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What is a Uniform Management System?

Managing large employee or customer databases manually can be a very time and resource-consuming process for anyone in the B2B/B2C business. However, a Uniform Management System can help you with that.

Alex E. Pjetra (Product Marketing Executive) Written by Alex E. Pjetra (Product Marketing Executive) 14 May 2020 in B2B eCommerce

A Uniform Management system streamlines the process of ordering and reordering personal protective equipment (PPE), apparel and other safety products within compliance or uniform heavy industries.

Businesses in these industries can find it hard to keep track of what’s being ordered, what’s being spent and need extra resources for managing the process.

With this system, CEOs, Managers and Owners can have 100% visibility, compliance and control of cost over Uniform and PPE for their business.

The Aphix Uniform/PPE management system simplifies the end-to-end procurement process providing full visibility of expenditure to management while making it easy for employees to order what they need too.

To explore this system further, we're going to answer the following 3 questions:

  • What is a Uniform Management System?
  • What does a Uniform Management System do?
  • What are the benefits of an ERP Integrated Uniform Management solution?

First, let’s get started by explaining what a Uniform Management software is.

What is a Uniform Management System?

A Uniform Management system, also known as manpack management, is a secure online eProcurement solution designed and built to accelerate the process of ordering and reordering sets or packs of apparel and products.

It helps businesses significantly streamline, automate, and improve their procurement process using an online tool.

When looking for a solution, you should be searching for SaaS systems. SaaS refers to software as a service solution (SaaS) that’s hosted, maintained, updated and supported by the solution provider. So your business does not need additional hardware or infrastructure to run such a system.

So now that you know what it is, let’s look at what a Uniform Management software does.

What does a Uniform Management solution do?

A uniform management software allows companies with large volumes of employees/customers who regularly need to replace end-of-life equipment, apparel, or products to order and reorder from pre-populated specific order lists and budgets that are assigned to them.

End-of-life safety equipment, products, medical tools, apparel, PPE workwear or uniform items, and really anything that needs periodic renewal are added to specific lists that your employees or customers have only access to and can order from.

It allows you to control what items go to those lists, how often your employees/customers can order or how much they can spend depending on which option you prefer. You can also decide whether to approve any orders or all orders if you wish.

And the best thing is that such systems can integrate in real-time with your ERP or back-end system which means that all orders go directly into the system without you having to do anything.

Employees/customers can just log in to their secure online account from any device and at any time and start placing orders without having to worry about how much they spend or how often, as you will be in total control of that.

As a bottom line, this smart solution can save your company both time and money as it is designed to accelerate the process of re-ordering by item, set, kit or pack. It does this by allowing the employee to order from their allocation of stock or in this case ‘uniforms’.

So now that you know what uniform management solution is and what it does, let’s look at the main benefits it provides your business with.

Below we have listed 5 key benefits that every Uniform Management system should provide you with.

What are the benefits of a Uniform Management system?

Initially, it’s worth noting that a supplier or vendor portal can offer many different benefits and the functionality of each portal can vary. That’s why we’re going to list some of the main benefits below that are a minimum requirement a supplier portal should offer.

  1. Real-Time Integration with your ERP software

    A Uniform Management System integrates in real-time with your ERP software or back-office system.

    The real-time integration allows your employees or customers to view real-time product and account information, real-time stock availability and much more on the specific lists or catalogues they are allocated with.

    Real-time ERP integration also means that when there is an order submission, it goes directly into your ERP so you don’t have to do anything in between.

  2. Time Efficient & Cost-Effective

    A Uniform Management system bypasses the traditional need of rekeying sizes, product specification and other general order details when an employee requires more of an item or set of items.

    To facilitate this, the appropriate products related to an employee/customer are pre-defined within the Uniform Management system. This means employees can only choose to order from their predefined kit, ensuring less overspend. The only thing now a user needs to do is select the correct “pack” and order the appropriate products.

    By allowing users to self-service, it will also save you time, money, as well as it will minimise errors and returns. Just approve the orders, if that’s something you have decided to bed doing, and then start preparing the order for shipment.

  3. Being in Control

    Your Uniform Management System allows you to be in full control of your employees’ order lists and expenditure. In other words, it allows you to create employee/customer-specific catalogues/lists and allocate the correct products to each user.

    Additionally, it allows you to limit the quantity users can order, the amount of money they can spend, and the frequency of ordering.

    This process ensures that employees can only purchase the products which they are entitled to order and keeps their budget on track.

    Lastly, such a system also facilitates order approvals. This will enable you to either approve each order if you wish or you can choose to only approve orders that are over a user’s expenditure limits.

  4. Online Ordering 24/7. 365

    A Uniform Management System should not only be accessible from any device but should also facilitate 24/7, 365 ordering which will allow employees or customers to place orders on the go from a computer, tablet, or mobile phone at any time and day of the year.

    The real-time integration will also facilitate the direct entry of your employees or customers’ orders into your ERP software whilst still allowing you to be in control of their apparel entitlement and budget as we previously mentioned.

  5. Powerful Reporting

    Being able to control what your employees or customers can order or how much they can spend is great as it is. However, Uniform Management software should also facilitate a way to report on all these things.

    Reporting capabilities are very useful and a must-have as they enable you to view or download data over defined periods of times which in return will allow you to better understand and analyse the likes of expenditure and usage for different groups, users, or items.

Summary

For anyone in the B2B/B2C business managing large employee/customer databases manually can be a very time and resource-consuming process.

Entering data, following up with suppliers, updating actions, and other such tasks can be frustrating and can lead to unnecessary risks, errors, and oversights.

On the other hand, with the help of a uniform management system, the whole process can be painless, a lot more streamlined and automated and will provide up-to-date, accurate information in a matter of seconds, all at your fingertips.

Uniform Management software helps your company not only to accelerate and streamline the ordering process but also saves you time and money.

Before you start looking for a Uniform Management solution, you should know that even though there are a few solutions on the market that can meet some of your needs, do any of them tick all the boxes on your requirements list?

If you are looking for a complete Uniform Management solution, you should check out the Aphix Uniform Management System which has been designed with both employees and customers needs in mind.

You can also book a quick demo if you wish to see live how our ERP integrated solution can help you meet your business needs.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us and one of us will be more than happy to assist you.