Enterprise software vendor SAP has unveiled an enhanced version of
its retail software that it says will boost forecasting accuracy
and offer customers more flexibility when planning store
shipments.
At the Retail Systems 2002 conference in Chicago, USA, the software
company announced that it would introduce new merchandise
management and planning functions for its mySAP Retail application
and more tightly integrate planning processes within the inventory
management function. The application will also offer an ability to
integrate style and colour planning, along with other business
indicators, when deciding on what mix of products to market.
SAP has also announced that it will resell technology from SAF and
eventually embed the technology into its retail application to
improve and automate forecasting and replenishment functions.
That represents a slightly new tack, according to Joshua Greenbaum,
an analyst at Enterprise Applications Consulting. Typically,
companies have approached the issue by squeezing fat out on the
supply side of the supply chain, as opposed to focusing on the
demand forecasting side. "Poor forecasting means too much product,
too much inventory and too much waste in a retail market that lives
and dies by the thinnest of margins," Greenbaum said.
MySAP Retail can be purchased as a stand-alone application
connecting to any retail system without other SAP modules in place,
said Hunter Harris, vice-president of retail business development
at SAP. It will allow users quick access to data and the ability to
make changes across an entire product hierarchy with less manual
intervention.
For example, if a company wants to change the price on blue shirts
throughout its product line, it can do so automatically without
first having to call up each individual category, such as men's
shirts or women's shirts, and making the price changes individually
to each category.
Although the SAF forecasting tool is available now, other
enhancements to the retail suite will not be available until the
third quarter. Pricing has not yet been disclosed.