Supply chain management solutions for the retail industry
Enhance supply chain efficiency and trading partner collaboration by connecting product information, processes, systems, and people
Managing supply chains requires retailers to perform a delicate "balancing act" that simultaneously meets multiple needs. While delivering high service levels as they manage global supply chains, retailers must keep costs low in order to remain competitive. Other pressures come from more demanding consumers as well as from the increasingly global nature of the industry, which has retailers both sourcing and selling products in more places around the world.
By better connecting product information, processes, systems, and people, Microsoft and its partners can address both current and future complexity in this area with cost-effective, integrated solutions that help retailers drive enhanced supply chain efficiency and trading partner collaboration. These solutions address key retail business issues such as making order and replenishment processes more effective; lowering inventory levels in warehouses and distribution centers; improving out-of-stock levels; reducing paperwork; and improving data accuracy.
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Benefits
Supply chain management (SCM) solutions from Microsoft and its partners offer the following benefits to retail enterprises:
| • | Gain real-time visibility of their own operations and of product movement through their supply chain partners, helping to make order and replenishment processes more effective and lower inventory levels in warehouses and distribution centers. |
| • | Provide a single, consolidated view of product information whenever and wherever it is needed, allowing retailers and their trading partners to quickly share, view, and analyze documents and data to make more informed, accurate business decisions in a collaborative environment. |
| • | Integrate with legacy applications, data warehouses, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to create both internal and external vendor collaboration solutions through standards-based, open, scalable technology that enables information to be held centrally and be accessed by a wide range of devices. |
| • | Improve collaboration by allowing suppliers to access appropriate pre-determined information, such as sales data, forecasts and production information, to help speed replenishment and anticipate stock-outs. Exchanges of documents such as purchase orders, Advance Shipment Notifications (ASNs), invoices, and credit notes can also boost collaboration. |
| • | Facilitate product development, fast fashion, or speed sourcing projects with supplier portals. |
Case studies
Learn how other retailers have benefited from supply chain management solutions from Microsoft and its partners.
| • | Okaïdi, the French children's clothing chain, reduces delivery times and warehouse costs while dynamically changing order quantities based on seasonality. |
| • | Marks & Spencer, the U.K.'s largest clothing retailer, uses an automated stock counting solution that reads radio frequency identification (RFID) tags on individual garments to improve the accuracy of stock checking. |
| • | House of Fraser, the U.K. department store group, implements a messaging hub to integrate its 50 stores, its back-office applications, and up to 1,300 suppliers on a single platform. |
Read these case studies, learn about the Microsoft business overview for supply chain management, and find Microsoft partners by downloading the Supply Chain Management white paper (562 KB Portable Document Format file).
Technologies
Microsoft and its partners provide a single, consolidated view of product information whenever and wherever it is needed, allowing all trading partners to make more informed, accurate business decisions in a collaborative environment. Improving communication and visibility throughout the supply chain helps retailers create better experiences for their suppliers, customers, and employees.
Microsoft products
The comprehensive integration platform includes:
| • | Microsoft SQL Server collects and manages information in supply chain databases, and can be adapted to the number of requests handled according to daily, weekly, or seasonal activity peaks. |
| • | Microsoft BizTalk Server coordinates and transfers information among all trading partners, including directing data flows transferred by Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) to applications or Web services. |
| • | Microsoft Windows Server 2003 supports advanced communication and collaboration; supported by XML Web services, it provides collaborative services such as discussions and calendar and document management. |
| • | Microsoft Office System, which many supply chain solutions leverage, is familiar to many users, making acceptance easier and reducing training costs. |
| • | Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server, the collaborative platform solution in the Microsoft Office system, can deliver reliable, real-time information to warehouse managers and transport companies. |
| • | Microsoft Office Live Meeting allows trading partners to hold remote conferences and meetings, and to work collaboratively on documents and processes. |
| • | Microsoft .NET Framework, the Microsoft Web services strategy for connecting information, people, systems, and devices, underpins supply chain management technology from Microsoft and many of its partners. |
Partners
The partner services and application support for the Microsoft supply chain management platform gives you the flexibility to choose from a wide variety of SCM solutions. The following partners are using Microsoft technology to provide supply chain management and collaborative solutions:
BT Auto-ID Services
BT Auto-ID Services is a market leader in affordable, complete, and scalable automatic identification (auto-ID) solutions. Using RFID technology and the unique BT Auto-ID Platform, objects can be tracked wherever they are in the supply chain, improving efficiency and delivering measurable commercial benefits.
Cactus Commerce
Cactus Commerce Inc. is an e-business software and services provider dedicated to helping companies bring more efficiency to their complex business processes. A Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Cactus develops and delivers rapidly deployed, cost-effective and extensible Global Data Synchronization (GDS) and RFID solutions for trading partner integration.
Eqos
Eqos delivers flexible, proven solutions for global sourcing and supplier management over the internet. Founded in 1997, Eqos is headquartered in the U.K. Eqos technology is recommended worldwide as a Microsoft preferred platform for collaborative working, and its solutions are used by major retailers.
JDA Software
JDA Software Group, Inc., is the global leader in helping more than 5,500 retail, manufacturing, and wholesale customers in 60 countries realize real demand chain results. By capitalizing on its market position and financial strength, JDA commits significant resources to expanding and advancing the JDA Portfolio suite of demand chain solutions.
Manhattan Associates
As a leading supply chain solutions provider, Manhattan Associates enables source-to-consumption operational excellence with its demand intelligence, advanced planning, supply chain planning, and supply chain execution solutions. These solutions leverage state-of-the-art technologies, innovative industry-specific practices, and our deep domain expertise to enable the company’s 1,200 customers worldwide to enhance profitability, performance, and competitive advantage.
RedPrairie
RedPrairie is the world's leading consumer-driven optimization company. Built on an advanced Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) developed over the past 10 years, the RedPrairie integrated suite of end-to-end (E2e) solutions offers on-demand capabilities to more than 25,000 sites worldwide for many of the world's largest companies.
Trace One
Trace One provides Internet-based solutions for collaborative management of private labels. The platform combines document sharing and process automation between suppliers and retailers. It covers all the phases of a product's lifecycle, from the initial design to the final manufacturing process.
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