Innotrend

The problem

A small shop keeps its stock in a notebook, or in somebody's head. That works right up until the question is a specific one: what is actually on the shelf this morning, what is about to run out, and what is the whole lot worth. Answering it means walking the shop and counting — so nobody asks until something has already gone wrong.

What it is

Innotrend is inventory built for that shop. It runs on the phone the owner already carries, so there is no hardware to buy and nothing to install on a counter. Stock is recorded once and stays current, and the numbers that matter — what is on hand, what is low, what it is worth — are a glance rather than an afternoon.

The design constraint is the same one that shaped everything else we build: it has to work on the hardware and the connection people actually have, and it has to be usable by somebody who has never been trained on software.

The best system for a small shop is the one the staff will still be using in month three.