Building a Business Case for Packaged Applications - … a Business Case for Packaged Applications...
Transcript of Building a Business Case for Packaged Applications - … a Business Case for Packaged Applications...
A Retailer Perspective: The Evaluation Process
Recognize and Establish the Business Need 1
Define Program Goals and Objectives 2
Gather Requirements and Evaluation Questions 3
Measure Success 4
The Role of References 5
The Decision 6
• Non-uniform metrics across systems (No singular version of Truth)
• Current systems will not support projected growth
• Constant struggles with system integrations (reliability)
• Need Solutions to Fill Current Gaps /Applications for Critical Business Processes (WMS, Sales Audit, Planning, Merchandising, etc.)
• Performance issues which translate into worker productivity loss
• Current vendors do not offer adequate support
• Current vendors are resource constrained
• Inability to execute requested improvements
• Resistance to modify applications to better suit your company
Recognize and Establish the Business Need 1
• Feel your team leads vendors in improvement conversations, vs receiving industry best practices and benefits from other retailers
• Current systems do not support International growth initiatives
• Current systems have inherent business process delays; resulting in slow information dispersal for proper decision making
• Require people to mark processes complete, delayed batch transfers, manual assembly and information delivery external of systems.
• Seeking measurable ROI to automate / improve / change existing business processes
Recognize and Establish the Business Need 1
• Provide a platform for future growth
• Eliminate future reanalysis / second guessing if you’re on the correct platform
• Align with a business partner that will continuously improve and adapt software to respond to challenges and opportunities
• Partner must have proper support model
• Align organization processes with Industry Best Practices
• Reduce / Eliminate Custom Integrations
• Identify a system that maintains a “Single Version of the Truth” / uniform metrics
Define Program Goals and Objectives 2
• Identify a Warehouse Management System
• Identify a Sales Audit System
• Automatic validation for duplicate or missing transactions
• Highlights suspicious transactions
• Cleanses raw POS data before export
• Consolidates sales data across all channels
• Ability to correct past transaction history
• Exports one version of cleansed data across the organization
Define Program Goals and Objectives 2
Identify a Stock Ledger System (Hybrid Accounting Model)
Identify a system that can support Hybrid Accounting Methods
Retail / Cost Accounting (Align Merch / Planning and Acct.)
Provide system framework to enable Omni-Channel capabilities
Provide near Real-Time visibility to business processes
OTB, P.O., Receipt, In-Transit, Shipping, Put-Away
Define Program Goals and Objectives 2
Enhance / maintain Store operation
Consider all aspects of the store and seek out solution that offers continuity
Loss prevention (xbr)
customer relationship management (relate)
omni-channel position, current / future (ATG / Endeca)
Address specific store needs
inventory visibility
transfers Management
Cycle counts 24 x 7 (sim)
Reserve inventory for customers (serenade / Locate, Long Term)
Define Program Goals and Objectives 2
• As Is, As Was, Point in Time review of item status
• International Org. Hierarchy
• Workflow Approvals
• Notification Processes (e-mail alerts)
• Mass Item Induction
• Support One Item Per P.O.
• Revisions / Rules for Vendor P.O.
• Over-Ship / Under-Ship
• Trace Vendor Revisions
Gather Requirements and Evaluation Questions 3
• Receiving Reporting
• Filter by Buyer
• Auto-Receive Inventory Function at Stores
• EDI Capabilities
• Automated RTV Process
• Financial Visibility
• Visibility to Margins (COGS)
Gather Requirements and Evaluation Questions 3
• Pricing
• Initial Price / Advisory Price
• Suggested Retail
• Automated Rules (% reduction after n weeks)
• Alerting on Slow Sellers
• Price Conflict Checks / Alerting
• Mechanism to record competitor price checking
• Change Approval Process / Auditing
• Calendar Based Pricing Rules
• Fixed Deals
Gather Requirements and Evaluation Questions 3
• Finance
• Invoice Matching
• Automatically apply credits to GL
• Prompt for confirmation of reasons (i.e, shortages)
• Alert for Violators (Late Arrival of Goods)
• Sales Audit Rule Base (Base Interrogation)
Gather Requirements and Evaluation Questions 3
• Valuation of Inventory: How is gross margin calculate? How are freight charges and transfers handled?
• Replenishment
• Fill by case (Shoes)
• Constant vs. Min / Max
• Time Supply (How we currently manage)
• Size Breaks (DC utilization)
• Allocation: Current is based on previous 4 weeks + Last Year Plan
• Class History + Sales
• Allocation from P.O.
