enabling the retail supply chain for omni-channel

White Paper

How do you enable your supply chain

to compete in an Omni-channel world?

Top 5 Things a Retailer/Brand Needs to Do Now

What you will learn:

How the social enterprise and collaboration empowers Omni-

channel retailing

How to get total visibility across the global supply chain

What does a collaborative supply chain look like

Sponsored by

Top 5 Things a Retailer/Brand

Needs to Do Now

White Paper

CBX Thought Leadership Series

© 1995-2015 CBX Software. All rights reserved. 2

Executive Summary

Retailers, brands and manufacturers have spent the past decade focusing on getting

their products to market faster, and for the most part they have succeeded. But today’s

selling environment has become significantly different than what it was ten years ago,

with great pressure to offer an Omni-channel experience which fuels an ever-more

complex sourcing market. Add the known challenges like demand volatility, a sped-up

innovation timeline, increasing internationalization on one hand and regional

differentiation on the other, and most will struggle with siloed systems and processes to

tackle these issues. There is also the expectation on the part of consumers that

production is both environmentally friendly and socially responsible. Rising production

and freight costs, fluctuating raw materials, as well as the emergence of new sourcing

markets, each with its own set of risks, only intensifies these initiatives. Be aware, none

of these issues can be seen independently and to make this a reality, one needs to take

a broader holistic view that addresses not only selling in an Omni-channel environment,

but also empowers the fulfillment process which relies on a robust supply chain.

“22% of North American retailers have merged cross-channel

efforts into a single organizational structure instead of separate

silos.” 2014 Supply Chain Benchmark Study

Boston Retail Partners


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Introduction

It is a reality today that most consumers are always connected, know what they want

and believe they should get it immediately from any channel. Retailers have paid a lot of

attention to the front-end consumer-facing solutions to find and deliver product to satisfy

them no matter where it is, but they do not always have the inventory. A seamless front-

end experience will allow consumers to shop when and how they want. A robust supply

chain which includes not only logistics, but also the entire process from plan to pay,

means sourcing and delivering goods at the right time and anticipating what consumers

want early in the supply chain to have the right inventory to meet the consumer demand

at the right price. In addition to the ability to forecast and plan, a retail organization

needs to ensure it can execute and fulfill against those plans to protect gross margins.

Omni-Channel Requires a Highly

Collaborative Supply Chain

Few retailers are able to offer a truly seamless Omni-channel experience today and

historically the back-end has not been talked about, but it has now come to the forefront.

Planning, sourcing and ordering the right product mix at the right time and at the right

cost to meet consumer demands and gross margin goals is a must. This requires real-

time collaboration with suppliers, trading partners and third party agents and partners

throughout the product lifecycle to ensure an Omni-channel experience.

Collaboration provides a platform to simplify the sourcing process and enables real-time

visibility, which is imperative in aligning the Omni-channel experience with the supply

chain. In turn, sourcing has become a strategic advantage to many retailers as they look

at the importance of real-time collaboration with the trading partners and factories to

ensure that the inventory mix and levels are in place to meet the consumer demands for

their Omni-channel initiatives.

A highly collaborative sourcing process can react to an issue in delivery or

manufacturing instantaneously to keep delivery dates intact; merchants can view the

status of orders with time to delivery to make allocation decisions to fulfill need across

the selling channels and make faster decisions based on consumer demand when “in

the know.” Together, they can deliver the final inventory into the right channels based on

real-time data. Singularly, this is an impossible task at hand. When this collaboration is in

place, there is complete alignment on how to deliver the right product at the right time at

the right price and always in a profitable way.


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The Cloud enables the scalability, visibility and real-time management across the globe

through the power of the internet. True collaboration includes all collaborators in the

extended supply chain, providing visibility to the goals and milestones across the entire

product lifecycle to deliver against the consumer demands.

Top 5 Things a Retailer/Brand Needs to Do

Now

Going forward, in order to respond quickly to increasingly unpredictable consumer

demands and ever-more complex markets with targeted product development and

sourcing decisions, retailers and brands will need to ensure that their design,

merchandising, logistics and suppliers are more integrated process-wise than ever

before. They will need a carefully selected stable of sourcing regions as well as supplier

partnerships setup to provide them with a high degree of control, agility and visibility into

the end-to-end supply chain. In order to simplify global sourcing, retailers need to

transform by adopting collaboration and becoming more social throughout the

enterprise. This will result in a fast friction-free supply chain. The supply chain business

processes from plan to pay should be streamlined and integrated on one intelligent

collaboration platform in the Cloud.

Below are five key areas that a social enterprise should be empowered to do:

1. Real-time Vendor Management in the Cloud

Retailers need to be able to manage all parties involved in the extended supply chain in

real-time, from agents to vendors to factories to raw material providers. Also, from social

compliance and technical audits to documentation and certification, all of which needs to


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be centrally administered through an online vendor portal, providing complete visibility

and control over the entire process.

With the ability to collaborate, friction is removed from the vendor and supplier

relationships and real-time visibility is provided across the extended supply chain.

Sharing relevant data and working closely together will provide the agility and decision

making to improve the supply chain deliverables earlier and consistently in the business

processes.

A highly collaborative vendor management process will be proactive rather than reactive

in working with the parties engaged to create a network of collaborators all working on a

common set of goals and metrics.

2. Product Management from concept to end of life

It is imperative to create and maintain a centralized and consistent repository of all

product data, including detailed specifications down to the material or component level.

The product information contained must be always current and up to date.

