Tactics on Inventory Projections (2,242 words)

Then I bought based on my projections, and all I can say is, I'm glad we didn't go with her plan. It was a good lesson for us. Software is only as good as the data you put into it. In the end, a live person still must look at that data and make decisions based on it.

Some catalogers get hung up on the computer data. They tend to believe the data over other measures. But when I'm looking at my demand reports, I'm seeing things that can't necessarily be measured by a computer. For example, say we sold 20 of a particular item today. Did 20 different people buy that item, or did one woman buy 15, and the rest were sold to individual buyers? Computers often can't tell you that or aren't programmed to ask, and yet that's crucial information when making accurate inventory projections. You still need a human touch.