Malouf Furniture — How It All Connects

For Gardner — This is the big picture of what we're building. Your existing tools feed into one central database, an AI brain reads that database, and your team gets the answers and automations they need without changing how they work day to day.

Nothing below is set in stone — this is the direction based on our conversation. The discovery form will fill in the blanks.

The Architecture

flowchart TD
    subgraph TODAY ["What You Have Today"]
        RV["🗄 RETAILvantage\n(Korber / PROFITsystems)\nInventory · Sales · Customers · Accounting"]
        CRM["📋 Furniture CRM\nSales Pipeline\n(Name TBD — form will capture)"]
        MKT["📣 Marketing Data\nFacebook · Google · CTV · OTT\n(Attribution Tool TBD — form will capture)"]
        MS["🪟 Microsoft 365\nTeams · SharePoint · Power Automate\n(Already Active)"]
    end

    subgraph BRAIN ["The Foundation"]
        DB[("🛢 Central Database\nSingle Source of Truth\n(Your consultant is building this)")]
        AI["🧠 Claude AI Agent\nGrounded in your actual business data\nAnswers questions · Spots trends\nTriggers automations"]
    end

    subgraph TEAM ["What Your Team Sees"]
        CHAT["💬 Sales Chat Assistant\n'How many sleepers do I have?'\n'Remind me to call Ms. Jones Tuesday'\nSales Team"]
        DASH["📊 Owner Dashboard\nSales · Inventory · Marketing ROI\nReal numbers, not paper reports\nGardner + Managers"]
        MERCH["🛒 Merchandising Dashboard\nBestsellers · Reorder Triggers\nTrend Detection · Buying Recommendations\nBuying Team"]
        AUTO["⚡ Automations\nFollow-up Reminders · Pipeline Triggers\nCustomer Journey Tracking\nWhole Team"]
    end

    RV -->|"data export\n(automated)"| DB
    CRM -->|"pipeline data"| DB
    MKT -->|"attribution data"| DB
    MS -->|"operational data"| DB
    DB -->|"reads and reasons"| AI
    AI -->|"answers + alerts"| CHAT
    AI -->|"live metrics"| DASH
    AI -->|"trend analysis"| MERCH
    AI -->|"triggers workflows"| AUTO

    style TODAY fill:#f9f3e8,stroke:#d4a853,color:#333
    style BRAIN fill:#e8f0f9,stroke:#5384d4,color:#333
    style TEAM fill:#e8f9eb,stroke:#53d45e,color:#333

In Plain English

Top row — What you have today. RETAILvantage runs your business. You're testing a CRM. You're evaluating a marketing attribution tool. You have Microsoft 365. None of that changes. We're not ripping anything out.

Middle — The foundation. Your consultant friend is building a database that pulls data from all your existing tools into one place. That's the single source of truth. Claude (the AI you just signed up for) connects to that database and becomes the brain — it can read your data, reason about it, and act on it.

Bottom row — What your team actually uses. This is the payoff:

Sales Chat Assistant — Your salespeople ask plain English questions and get instant answers. Inventory checks, customer history, follow-up reminders. No digging through RETAILvantage.
Owner Dashboard — You see the real numbers. Sales, inventory, marketing ROI. Updated automatically, not from paper reports someone has to run.
Merchandising Dashboard — Your buyer sees bestsellers, reorder triggers, and trend data. Smarter buying decisions based on data instead of gut feel.
Automations — Follow-up reminders fire automatically. Pipeline moves forward without someone having to remember. Paper-pushing tasks get handled by the system so your people can focus on customers.

What's Known vs. What's TBD

Item	Status
RETAILvantage as the data source	Known — you're locked in, we build on top
Central database	In progress — your consultant is ~1 month out
Claude as the AI brain	Known — you signed up for Claude Teams
Microsoft Teams as the interface	Known — already paying for it
CRM name and integration	TBD — discovery form will capture
Attribution tool name and integration	TBD — discovery form will capture
SharePoint for static documents	Likely — needs M365 plan confirmation
Dashboard design	TBD — depends on form answers
Automation specifics	TBD — depends on form answers
Security and permissions	TBD — form asks about access levels

Estimated Monthly Cost (Once Built)

Item	Range
Claude API usage (20-25 users)	$50–150/mo
Database hosting (if not on your server)	$25–50/mo
Code hosting + small server	$20–40/mo
Claude Teams	Per your plan
SharePoint	$0 (included in M365)
Total new costs	~$100–250/mo + Claude Teams

This does not include your CRM or attribution tool — those are separate decisions.

This overview will be updated as we learn more from the discovery form. Nothing here is final — it's a starting point for the conversation.

Jeremy Longshore · Intent Solutions · jeremy@intentsolutions.io

jeremylongshore/malouf-furniture-system-overview.md

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