Featured White Paper
Today’s business landscape is competitive, demanding, and unrelenting. Your customers are technology savvy; they know their needs well. High levels of service are now basic expectations while customer delight has long replaced mere customer satisfaction. Your business landscape calls for a partner who can provide a seamless IT experience – even as you focus on the core business – and help sharpen your competitive advantage.
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Developing economies remain the stronghold of family owned retailers as global packaged goods companies find it difficult to connect with distributors owing to technical barriers. As a result, measuring...
efficacy of promotions, capturing advanced demand signals and new product launch suffer setbacks. Further, generation of complex analytic reports gets delayed. In this paper, our expert explores challenges faced in supply chain visibility and recommends framework with flexible solution.
Though the Retail space has seen a spurt of Workforce Management (WFM) implementations in the last three years, the outcomes have been a mixed bag of successes and failures. Factors...
including iterative/ multi phased implementations, large number of interfacing applications and complexity of business requirements make it difficult for WFM programs to be successful. Our experts explain how the journey can be made predictable with sufficient preparation and ground work before embarking on the actual implementation. The paper describes in detail the basic foundation that should be in place before implementing WFM.
An increased awareness about food safety, quality and nutritional value among consumers in the United States makes Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL) a regulatory as well as a business imperative. This paper examines why retailers should...
transcend legal compliance and realize the potential of COOL to influence consumer demand, merchandising and the supply chain.
Apparel and footwear manufacturers/retailers need to address the complexity of product lifecycles. While speed-to-market is critical in certain product categories, it is not in others that need to factor in consumer feedback, and consequently...
require more time. Infosys' experts discuss how Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software can manage the product lifecycle, focus on organizational objectives and re-engineer the concept-to-market process for successful retailing.
A synergy between CPG enterprises and retailers makes product launches more successful. CPG companies can benefit when they focus on key factors such as visibility, process capability and analytics during retail execution....
Infosys' expert discusses how technology can enable these key drivers and enhance coordination through real-time visibility of information in demand and inventory of products.
Monolithic, fragmented and inflexible legacy systems prevent retailers from realizing the promise of a global marketplace. Retailers need to transform their IT environment to reflect the dynamics of a flattening world. They must build...
an IT organization with a dynamic and enabling delivery model, incorporating elements of centralization and decentralization, and devoid of legacy issues. This white paper demonstrates how IT can help retailers compete in a flattening world.
Analytics
Organizations are producing large volumes of data across the supply chain and at various customer touchpoints. At the same time, there is this exceptionally large volume...
of data that feeds into the organization from digital customers and from across social media channels. An analysis of this tidal wave of big data will open a fairly large window of opportunity, but it's not as simple as it seems.
IT Outsourcing
Today’s business landscape is competitive, demanding, and unrelenting. Your customers are technology savvy; they know their needs well. High levels of service are now basic expectations while customer...
delight has long replaced mere customer satisfaction. Your business landscape calls for a partner who can provide a seamless IT experience – even as you focus on the core business – and help sharpen your competitive advantage.
Logistics Optimization
Traditional approaches that help companies reduce landed costs focus on the symptoms and not the causes of the problem. If a company views transportation as a problem area, it may implement a Transportation Management System (TMS), expecting...
it to curtail creeping landed costs. While any TMS streamlines transportation procurement and generates optimal loads and routes, it is constrained by inputs. This paper goes beyond the symptoms contributing to landed cost and, instead, examines underlying factors to provide a solution. While the reasons for a rise in transportation spend, such as rising fuel costs and external supply chain visibility, are well known, the oft-overlooked causes pertain to organizational behavior. Infosys' Logistics Optimization (LogO) solution, which ensures internal visibility coupled with collaboration, can go a long way in addressing this issue.
Merchandise Optimization
Retailers need to focus on customer retention due to intense competition. While sophisticated clustering tools provide market insight, retailers are often unable to choose the right clustering approach. This white paper explains how...
a clustering approach is effective only if it addresses a retailer's business objectives. It demonstrates how the right clustering approach - by performance benchmarking, price optimization, and assortment and space planning - can meet these objectives.
