Creativity Inc. to Craft Better Inventory Management Solution

Supplier taps Smart Software to improve demand planning, inventory management

Belmont, MA June 23, 2005 Creativity Inc., a mid-sized importer and supplier of a variety of arts and crafts products, such as beads, scrapbooking supplies, paper crafting and craft organization solutions, said it has purchased Smart Software Inc.'s SmartForecast Enterprise product to improve demand planning and inventory management.

Creativity will integrate SmartForecasts with the company's CMS ERP (enterprise resource planning) system to initiate an inventory management process to better quantify and predict demand patterns and provide superior service to its customers.

Creativity Inc., based in Van Nuys, Calif., consists of four divisions: Blue Moon Beads, DMD, Crop-In-Style and Westrim Crafts. It also manages more than 12,000 active stock-keeping units (SKUs) in its inventory. Creativity said it will use SmartForecasts' forecasting and inventory optimization capabilities to provide accurate safety stock estimates and set service level inventory requirements in the hopes of ensuring more efficient distribution procedures and better merchandising support for its customers.