Clear Spider FAQs

    • Who is Clear Spider best for - their role(s) within what kind of companies.

      Clear Spider can be used in a variety of organizations but is best suited for medium-large companies with multiple stocking locations or organizations with vendor managed inventory. While Clear Spider is an incredibly robust inventory management software, it can be custom-tailored to any of your requirements. This includes setting user permissions, functionality within the system, types of reports produced, how items are tracked as well as creating custom integration options between the Clear Spider system and other tools you already use. Clear Spider also integrates with barcoding (with scanners or our mobile app) to log and track inventory item descriptions and location within your warehouses.

    • How does Clear Spider benefit them?

      Cloud-Based Inventory Management:
      Have access to your data wherever and whenever with Clear Spider. Storing your data on the cloud removes the geographical limitations and restrictions of a locally installed system. Inventory can be managed from the warehouse, storage locations, the office or on the go. Your data will be hosted in our secure data centers so you can trust your proprietary data is always safe.

      Customizable Software:
      Clear Spider is a completely customizable inventory management system. The back-end processes are molded to mirror your business workflow. Eliminating non-value adding functionality allows for intuitive navigation. Staff can more quickly and efficiently find the tools they need to get the job done. You can personalize your inventory system not only in the physical design, but in the core functionality as well.

      Intuitive Design:
      Clear Spider is a customizable system that allows you to eliminate non-value adding functionality. Out-of-the-box systems are generically built so their solutions will satisfy the majority of companies that purchase their product. They include all of the functionality their system is capable of, whether or not your business needs it. These unused features end up hindering productivity levels by cluttering the system and making navigation more difficult. Customize Clear Spider’s functionality on a user-to-user basis. Your staff will perform tasks more efficiently when the tools they need are easy to find and readily available. Make completing tasks straightforward by having only the needed features easily accessible.

      Safe and Secure:
      The security setup can be configured to meet your organization’s specific requirements. It can be set individually for each user, role, and location or for the software program as a whole. Clear Spider also uses 256-bit SSL encryption – the same standards used for internet banking – to keep your data secure. We perform daily backups to ensure you never lose any data from your inventory management system. Regular monitoring is done to ensure our security is always up to date. Continuous data center performance audits and 3rd party assessments are completed to check for any potential vulnerabilities. Finally, Clear Spider is purely focused on inventory management, which means we do not store credit card or other financial data. The data you have on Clear Spider is your data, we do not own it or store it for any secondary use.

      Quick Implementation:
      Implementation is done on the cloud from a remote location with no hardware or software installation. As soon as the system is set up and tested, it is ready for use. Access the system from any internet-enabled device at anytime without any installation or plug-ins. Our clients work directly with one of our project managers from their first demo to post-implementation. This makes our implementation process smooth and efficient since your project manager is familiarized with your business goals right from the start.

      Seamless Integration:
      Clear Spider is a highly flexible system that can integrate with any software on the cloud so you don't have to change the tools you already know and love. We currently have over 35 web services in place for integration purposes and that number continues to expand as our customers want new and different tools to integrate with Clear Spider.

    • How technical do users need to be to use Clear Spider's software?

      While it can be intimidating to look at Clear Spider as a whole, your dedicated account manager will do most of the heavy lifting on the technical side for you. The everyday user only needs to know the basics of using a computer to be able to tap into the power of the Clear Spider system. Any desired customizations or technical requirements that you may want can be easily implemented by the account manager on behalf of your organization and training on navigating and using the solution is also provided.

    • What makes Clear Spider a leader in this space?

      Clear Spider is able to provide a top-of-the-line solution through these key features:

      Barcode Scanning:
      Using Barcode technology makes inventory control faster and more accurate. Barcodes help keep track of your inventory, reduce errors, and eliminate the cost of manual record keeping. Clear Spider incorporates the use of Barcodes to communicate updates on the status of your inventory directly to you.

      Fulfillment and Replenishment:
      Substandard order management can be costly for your business. Stock shortages, expired items, and insufficient lead-time are a few examples of issues our Fulfillment and Replenishment function can solve by visually displaying on-hand inventory beside each item. The automatic replenishment function effortlessly determines how much stock needs to be reordered. Using historical data, you can pre-set minimum, maximum, and reorder points for each item that you want to be replenished. The Clear Spider system is then able to automatically create purchase orders when inventory levels for those items approach their reorder points.

