Centralized network operations management

Having a modern supply chain management strategy provides the retailer with obvious business benefits. The ability to view, manage and modify very complex, changing components of the supply chain affects all business indicators, from procurement conditions and logistics costs to customer loyalty and market share.

There can be quite a lot of needs for automating central operations in a distribution network: the retail business is developing rapidly, the network is in the process of optimizing work, the existing system does not meet the current tasks of the company, is not a reliable and effective tool for optimizing business processes, there are plans to introduce serious industry platforms and business process restructuring. In addition, for some networks, the challenge may still be to increase investment attractiveness.

The format of large retail stores involves a large assortment of goods, a complex order system, as well as a large array of information that distinguishes the industry retail solution from other accounting systems of the ERP class. Traditionally, it is customary for a retail company to distinguish three levels of automation: cash transactions (front-office), store operations (back-office) and operations of the company's central office (head-office). Accordingly, to automate the operations management of a modern retail company, an industry-specific, reliable, productive, and scalable platform is required, which is offered by Consulting for Retail in the form of its industry experience and best practices embedded in the software.

Reaching the goal of centralization, transfer to a single platform with scalability, automation of operations in the distribution network, the retail company ultimately provides itself:

• Lower operating costs
• Profit increase
• Centralized master data management
• Supplier management, terms and conditions and procurement schedules
• Inventory management
• Assortment management
• Managing sales conditions, margins and pricing
• Sales channel management (retail, wholesale and online trading)
• Management of domestic production
• PROMO activity management
• Statistics, operational and current reporting

One of the key problems facing retail companies is getting up-to-date and complete information about the status of the network. And here one cannot do without standardization and automation of business processes, and given the exponential growth of data processed in the retail network, the decision to manage operations must cope not only with data storage, but also with its processing.

Taking into account the requirements of companies, a prerequisite is the availability of Master Data Management (master data management) - the foundation of a trading network management system, which includes basic data on:

• Vendor code (Commodity structure, Goods (product description, including sales and supply data), Raw materials and production cards of the actual production);
• Trading network (Shops and warehouses, Organizational structure);
• Suppliers and customers (Suppliers, Customers, Contracts (commercial, payment, service).

The industry solution of Consulting for Retail, in terms of operations performed with data in retail companies, carries with it automation of operations, including:

• Management of groups of stores by assortment / pricing / suppliers- Manual order;
• Order with quantity proposal;
• Auto Order;
• Copy orders;
• Consolidated orders for suppliers based on orders from outlets;
• Ability to enter or conduct operations with negative or zero quantities / prices, restrictions on changing dates;
• Acceptance of goods with the creation of an order;
• Acceptance of goods on an existing order;
• Acceptance of goods with modification of quantity and price;
• Reception of goods with a larger / smaller quantity from the ordered;
• Reception of goods with packaging;
• Reception of piece / weight goods;
• Transfer between warehouses;
• Transfer between outlets;
• Batch Tracking;
• Expiration Tracking;
• Manage goods on the way;
• Management of balances by each point;
• Correction of balances with the ability to identify various types of reasons for corrections;
• Conducting rediscounting by product / supplier / product group / outlets;
• Residue Lock;
• Conducting scheduled rediscounts;
• Centralized master data management;
• Supplier Management;
• Outlets Management;
• Procurement and Budget Management;
• Retro Bonus Management;
• Supplier Budget Management;
• Assortment Management;
• Pricing Management (Retail, Wholesale);
• Promotion Management;
• Sales Management;
• Order Flow Management;
• Manage hierarchy and category tree;
• Container management;
• Equipment management from suppliers;
• Contract management (commercial, payment, service);
• Cost Management;
• Wholesale;
• Inventory and goods management;
• Supplier Returns Management;
• Credit Note & Reminder Management;
• Import management;
• Commission Sales Management;
• In-house store management;
• Reconciliation of vendor invoices;
• Setting up work-flow for entering product master data;
• Assortment management work-flow setup;
• Setting up workflow for creating orders;
• Centralized reporting on various processes

The solution offered by Consulting for Retail is scalable, supports the operation of the retail network with more than 15 thousand retail outlets.

When switching to an industry solution from Consulting for Retail, the retailer receives an effective solution for managing basic retail operations:

• the solution is developed taking into account 30 years of experience in the implementation of the largest retail chains around the world;
• a solution that is developed taking into account the latest trends and trends in global retail;
• an effective solution that automates all the major processes of a retailer in the field of Supply Chain Management.

In practice, when implementing accounting systems, an increase in staff productivity is declared, a reduction in the number of errors (related to data entry and reconciliation), more effective management decisions, lower unproductive expenses, etc. etc. However, the main objective of the project to implement a centralized solution for operations management should be to increase the efficiency of the company as a whole.

Implementation Performance Indicators

According to independent news agencies, with the right, carefully planned implementation, companies can achieve really significant results, such as:

• Lower operational and management costs;
• Lower business costs;
• Reduced insurance stock levels;
• The increase in the turnover of funds in the calculations;
• Increase inventory turnover;
• Just-in-time supply increases;
• Inventory reduction;
• Reducing the cycle of sales of goods;
• Business process control at all levels;
• Improving the readiness of goods for sale;
• Assortment quality improvement;
• Procurement Process Transparency;
• Easy management of recharge policies, trade policies, discount management;
• Optimization of distribution of logistics flows;
• Easy management of promotional and seasonal activities;
• Fresh Food Management;
• Convenient compensation control;
• A convenient means of communication with trading partners;
• More accurate cost accounting;
• Decrease in closing periods of the accounting period;
• The increase in the turnover of funds in the calculations;
• Reducing the cost of administrative staff;
• Elimination of manual preparation and maintenance of documents.