When you think about purchasing an inventory control software for your retail operation you need to take into account the cost of the entire system, including: hardware, hardware maintenance, software, installation, software maintenance, training and upgrades.

Many retailers make the mistake of only looking at the cost of the software, but this is just a fraction of the total costs over the life of the system. And nothing is more important in determining total system cost than the underlying technology used to create the software and make it run.

XpertMart was developed using cutting-edge technology which means you will encounter fewer headaches (and therefore fewer costs) down the road. Our open-architecture design philosophy gives you as many choices in selecting hardware, peripherals and related software as possible.

Here's a look at the total costs of an inventory control system and how XpertMart can help you lower them:

XpertMart is written entirely in the Java programming language. This means it can run on virtually any platform. Therefore, you are no longer limited to a Windows machine as your only option. If you are looking to buy a lot of computers, you can easily save $150 per computer by running XpertMart on Linux.

If you choose to run XpertMart on Linux machines you will not have to keep spending money on Microsoft licensing fees every time they release a new version of Windows.

You will find that our software is very competitively priced. In fact, you will not find software that is as inexpensive as XpertMart and as rich in features. We are less expensive than Retail Pro, Retail Star, Counterpoint and similar products.

A key variable to consider is how expensive will it be to install the software? If you have dozens of stores spread out across hundreds of miles, any system that requires extensive, hands-on guidance from technicians will run your setup costs through the roof! We can setup password-protected pages on our web site for each store in your chain to download and install the software and any reports and drivers that are specific to that store. We'll have your stores up and running at a fraction of the cost.

More importantly, take a good look at the technology behind some of the other inventory control systems on the market. A lot of them were created 10, 15 or even 20 years ago in languages as ancient as Pascal, Delphi, Ado and others that are now extinct. Many of these software packages still run on old flat file databases and are nothing but DOS systems in disguise (don't be fooled by the "Window" dressing). The point is that these systems were already dated five years ago.

With XpertMart, you are buying technology that is at the vanguard of the market. We release major new versions of our software every six to nine months. (Click here to see the features we've been adding to XpertMart). Compare that with other vendors that take 2-3 years to release a new version with significant improvements and additions. (Patches of bugs do not count!) With XpertMart you can rest assured your investment will not become obsolete.

XpertMart can run on any ODBC (Open Database Compliant) database manager, including: InterBase, Oracle, Informix, Sybase, SQL Server and others. So if you're already using one of these in your company, you will not have to switch. On the other hand, if you are not currently using a database manager, you can run XpertMart on InterBase which is an open source database manager that is free of charge. Bottom line: unlike many other vendors, we will not force you to invest in licenses for a database manager.

XpertMart is built on open standards so it interfaces with a variety of third-party applications. Using XML we can build an interface to most programs also built on open standards. And your data can easily be exported as a csv or txt file, giving you maximum flexibility.

XpertMart stores all information in a relational database which is inherently more stable than older flat file databases. All of your data will be in a single file so there are far fewer opportunities for data to become corrupt. Because of its superior design, XpertMart requires a lot less tech support than most other systems on the market. We put our money where our mouth is, offering yearly unlimited tech support contracts for as little as $600 (depending on the size of your operation). Compare that with other companies that charge $120 or $150 per hour and you'll quickly see who really believes they have a reliable system.

Unlike other software vendors, we are not tied to any specific brands or models of peripherals. XpertMart is compatible with the vast majority of bar code scanners, label printers, portable data terminals and ticket printers. This is good news if you've invested in peripherals in the past. No need to throw away those old printers and scanners!

Perhaps the biggest hidden cost of any system is all of the manpower it will suck up because it is poorly designed. We've identified the three areas that currently rob employees of the most time and made them dramatically more efficient.

Data entry: our graphical interface makes it very easy to build a Style/Size/Color matrix in under two minutes. We have a set of tools to make mass changes to prices, costs and other variables. You can open catalogs and add new entries on the fly, without ever having to close the window you are working in. (Click here to learn more about how XpertMart's GUI facilitates data entry).

Reports: No more waiting around for the system to run a report. Most reports run in under five minutes; the vast majority in under two minutes. And with our powerful Report Design you will not have to export data into Excel to organize it the way you really need it. Do it all in XpertReports - and if you can't, we'll design the report for you in under 48 hours.

Communication: If your inventory control system still has stores "polling" to send and receive data to the main office, chances are you are losing a lot of time every day helping the stores that had a problem the previous night or cleaning out junk in the data that was transmitted. Since XpertMart uses an FTP server to synchronize data between the stores and the main office, the communication process is a lot more efficient and reliable. For starters, the main office only needs to broadcast its data to the FTP Server once (instead of having to call each store individually). And with the FTP Server acting as a "virtual mailbox" the stores don't have to be online simultaneously to transmit data to the main. Plus we've built in all sorts of safeguards that allow for redundancy while preserving the integrity of the data.
Bottom line: we will not waste your time or your employee's valuable time. Time is money. Put it to better use than figuring out how to get your software to do what you need it to do.