Archive for July, 2011
Tips to Cutting Costs and Improve Customer Service in Supply Chain Logistics
Every supply chain logistics professional is constantly looking for ways to reduce costs and make the operation more productive. In today’s challenging economic climate, such efforts become even more crucial. Small steps that can help to save money may make a big difference. Our experience in supply chain logistics has been that often the same [...]
How to Make Vendor Compliance Programs Work For You
Of all the strategies for reducing costs in your business, vendor compliance programs may be the most underdeveloped. A well thought-out, formal vendor compliance program can reduce supply chain logistics costs, reduce freight costs, speed up order processing, and lead directly to increased customer satisfaction. In order to achieve this it must spell out your [...]
Why Marketing, Merchandising, Inventory Management Departments Need Business Intelligence Tools
I was sitting in a client meeting for business intelligence tools (BI) and dashboard planning this past week, and the Merchandising, Marketing and Inventory Management people were squaring off over why Merchandising’s results never tie back to Marketing and Inventory Management. Some of it was argumentative, but when you step back and look at it [...]
Selecting the Right Systems for Your Third Party Logistics Business
More and more companies today are using third party logistics providers to avoid making investments in that non-core area, or in technology necessary for it. We’ve also seen hundreds of start up eCommerce companies that simply don’t want to be in the fulfillment business. All of these companies are turning to third party logistics providers. With so [...]
7 Tips for Understanding the Total Cost of Ownership When Acquiring Applications
Cited in a study that the technology firm CNET conducted, roughly 49 percent of IT projects suffer from budget overruns, and 47 percent suffer higher than expected maintenance costs. It’s imperative that companies identify and properly plan for all expenses associated with replacing a business application, such as an order management system or warehouse management system, to avoid [...]
Exploring Third Party Logistics Call Centers To Reduce Costs
Every company today is looking for ways to save money without hurting sales and customer service. As the pressure on businesses to dramatically reduce costs continues, you need to explore whether third party logistics call centers is the right solution for your business. Does it make sense to outsource some or all call center and data entry functions [...]
Does Your Order Management System Provide the Needed Reports?
You have just spent four months doing your homework to replace your aging order management system: gathering user requirements, writing an RFP, getting capable order management system vendors to bid on it, conducting demos and selecting the finalist. Yet there is one more activity that, if not done superbly, will shake management’s confidence that replacement [...]
Achieving a Single Version of the Truth
How many times does this happen in your company? You go to a meeting about sales performance, and Marketing says they think sales are up 3.5%, but the merchants disagree and say sales are up 6.3%. The specific numbers in this example aren’t important; the point is that the two figures aren’t even close. That’s [...]
Published Book – Best Practices in Multichannel Operations & Fulfillment
Best Practices in Multichannel Operations & Fulfillment is still available for purchase on Amazon.com. This guide to multichannel best practices was derived from our years of experience with hundreds of catalog, eCommerce and retail companies. Our team understands the issues and challenges facing multichannel businesses and provides insight on the following topics: Business Management – including [...]
How Are You Spending Your IT Dollar?
Even though we are coming out of a tough business climate, we see companies making investments in IT systems, especially in the eCommerce area. In many direct businesses, more than 50% of sales are eCommerce based, though those sales may have been spurred by receipt of a catalog. Long before the current economic slowdown, many companies [...]
