To use the Lokad optimization, the appropriate flag has to be set in the Integrations module of Megaventory. This module lies under the Settings menu tab and handles the settings involved in integrating Megaventory to any 3rd party software. Extra help while filling out the form can be obtained by hovering with the mouse over the bubble icon next to each specific field.

By setting the Enable Lokad Integration flag, the user should also set the Lokad Username (mandatory email field), Lokad Password (mandatory password field) and Lokad file folder fields. The two former fields can be obtained by subscribing to the lokad.com website. The Lokad file folder field sets the folder location in which the files generated by Megaventory will be stored in the Lokad website. The folder field is not mandatory: if no folder name is specified then, the files generated by Megaventory will be stored in the root folder of your Lokad account. If the folder name is specified then, the same folder name must exist in your Lokad.com account. If no such folder name exists in your Lokad.com account, the user will receive an error notification message as seen in the figure below.

When all the relevant information is completed, the user should save the form by clicking on the Save button.

To invoke the Lokad service and generate the files that contain the historical sales data needed by the Lokad service, one has to select the products using the checkboxes in the respective rows and click the Lokad Analysis option in the Inventory Management Lists module.

To populate the Detailed Stock Alert Levels and the Sub Location columns, the user should select one or more inventory locations from the Select Inventory Locations drop-down option and then click Search. In case only one inventory location exists in the account, the Detailed Stock Alert Levels and Sub Location columns are by default pre-populated to display only information related to this inventory location.

The Show All Products selection will populate the whole list of products that can then be sent to Lokad for analysis. A user may also use the Show only products that need to be ordered option to populate only those products that are currently low on stock and need to be ordered (purchased) by their supplier. In such a case, the list is populated only with those products that fulfill the following condition per Inventory Location: inventory quantity plus the non-received quantity in Purchase Orders plus the non-received quantity in Production Orders (if the Production Module is enabled) minus the non-shipped quantity in Sales Orders is less than the Stock Alert level.

Products may be selected by checking the checkbox in the respective product row. Then, these products can be exclusively sent for Lokad analysis by clicking the Lokad button.

After clicking the Lokad button a notification message appears. The notification message shown in the figure below includes the link to the Lokad.com website where the Lokad project is located. In case of an error, the user will see an error notification message as shown in the figure below.

After successfully sending sales and inventory information to the Lokad.com servers, as shown in the figure below, for the specified products of step 2 above, the user can start the project and generate the Lokad report.

The Lokad project is located at https://go.lokad.com and can be started by clicking the Run button as shown in the figure below. Extra configuration settings can be set by clicking the Edit button. Tweaking the settings under the Edit button allows for different optimization results. For the effect of each setting on your forecast, consult the Lokad.com website.

Once the Run button is clicked, Lokad will start analyzing the data as shown in he figure below and produce a consolidated Excel report gathering key inventory optimization metrics.

For further information on what you can do in terms of inventory forecasting with Lokad please refer to their documentation and their support.