Leading the Design and Development of Gimme VMS

As a product co-founder and CEO with a background in software development and customer-centric user experiences, I have had the opportunity to work on a number of exciting projects. One project that stands out in my experience is the development of Gimme VMS, an inventory management software that helps unattended retail businesses optimize their supply chain operations.

Below are a few slides showing Gimme VMS Technical Infrastructure and why it's so unique, starting at the most foundational levels, compared to the competition.

Product Topology

Gimme VMS has two main front-end applications: Field and VMS.?These connect to a cloud-hosted back-end. The software offers a range of features, including real-time inventory tracking, automated stockout detection, vendor receipt AI import, and schedule suggestion tools.?These also connect to and integrate with different hardware devices, to securely exchange transactional sales, inventory, and financial information, improving data accuracy, reducing data entry mistakes, and speeding up in-field service times for users compared to competitive products.

I lead product at Gimme, and for Gimme VMS I was responsible for defining the product roadmap, coordinating the development efforts of the engineering team, and ensuring that the final product met the needs of our customers. As one of the patent-holders for the Gimme Key Pro and underlying BLE-based communication protocols, I was also responsible for managing hardware-software data integration work.?I am proud to say that Gimme VMS is well differentiated in the market, with a growing customer base and a positive reputation for innovation and continuous improvement.

Technical Infrastructure

One of the key challenges in building Gimme VMS was designing a technical infrastructure that was scalable, reliable, and efficient. To meet these objectives, we chose to use Flutter and Dart for the front-end applications, and Rust for the back-end.

Flutter is a popular mobile development framework made by Google, which allows us to build native apps for iOS and Android using a single codebase. We were early adopters of Flutter, and are very impressed with its performance and the outstanding support it is receiving from the development community.

For the back-end, we chose to use Rust, a programming language that is known for its performance and memory safety. In addition, we decided to host the back-end on the Google Cloud Platform (GCP), which provides a range of tools and services that make it easier to deploy and manage applications on Kubernetes.

To transfer data between the front-end and back-end, we use gRPC, a high-throughput protocol that is designed for delivering massive data sets. We chose gRPC over other options such as REST (and JSON) due to its superior performance and scalability.

AI and Roadmap

In addition to the core functionality of Gimme VMS, we are active in exploring the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to enhance the software's capabilities. For example, we have trained a customized object detection model using TensorFlow, which is now being used to power our on-device A.I. stockout detection feature.

We are also implementing a document AI solution from Google, which allows us to recognize unstructured photos of documents and extract structured data. This has been integrated into our vendor receipt AI import tool, which is currently in private beta.

Looking to the future, we are planning to incorporate more AI and ML features into Gimme VMS. One project we are currently working on is an XGBOOST ML model that will power an approve/deny schedule change suggestion engine. This feature is currently in development and is expected to be released in the near future.

Other Things

In addition to the technologies mentioned above, Gimme VMS also relies on a number of other tools and services to function. For example, we use PostgreSQL and Redis as our main databases, and Fluvio as our queue server. We also utilize Sentry for error tracking, and SendGrid for email delivery.

In terms of integration, Gimme VMS has a number of modules that allow it to interface with other systems, such as the Micro Market VDI Services, the VDI S2S, and Lightspeed. We have also established partnerships and integrations with companies such as USA Technologies (now Cantaloupe, NASDAQ: CTLP), Crane Payment Innovations (“CPI” a combination of Crane Payment Solutions and MEI Conlux Holdings “MEI”), Nayax Ltd (NASDAQ: NYAX), and 365 Markets, among others.

Conclusion

My experience building Gimme VMS is a big highlight in my product career.?As the leader of this project, I was responsible for defining the product roadmap, coordinating the development efforts of the design and engineering teams, and ensuring that the final product met the needs of our customers.?

The result is a robust and highly utilized software that has gained a positive reputation for innovation — catalyzing the industry and pushing our competitors forward too.?I’m grateful Gimme VMS was recognized with the pinnacle “Product of the Year.” It has a range of features that help businesses optimize their supply chain operations, including real-time inventory tracking, automated stockout detection, vendor receipt AI import, and schedule suggestion tools.?

In addition, we have been increasing our use of AI and ML to enhance the software's capabilities, and have a number of exciting projects in the pipeline. I am confident that my experience building Gimme VMS is preparing me to continue taking on new product challenges that will enhance the value of our products to our customers and the industry at large.

Not only has the project been a success in terms of its technical and business value, but it has also allowed me to develop my skills and knowledge in the field of AI and ML. Our team has a number of exciting projects in the pipeline that will further enhance the capabilities of Gimme VMS, and I am confident that my experience on this project has prepared me to take on new challenges in the future. I am eager to put these skills and experience into play, continuing the development of innovative and valuable products.