      Light Manufacturing and Kitting:
      Kitting can cut down your shipping costs by reducing the number of order errors. Packaging several individual items separately can increase the chance of an order error being made. Using kits will help your employees fill orders right the first time. Kitting gives your company more control over your stockroom by preparing employees for orders as they arrive. These kits can be stored, ordered, and tracked, as a single item. This allows your company to respond faster to orders, reduce the labor required to package items, and increase your business’ productivity.

      Lot Control and Shelf Life:
      The Clear Spider Lot Control and Shelf Life function assigns a lot, or batch number, to a group of items that have the same production or expiration date. The lot number helps the system track the grouped items’ expiration date, weight, and remaining shelf life. Tracking your products using these lot numbers, makes it simple to verify that you are sending out the right stock, at the right time. Using this function gives your company full control over your lots or batches.

      Serialized Inventory:
      Process improvement is the practice of continuously advancing the production of your products. Serial numbers can improve your processes by allowing your company to find defective products, or products in need of repair. Once a faulty product is found, you can determine the cause of the defect, and make the appropriate process changes to prevent defects from reoccurring. Process improvements are directly linked to enhancing your organization’s quality control and the need to maintain the quality of your product, to meet your customers’ expectations.

      Return Material Authorization:
      Return Material Authorization (RMA) is the process used to ship broken, or defective items, back. RMA is used during a warranty period to track goods so they can be returned, repaired, or exchanged. As a supplier, you can see the reasons for the return, check the validity of returns, and then manage the return to the customer, third party, or a repair facility. The Clear Spider system will create purchase orders, replacement orders, and vendor returns, to save you the time and cost of manual data entry.

      Invoice and Billing:
      You can access and manage invoice and billing reports with the Clear Spider system. Invoices are automatically created and saved into the system as orders are made. You can search through current and past invoices based on time period, order number, and location through the billing history or invoice report function.

      Reports and Analytics:
      Access the information you need, when you need it. With Clear Spider’s reports and analytics you can run comparisons, create graphs and charts, and generate detailed analyses. Compare month-to-month and year-over-year data. Review the reports yourself or export the results for analysis by your management team. Keep your organization and your customers in the loop.

      Consignment Inventory:
      The Clear Spider consignment inventory management function effortlessly manages inventories you own at your customers’ locations. With our system, you will retain ownership over your inventories and gain complete control over your consignment stock. You will be able to plan for replenishment, manage your inventories, and gain insight into consignment levels. Clear Spider can give your customers access to enter real-time information about receipts, adjustments, shipments, allocations, cycle-counts, and physical-counts. With these real-time updates, you won’t have to worry about where your stock is or how much stock you have stored at your customer locations. This results in maximized customer service while minimizing your stock-outs.

      Automated Industrial Vending:
      Clear Spider’s Automated Vending function automatically tracks items that are dispensed and records when they have been returned. Use this function to monitor individual employees and restrict access to items based on their department, job title, or limit the quantity that they are able to dispense. Industrial Vending Inventory Management can boost your company’s efficiency, accuracy and productivity.

      Mobile Solutions:
      Improve inventory accuracy with real-time inventory management on-the-go. Employees can update inventory levels wherever they are with the Clear Spider mobile app. Increase overall accuracy and reliability of inventory data by eliminating time-lag in the initial entry. The Clear Spider app is available on both iOS and Android.

    • Who are Clear Spider's biggest competitors (3-5 companies)?

      Some competitors in our space include:
      - Fishbowl Inventory
      - Acctivate Inventory Software
      - Microsoft Dynamics 365
      - Zoho Inventory
      - TradeGecko

    • How/why is Clear Spider better than those competitors (or most others in their market)? What about Clear Spider is unique, stronger, easier, etc.?

