
Inventory Management with Jira - janoelze
https://carstenwolfram.de/inventory-management-with-jira/
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Cub3
Interesting, i've put together exactly this at a startup I just joined.

Based it off Atlassian's own article (which also goes into hardware):
[https://blogs.atlassian.com/2014/03/jira-asset-management-
ov...](https://blogs.atlassian.com/2014/03/jira-asset-management-overview/)

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nodesocket
Inventory management software seems like a great startup idea. Are there any
good companies doing web-based inventory management software?

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TheCowboy
I think the market structure is just too difficult to penetrate, with not
enough profit, for a few reasons.

There is an enormous amount of vendor lock-in present in most solutions out
there. Through hardware only compatible with one system, hardware that is
claimed to be only compatible with one system (you won't be believed that a
barcode reader will work with another system), and hardware that is simply
outdated. The hardware is the most expensive part to change. The current
software may or may not make migration of data easy.

The software needs to be able to mold itself to many different business
processes/workflows. The business processes may be inefficient or irrelevant,
but if you want approval from management you need to say you can do X,Y,Z.
Also it should interact with every system they have in place.

Management/owner buy-in is difficult. Just convincing lower level employees
that something is great is not enough if their boss points out something
doesn't have the word "cloud" 1000 times in their marketing literature (I've
experienced this).

The space tends to be dominated with solutions that are provided by
combination software/consulting companies. Charge little for the software, and
a lot for actual implementation by the hour. Or companies that rely on
affiliates/resellers and enterprise sales reps who work for commission.

Or how infrequent necessary technical competence is simply not present at many
companies. When present, sometimes it's suffocated by management, other times
they're too busy with other fires and fear a new project on their plate.

I could go on.

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nodesocket
Wow @TheCowboy. Your reply is literally one of the most thoughtful and
detailed replies I've ever gotten on HN. You absolutely nailed everything why
the inventory management market is tough.

If you had time, I'd love to shoot a startup idea I've been playing with and
have you give feedback. I feel like you'd punch the right holes into it.

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TheCowboy
Sure, I don't mind.

I also don't want to be shooting down people's ideas. There is a legitimate
business to make money somewhere in the inventory management area, I just
don't think it's ripe for a startup in the ycombinator sense of the term.

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chm
Would you recommend using Jira solely for this use case?

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manyxcxi
If you use hosted JIRA and don't have many users it could cost as little as
$5-$25 per month. That's probably cheaper than a lot of the non-F/OSS
alternatives.

If you are having problems with your device tracking now, I would recommend it
if that's the only thing you use it for assuming you don't have downstream
systems that need data in some specific format JIRA can't be bent to.

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chm
Thanks. The company I consult for has no inventory tracking at all.

