Transform manual processes into business efficiencies
Published: August 19, 2005
This article was previously published in Retailspeak magazine.
From order sheets to merchandise return forms, retail employees have long depended on paper-based processes to accomplish the many information intensive tasks that go in to running a complex retail enterprise. But these processes, which often involve duplicate efforts and take employees away from more valuable work, can diminish efficiency and morale.
A big drawback to paper-based tasks is that they provide no insight into the many different procedures employees must tackle, and there is no way to measure when a task is done. The retail corporate office (or home office) must either trust that essential business processes are being accomplished or institute multiple levels of manual feedback just to verify that tasks have been completed correctly.
To be agile and respond to market changes, companies need business processes that are efficient and comprehensive while at the same time easy to learn and easy to complete in a timely fashion. Many retailers recognize that automating everyday business processes has a strong impact on improving operations, positively affecting the bottom line.
The value of collaboration
Collaboration is about bringing together people and information to solve problems. Building on collaborative technologies to streamline business processes can create tremendous efficiencies, improving employee productivity and enabling smarter operations.
The right collaboration tools can help a retailer grow from standalone manual activities to connected processes in which information flows seamlessly. From here, retailers develop automated (or smart) processes in which workflow and triggers are set up to engage the next step automatically while routing and tracking the overall process through to completion.
One manual process that can benefit from this kind of automation is product recall. Recalls put retailers in a reactive mode that creates a chain of manual commands, ultimately resulting in removing the product and disposing of it or returning it to the supplier. Throughout this process, the retailer must act in accordance with industry expectations, compliance standards, or both. Lack of insight from the corporate level as to how well the stores have complied creates a series of redundant communications among stores and headquarters.
Clearly, an automated system for managing the recall process—including tracking compliance and information filtering to prevent notification to stores not affected by the recall—can result in huge efficiencies. And product recalls are not the only way retailers can benefit from the efficiencies of smart processes. Imagine the business impact of automating processes such as seasonal merchandise ordering, employee performance reviews, store walk checklists or preparation processes, and merchandise transfers.
The Microsoft Office System, made up of servers, services, and applications, offers a way for retailers to build on their existing investments to improve and solve business inefficiencies.
Simplifying product recalls by creating a collaborative workspace
A product recall is a manually intensive process that provides an excellent case for business process automation. Typically, a retail corporate office (or home office) is notified about a recall by the manufacturer of the recalled product and is required to pull all affected items from the stores and distribution centers.
The home office usually sends e-mail notifications to store managers and distribution managers, and it is the managers' responsibility to comply. The store manager must use the inventory system to determine how many SKUs are in stock, and then appoint a store associate to locate and pull the product. Sometimes the products must be returned to the manufacturer; other times they are destroyed. The same process must happen at the distribution centers.
Next, the store manager or distribution center must process the paperwork to show the loss of inventory. Sometimes this occurs by opening a spreadsheet and charging the goods to a specific code or by faxing a completed paper form to headquarters or to the regional office. Occasionally, for customer satisfaction and safety reasons, the retailer must also contact customers who purchased the product.
Few retailers are satisfied with their current systems for product recalls. Above all, the lack of tracking and reporting on this process means the retailer does not know when or what stores have complied and what percentage of the total recall has been completed system-wide.
Automating the product recall process
Microsoft provides solutions that can help to enhance process control and efficiency, reducing overall costs by providing a unified platform for documenting, analyzing, modeling, and automating business proc¬esses. These streamlined processes enable better management of process risks by increasing the accuracy and predictability of information. And, through flexible and scalable Microsoft solutions that integrate into existing systems, they increase return on solution investments.
The Microsoft Team and Enterprise Collaboration Platform delivers streamlined business processes through XML-based Microsoft Office InfoPath information gathering program forms and workflow-enabled Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services team sites. Creating a centralized location for managing all pieces of a process improves efficiencies and the ability to track each stage of the process. It also provides a digital list of what stores have not complied. Most importantly, Microsoft solutions help to eliminate tedious paper-based processes, enabling managers to spend time on more valuable jobs, such as working with customers and ensuring that employees are on task.