• Exact and Proportional Capabilities
Gather Requirements and Evaluation Questions 4
• Improve Margin and Sell-Thru: Better Planning Abilities to Lessen Transfers and Reduce Clearance / Improve Full-Price Sell Thru
• Improve Execution on Pricing Strategies: Provide visibility to COGS at time of planning and Reduce out-of-stocks with Real-Time Inventory Visibility
• Reduce Operating Expense: Utilize Labor Management (WMS), Reduce manual tasks, Reduce wait times, improved system and process improvements
• Reduced Headcount: System Capabilities and Automation to drive reduction of need to add head-count as company grows
• Run Scenarios: Built in What-If capability into the system
Measuring Success 4
• Warehouse
• Break Packs, Pick From Each’s
• Cross-Dock Support
• Vendor Non-Conformance / Compliance Reporting
• Workforce Management (Scheduling, Task Optimization, Layout Optimization (Step Reduction)
Measuring Success 4
• Planning
• Pre-Season (Lock earlier than most)
• Plan Development
• View History at Store Level (By Division / Store)
• Top Down (Exec Determined) Comp %
• Lease, Square Footage, Volume, etc.
• Contribution % determined by class and department
• Actual with Future Trend
• Comp and Non-Comp As Alternate Hierarchy
Measuring Success 4
• Project forced focus on business processes
• Gained exposure to best practices
• Unified teams on standardized systems and processes
• Retraining efforts yielded great results
• Training efforts were not characterized as significant and ranged from 8 hours to 2 weeks
• Formats
• Individual Classroom
• On-Line Learning
• Sandbox (staged training environment
• 3rd Party Training
The Role of References 5
• All customers found value in the tools
• All customers labeled the Oracle projects as significant effort, requiring resources from all departments, and emphasized executive support for initiatives as critical
• All customers leveraged external resources.
• All committed sizeable teams to the effort
• Key Benefits Articulated
The Role of References 5
• Control Your Own Destiny; Network With Others That Have Embarked On This Journey
• Summary of Comments: • You already know it is a big project!
• Recommend Dedicated Full Time Resources from the business be assigned to the project
• ROI has been realized with efficiencies of scale introduced with Oracle Platform
• Platform positions company in a great spot to grow
• Business Engagement is required for the project to be successful
• Invest in Training; do not overlook this in the project plan
• Phased approach to delivery of modules was preferred strategy
• All stated they will continue to grow and invest in their investment with Oracle
• Be prepared for a journey; but it will be worth your time
The Role of References 5
• Cost: Oracle solution presents significant cost to the organization (hardware and software costs)
• Complexity: Oracle solution will drive changes in business processes
• Disruption: Transition to new system with new processes while still maintaining day-to-day business will present challenges
• Support: Additional Specialized resources will be needed to support the ORACLE product portfolio (Internal / External Resources)
The Decision 6
Ability to Plan at Channel (INS, Franchise, B/M)
Comp will be Planned and Results provided within actual Planning Tool
Hybrid Planning – GM results will match Finance
Store Planning
Health of Inventory and Sale will easily be seen as a result and will have impact to how Comp is planned
Ability to see Original Plan, Lock Forecast (monthly) and Working Forecast
Overall, Math/Formulas will work efficiently so pre-season and in-season planning is improved greatly
Store Planning – at all Buckets and Transfer. Health of Inventory and Sale will be known at every level including Store/Class combination
The Decision: Planning 6
Able to Plan at Store level. Class level plans will drives ability to allocate to these Store Plans – all within same framework
Adjust on the fly concept with Store bucket and class results visibility
Will be able to eliminate Excel Tool to identify Store Plan as well as Balancing Sheet by Class
Provides detailed method to Allocate at any Attribute level
Obtain Strong Size Analysis Tool
Current capabilities all available – greatly enhanced!
• All of these opportunities will IMPROVE MARGIN and
The Decision: Allocation 6
One Suite = same results across tools and reporting
Dashboards and Canned reports improve speed and maintain consistent metrics
Ability to schedule reporting for repetitive weekly and monthly reporting
EDI and ASN capabilities
Mobile Platform (As Needs Grow)
Draft PO available
Consistent reporting built upfront by group of users to level set and what everyone is using to manage business and make decisions to move the business forward
When approving PO’s, live feed to OTB (both new and adjustments)
Photo functionality will allow for Assortment Reports, Line Sheets, Best Sellers quickly and more efficiently
Markdowns can be scheduled for optimal run time in the system
The Decision: Merchandising 6
• Singular Accountability
• Unified System with ability to satisfy long-term strategic options
• Products are pre-integrated; avoids recurring integration expenses and throw away work for future upgrade compatibility
• Workflows are automated and issues are managed via exception
• Aligns with business initiatives (xStore, PLCC, Relate, Locate, Internationalization)
• Competitor Offerings Introduce additional custom integration, complexity, and non-standard approach; requiring unique skillset for support
• Be True to Your Goals
The Decision 6
• Each solution offering from Oracle stands on its own as “Best of Breed” product
• Oracle continually invests in improving their applications
• Oracle application presence can be used for recruiting
• Industry Standard Application makes it easier to identify talent and reduce risk to the organization.
• Organization will not outgrow Oracle
• Industry leading software in every vertical of Retail
The Decision 6