By now, you may have heard about Opportunity Engine™ (Netstock AI™) and how this is meant to help you manage your inventory more effectively and efficiently. Although, you are still not quite sure what it’s all about. Well, this article aims to give you a better understanding of it all. You have questions? We have answers!
Q. What is Opportunity Engine™?
It’s our AI-powered functionality which is designed to analyze all inventory data to anticipate potential problems and provide recommendations in real-time, helping you to make better inventory decisions.
Q. What does this cost me?
It’s available to customers at no additional cost!
Q. How does it benefit me?
Currently, the app is great at telling you where you have issues, such as excess stock and surplus orders. With the AI-powered functionality, you will also be provided with suggested solutions to some of those issues based on the data in the app.
Read on to find out more!
Let’s start with navigation. You can access Netstock AI™ by selecting “Opportunities” on the left pane of your screen. The badge (red dot) indicates that there are unseen opportunities for you to explore.
Currently, there are 9 different opportunities that can be automatically identified and communicated in a user-friendly way.
These opportunities are:
Potential stock outs with an existing order in place that needs to be expedited.
Potential stock outs where there is excess stock in a different location that could potentially be moved to the location in need of stock.
Potential stock outs without any order in place so the user would need to then place an emergency order.
Stock outs with an existing order in place where the expected delivery date is too late, the user will need to expedite the order.
Stock outs where there is excess stock in a different location that could potentially be moved to the location in need of stock.
Stock outs without an order in place so the user would need to then place an emergency order.
Surplus orders where the quantity of the order is too excessive for a location, but may be used in another location where there is a shortfall.
Surplus orders where the quantity of the order is too excessive for a location and will need to be canceled, reduced or delayed.
Excess stock where the item is in excess in one location but can be redistributed to another location where there is a shortfall.
Once you are on the Opportunities screen, you will see a panel that looks like the image below which tells you that opportunities have been found. You will then be able to prompt it to give you more information by clicking on “Show me.” You can filter the opportunities by location.
An example of an opportunity is shown below. You will be provided with the issue along with the suggested solution. You also have the option to view more opportunities thereafter by clicking on “Show me more.”
It’s important to note that if a user does not have access to a location, Netstock AI™ will not suggest solutions using that location. For example, if you have excess stock in a location and there is a shortfall in another location that you do not have access to, Netstock AI™ will not suggest that you redistribute to the location you do not have access to.
For users who order at a region level, make sure you enable the option to see AI opportunities for the regions you are interested in.
Add/edit a regional location
Enable option to "Show AI Opportunities for this region"
That’s not all!
Netstock AI™ has the ability to learn and pick up more opportunities with time.
You can train it (specific to each user) by:
Making use of the thumbs up and thumbs down buttons based on which opportunities you are most interested in. The information you find most useful will then be positioned at the top of the list.
Permanently muting a specific location. Doing this will prevent opportunities at this location from being presented to you.
You also have the option to unmute a location should you choose to. Simply click the unmute button on the “Muted locations” panel:
Have you read our other articles? Head over to the Help Center to see our current collection!