Inventory Advisor is what Sage is calling it, but Netstock of South Africa is the developer (http://www.netstock.co).  Based on what we’ve seen and heard (Improve Your Inventory Status and Free Up Cash, according to Sage) Inventory Advisor seems like it will be very straight forward, and most who spring for a purchase we’re guessing will be pleased with it.  That should not be too surprising as that happens to be fairly common with business apps in general.  Why?  Because purchasing mobile apps and other cloud solutions has one important thing in common with buying a new pair of shoes – in most cases you can try them on first.

With mobile business apps what we are seeing is developers building more narrowly focused apps whether for transactional purposes, inquiries, or intelligence.  And when you can try before you buy, you are much more likely to be satisfied.  Its all about aligning the value with the price.   Our experience is that the needs are plenty and frontier is welcoming.

The value propositions readily define themselves the more you narrow the focus of the app.  With mobile, the goal is more about solving very specific business problems and that is why we are going to see a big surge of mobile app offerings in the Sage channel.  Sage has the largest mid-market install base in North America, and by producing a vibrant and growing app development marketplace the opportunity exists for customers to become more loyal to Sage and less likely to consider a new ERP.

So welcome Netstock and Inventory Advisor – and bring it on Sage developer world!

By Paul Ziliak, co-founder, xkzero