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Benefits of using OpenBoxes

Free, open-source software

  • OpenBoxes is entirely free to use. This can be a significant advantage in the face of limited operational resources.

Inventory Visibility & Tracking

  • Not only does OpenBoxes allow you to view your inventory at a glance, it provides a historical record of inventory transactions. This data is invaluable to accurately understand and forecast demand for future planning periods.
  • OpenBoxes allows you to set inventory max, min, and reorder points — this allows the user to quickly assess if supplies are overstocked, at appropriate stock levels, or in danger of being out of stock if not reordered soon.
  • OpenBoxes allows you to record the movement of goods from multiple sources and across different levels of the organization:
    • From central warehouses to your facility depot
    • From other hospital facilities to your facility depot
    • From vendor warehouses to your facility depot
    • From one warehouse to other warehouses within your network
    • From your facility depot to pharmacies and wards within your facility
  • Record lot numbers for items that have an expiry date to help identify stock that has expired or is about to expire. Lot numbers also provide a means to locate stock when a manufacturer recalls a certain item.
  • Record serial numbers for items that require lifecycle management (including assets such as computers, routers, hospital beds).
  • Upload and manage documents for each product (e.g. data sheets, product manuals, hazardous material handling requirements).

Shipping Documents

  • OpenBoxes offers the user the ability to produce Certificates of Donation, Packing Lists, and other documents required for shipping with just a few mouse clicks.
  • Documents can also be uploaded to OpenBoxes to allow operational leadership to save all the relevant shipping documents to a particular shipment within the system.

Grant Compliance

  • Certain grants require that inventory be tracked in very specific ways. Using OpenBoxes comprehensively would allow a site to account for the movement of goods bought with grant monies from vendor, to country, to facility — and the consumption of those items at a facility level.

Integration with Demand & Forecasting software

  • While the OpenBoxes stock usage history can provide a high-level picture of future demand for any particular item, integrating with demand forecasting software will allow those processes to be automated and more accurate.

Integration with Data Replication software

  • While OpenBoxes supports a hierachy of locations, sometimes it's not possible for all locations to access a centralized server due to power and Internet limitations at that site. In this case, you can manage multiple server installations (a central OpenBoxes server for most locations with good Internet) and separate OB server for each location that does not have a reliable connection to the Internet. Using SymmetricDS, you can bi-directionally sync all data changes between each of these servers.