Most manufacturers, retailers and distributors are facing intense
price wars and the threat of losing major customers has never been
more real.
Keith BellSoapbox
. This is amplified by the explosion of investment in e-commerce
where arguably companies concentrate resources on front-end
presentation to the detriment of ensuring back-end delivery.
Many businesses are fearful of the future because they are not
very good at the basics - winning a larger market share and
delivering customer orders on time all the time and at minimum
cost. So what chance survival in a price war?
There is overwhelming evidence that emerging supply chain
technologies save costs, improve customer service, increase sales
volume, reduce stocks and shorten cash cycle times.
Companies really have little choice if they are to survive and
prosper - they have to invest.
Failure to adopt best practice in the supply chain is generally
far more costly than the investment required and this can be
assessed quite easily.
Companies need customer relationship management to give control
over hybrid channels and sales targeting. They have to have
electronic procurement to reduce costs and time. They have to grasp
the opportunity for collaborative planning, forecasting and
replenishment to minimise stocks, tie in major customers and
improve response times. They need scientific demand planning to
provide a clearer view of the future and constraint-based supply
planning. Finally they need self-service order management tools to
provide real-time and realistic promises to customer enquiries.
Are you getting real?
Keith Bell, is principal consultant at ECsoft