      We believe Clear Spider is the best option available on the market today for several reasons. First, our system benefits from having the experience of hundreds of thousands of end-users in a variety of industries who use the system daily. These users provide key feedback that allows us to better understand the needs of those who buy our solution and how we can meet those needs in an efficient manner. Second, our system is designed to provide more operational capability than the average user would need. This allows us to quickly mold the Clear Spider system into a wide variety of possible solutions all based on the unique needs of our customers. Finally, Clear Spider's excellent support team sets it apart from the competition. Dedicated account managers work with each client from day one to get a firm understanding of how each business works and the best way to tailor the Clear Spider solution to the individual needs of each company.

    • What kind of features can customers expect Clear Spider to release in the near future? And longer term?

      The Clear Spider software is always changing and evolving to keep up with market standards. Current and expected updates are shared bi-monthly with our customers via our newsletter.

    • Which popular or common software does Clear Spider integrate with?

      The list of Clear Spider integrations continues to expand daily. Visit our website to learn more: https://clearspider.net/integrations/. Below is a sample of some of the integrations already being used with Clear Spider:
      - Abila
      - Sage 100
      - Quickbooks
      - Brightpearl
      - Fresh Books Cloud Accounting
      - Infor
      - Bill Quick
      - Deltek
      - blackbaud
      - Microsoft Dynamics
      - Intacct
      - Netsuite
      - Sage
      - Epicore
      - Oracle
      - QAD
      - E2 Shop System
      - Oracle peoplesoft
      - Chempax
      - IFS
      - Oracle JD Edwards
      - Syspro
      - SAP
      - Vai
      - Intuit
      - Lightspeed
      - NCR Aloha
      - Oracle | Micros (Oracle Hospitality)
      - Shopkeep
      - Amazon
      - Shopify
      - Ebay
      - Mozu
      - Salsify
      - Infusionsoft
      - Bigcommerce
      - Magento
      - Fedex
      - DHL
      - Purolator
      - Canada Post
      - UPS
      - Shipstation
      - United State Postal Service
      - Sugar CRM
      - SalesForce
      - Siebel
      - Oracle Eloqua
      - SalesForce IQ
      - mHelpDesk
      - Team Support
      - Pipedrive
      - IBM

    • Software pricing can often be complex. If it's pretty straightforward, list tiers, pricing (per year, seat, etc) and limits for Clear Spider. If it's not simple, use broad estimates or ranges for typical setups.

      Clear Spider's price ranges widely due to the highly customizable nature of the solution and may be priced higher due to desired integration options or core feature capabilities. Broadly speaking, Clear Spider has a one-time set up fee that ranges in the thousands of dollars and a monthly subscription fee that ranges in the hundreds of dollars.

    • Does Clear Spider offer a trial or free download available?

      While there is no free trial / download for Clear Spider, we provide an interactive, in-depth demo & walk-through of the system to all prospective clients. The demo consists of discussing your inventory needs, showcasing the software’s capabilities, and showing you how Clear Spider fits into your business.

    • Does Clear Spider offer any kind of training/education for their product?

      Besides the knowledge base available online, we provide both a Clear Spider User guide and an Administrator guide to new clients. Both of these comprehensive guides go over every little detail of the Clear Spider system with each guide custom-tailored to either everyday users or those with a greater hand in the background functionality of the system. in addition, several training videos are made available to go over different functions of the Clear Spider system and give users a crash course on using the Clear Spider mobile app. Custom created training guides and videos are available to select clients.

    • Describe the implementation process and timeline for Clear Spider software.

      Implementation is done on the cloud from a remote location with no hardware or software installation. As soon as the system is set up and tested, it is ready for use. Access the system from any internet-enabled device at anytime without any installation or plug-ins.
      Our dedicated account managers have meetings with all new clients and lay out exactly what information the need to provide us so the account manager can load it into the Clear Spider system. Once this is done, the account manager will continue through the on-boarding process and will be able to provide support on any administrative issues or issues with any custom features / integrations.

    • What are the Clear Spider support options? List all.

      Clear Spider takes pride in having an excellent support team that can be reached via email (support@clearspider.net), phone (905-366-0222) or by filling out a request form on our website (https://www.clearspider.com/about/contact/). In addition to these support options, each account has a dedicated member of the account management team who can step in to help resolve issues and identify problems before they disrupt the flow of your business.

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