A collaborative product management repository will provide the ability to find a product

and its details quickly, whether for reuse, adaptation or crisis management, It is

important that this repository can not only record product information, but track the

evolution of the product through its lifecycle, from initial concept and planning to

adoption and end-of-life state. This occurs by utilizing line lists, product catalogues, and

linking related and substitute products together. Designers and product developers will

be able to quickly share and streamline their work, eliminating the need to start from the

beginning each time.

Being able to have a collaborative approach to product management will enable a single

view of all products across the supply chain. This will save time and resources providing

greater operational efficiencies.

3. Critical Path Management for total milestone tracking

across the extended global supply chain

Complexity breeds planning and execution alignment issues. In expanded assortments

and unrelenting customer demands, the enterprise is challenged with keeping track of

key milestones to ensure the supply chain delivers.

To succeed, it is important that every collaborator shares the same, complete visibility of

the critical path for each product and/or line across the extended supply chain around


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the globe and across all channels. Complete visibility ensures nothing slips through the

cracks with a shared view of critical dates and milestones for the full enterprise –

internally and externally. Visibility is required across the extended supply chain from

concept to delivery to allow everyone to be “in the know” and to quickly identify issues in

meeting deadlines and delivery dates, making informed business decisions and

managing by exception. The ability for Sourcing and Production to assign key milestones

and dates for accountability and manage the assigned resources to those dates ensures

key milestones are met.

An effective collaborative Critical Path Management tool is contextually sensitive to the

team or persons participating in the sourcing process and proactively alerts stakeholders

with relevant to-do actions and notifications, enabling them to take action proactively to

meet on-time deliveries.

4. Contingency plan to react to product issues and

compliance

Every company needs to have a contingency plan in place to deal with procurement,

compliance and manufacturing risks, which are out of the control of the retailers in

today’s volatile environment. A collaborative platform enables the enterprise to be

proactive and be able to anticipate these issues before they become a major problem.

The first step is making visible all the collaborators engaged in the business process and

ensuring they are all in-sync with the critical data or information they need to make real-

time decisions; it is of paramount importance that a step or a collaborator is not left out

as the entire process is like a chain where no link can break. Reacting to an issue in a

timely manner will save time and human error, providing a decision path to resolve the

issue and put an alternative process in place. Embedding compliance, testing rules and

regulations and monitoring these across the extended supply chain removes the

ambiguities and provides assurances that when the products arrives it will neither be

held up by customs nor rejected by the end consumer.

Properly laying out the decision owners and escalation processes and alerting all

involved in the process real-time is critical to a company offering a true Omni-channel

experience.

“Eight in ten retailers mentioned concerns over international

operations risks, like managing a dispersed workforce and

complying with international laws and regulations.”

2014 Retail Risk Factor Report

http://www.bdo.com/news/pr/3229


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5. Dashboard & Business Analytics

Retail executives need to be able to manage the business with Key Performance

Indicators (KPI), exception reporting and analytics through a real-time sourcing

management platform.

A collaborative dashboard and analytics platform which provides the ability to track what

is most important and relevant for their job/role with actionable visibility and real-time

tracking is critical. Use of exception based reporting will provide the ability to focus only

on what is required to move forward saving valuable time; enabling the organization to

compress cycle times and reduce inefficiencies. Relevance of the information being

provided and context in terms of insight into the business value being derived is

paramount to effective decision-making. (We have paramount a few paragraphs above

– maybe consider another word here – could use preeminent.

Cloud collaboration solutions enable real-time management, providing access to the

data throughout the extended supply time through scalability and agility across the

global enterprise.

Conclusion

As consumers adopt new technologies and channels to guide their purchases, retailers

and brands will have to implement new processes and technologies to survive and

thrive. Maintaining a sustainable competitive advantage and mastering Omni-channel

will not be easy, with an ever-changing vendor landscape, new quality controls and

regulations and constantly shifting consumer expectations in engagement. The winners

will be those progressive retailers and brands that succeed in establishing collaboration

throughout the extended supply chain and by enabling the most integrated, efficient and

effective processes. The processes and supporting tools will need to support multiple

product categories, brands, channels and lines of business, and all collaborators

throughout the critical path will need to be equipped to deliver an Omni-channel

fulfillment strategy. The ability to collaborate in a single, real-time and responsive way

can only be delivered with a Cloud based solution.


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About the Author

Nicholas Tsiroyiannis

Vice President, Product Management

Nicholas Tsiroyiannis leads CBX Software’s Product Management team. In this

multifaceted role, Nicholas is charged with shaping CBX by taking into account user

feedback, industry research, analyst insight and CBX’s strategic vision for Total Sourcing

Management. An electronic engineer and computer scientist by training, his professional

background is in implementing and designing enterprise grade supply chain

management and PLM solutions. With more than 10 years of international project

experience, Nicholas has deep insight into how some of the world’s most innovative

retailers and brands in Europe, South Africa, Asia and the USA have improved their

global supply chains through the adoption of disruptive technology.

About CBX Software

CBX Software has simplified the business of global sourcing; transforming traditional

methodologies into fast, friction free supply chains through our real-time cloud based

Total Sourcing Management Platform (TSM). We help retailers, brands and

manufacturers manage and empower the supply chain from plan to pay - one intelligent

collaboration solution for an enterprise to plan, spec, source, assure quality, order,

make, inspect, ship and pay. Over 20,000 users in more than 30 countries rely on CBX

including: Target, Safeway, Kmart and others. Visit us at cbxsoftware.com, follow us on

Twitter at @cbxsoftware, like us on Facebook and visit our LinkedIn page.

For more information, please visit CBXsoftware.com

http://www.cbxsoftware.com/

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