy week, Jim wants to make sure that he has enough inventory on hand for the upcoming shopping season. He is particularly interested in a board game that he’s hoping will sell well this year. Jim visits the Inventory Tracking site and clicks on the board game inventory item. The site shows him that the GameBoard item has sold well in the last month, but he only has 1 left in inventory. Based on the reorder level, this item needs to be replenished. He calls the supplier and places an order for 10 units. Afterwards, Jim visits the site to record the purchase using the ‘Create an Order’ form provided by the site. He types in the expected delivery date and begins to look forward to the upcoming season.

About Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is technology in Windows Server® that offers an integrated portfolio of collaboration and communication services designed to connect people, information, processes and systems both within and beyond the organizational firewall. Now available at no additional charge, the technology provides a platform for developing Web-based business applications. Application Templates provide out-of-the-box scenarios to address the needs of specific business processes.

More Information

For more information on the technologies described in this article, please visit:

Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0:

http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint

Application Templates for Windows SharePoint Services:

http://www.microsoft.com/sharepointapps

The example companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, places, and events depicted herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, email address, logo, person, places, or events is intended or should be inferred.

This document is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.