You are in Control
“Yes, we’ve got a receiving package, too”, can be a sort of check in the box thing, but there is a lot more to it than being able to scan a UPC code and print out a receiving document. Here is what else we bring to the equation:
First our DSD application runs on a server at your HQ and the scanning itself runs on browser-enabled wireless terminals at the store. That means each scan accesses the chain database real-time. Costs, product details, deals are immediately available online. No batches, no downloads, therefore no lots batches, no wrong batches applied. Result: the associated MIS maintenance load disappears.
Second, as the terminal is a browser, as the product is scanned, the transaction is written immediately into the database. That means if the terminal battery dies on you, it doesn’t matter as the server already has all the scanned transactions on board. It also means you can use several scanners processing the same order.
Third, as the scanned data is in the server, it is also immediately available to A/P. No more paperwork to deal with after the event, no more lost paperwork, notes, scraps of paper and all the rest of the work creating exercise that characterizes conventional receiving packages. If there had been a cost discrepancy at receiving, it is simply noted on the receiving terminal. A buyer can deal with it later and any cost adjustments can be retrofitted to all outstanding transactions.
When you are ready to consolidate, the central server presents you all outstanding transactions in pretty much any format you want, so you can run them through the payment process. You can also set the system up to process all transactions using the default Midax business logic that the lower price gets it. Thus you need never manually intervene in the payment settlement at all, if you so choose. Result: ¾ of your A/P costs disappear!
Finally all transaction data is stored in the format of the raw data processed. That means you can get back to it whenever you need. Any deal discrepancy, any TPR debate with vendors, any back tracking on cost changes – it is all there. You don’t know when you might need it, so we keep it for you!
Using that data and combining it with sales movement data from the POS gives us, with our perpetual inventory module gives us our computer assisted ordering module. Exactly the same infrastructure at the store - in fact, CAO is just another application running on the same terminal browser as you use for receiving. You can punch in your own orders into the terminal as you walk around the store, or you can use Midax forecasting techniques that use the recent sales trend and TPR effects to recommend an order, which it can present to vendors at arrival or before arrival at the store.
And don’t forget, as the order is being built, if the terminal battery dies, the order is on the server, so pick up another terminal and continue with that one. No more lost orders!
This moves you away from vendor-driven shelf-filling to replenishment that reflects the pattern of sales of your customers. Result, lower inventory costs and higher service levels. Industry figures say a good CAO system will put 2% onto your bottom line. Think about it!
Deal management and ad management complete the processing of handling product, with all the history of all transactions stored, for that time you need it.
The package is rounded off by price hosting. Guess what, no batches, all posting online, user front-end tools to ease data maintenance, data selection and data replication. Flexible business logic enables you to set up business rules to set your pricing strategies and ensure that the sales price of every SKU is optimized by relational pricing rules, uplift and competitive pricing rules. This is how Midax price hosting can also make its contribution to your bottom line.
There is a lot more to back office than a check in the box!