Better use of technology can tackle shrink, from mitigating theft to POS error reduction. The reasons behind shrink are varied, depending on the kinds of product and clientele. In this paper we provide an approach that ensures...
diligence in identifying the primary causes of shrink before proceeding to mitigate them, thus ensuring maximum return on investment.
The age-old question "Who is buying what, when, where and why, and what will they want tomorrow?" will always exist in the retail-distributor-manufacturer chain. The challenge is to learn as much...
as possible, as quickly as possible, and as accurately as possible, and about consumers' shopping habits and to effect changes that will influence consumers to buy specific products within specific categories, shaping predictable demand patterns.
Collaboration in category management has become a business requirement. It provides retail and CPG companies the agility to react quickly and effectively to rapid changes in consumer tastes and behavior.
Mobility
Many organizations face the need to make an important decision of choosing the right development approach after selecting a mobile platform like SUP (Sybase Unwired Platform). While there...
is no best solution that works all the time, this paper analyzes the pros and cons of each of the approaches with regard to enterprise requirements and different business cases.
Multi-Channel Commerce
This paper provides insights into multi-channel retailing based on client experiences and provides recommendations for building a customer-centric retail enterprise
Traditional retailers with a growing online presence as well as pure-play online retailers are all coping with similar challenges in the face of competitive pressures: the need to differentiate...
themselves, expand reach to the consumer, improve conversion and sustain customer loyalty.
This paper is the second of two parts. This paper provides insights into an implementation roadmap for the Web 2.0 principles and technologies that retailers can choose.
This paper provides insights into multi-channel retailing based on client experiences and provides recommendations for building a customer-centric retail enterprise.
Gift registries – where people expecting gifts on special occasions make and share wish lists with friends and families – are a major revenue stream and marketing tool for multi-channel retailers....
By using appropriate methodologies to understand and address needs of the registrant and the gift giver for a great shopping experience, deploying best-of-breed systems and seamlessly integrating them with in-store and online systems, retailers can maximize benefits from their investment.
The retail industry seeks to satisfy consumer demand with a range of products and variants. Ironically, the myriad choices elevate consumer expectations to such high levels that the slightest variation in product attributes cause dissatisfaction and returns....
In their quest to compete with traditional retailers and overcome the challenge of physical connect with shoppers, online retailers have adopted extremely liberal, high-cost return policies. A focused approach to reverse logistics management can improve back-office operations, efficiency, customer experience and brand loyalty.
As customers and business partners get more demanding, manufacturers are under pressure to get their orders right when it comes to delivery. Customers want the 'perfect order' - the correct product sent and delivered...
on time in perfect condition. A company's ability to forecast demand can help in such a scenario as it will be able to stock products based on demand-driven customer requirements. However, in today's multi-channel commerce (MCC) environment, forecasting demand has become a complex process. This paper examines the steps an organization can take to manage demand more effectively.
In a multi-brand, multi-channel business environment, retailers are challenged to deliver a seamless shopping experience. The challenges span item data management, merchandising, customer marketing, pricing...
and promotions, order capture and supply chain fulfillment. Multi-Channel Retailing has gained board level visibility because of its strategic benefits, scope of impact and level of investment required. It has been well documented that online consumers typically shop across channels, spend more money per visit, are significantly more profitable and tend to be early adopters of technology. However, the perception of multi-channel windfall profits may be slowing according to a 2007 benchmark report by RSAG entitled "The State of Multi-Channel Fulfillment". If this perception proves true, companies must provide superior customer service to all their customers, not only from the e-commerce side, but also from the DC to the door step . However, designing a multi-channel commerce (MCC) solution has its challenges that can impact the entire supply chain.
Traditional retailers with online presence as well as pure-play online retailers are coping with similar challenges in the face of competitive pressures: the need to differentiate themselves, expand reach to the...
consumer, improve conversion, and sustain customer loyalty. Web 2.0 - the next-generation open standards web technologies and frameworks - can help retailers address these challenges.
Pharmacy Retail
With rising insurance-driven revenues, pharmacies need to ensure that they receive payments at contractually agreed rates. Non-compliance with this prerequisite results in 2%-4% leakage in pharmacy third-party revenues....
Given the complexity of the pharmacy business, identifying and preventing revenue leakage is a challenge. This paper offers insights and approaches to better third-party pharmacy revenue management.
The benefits of pharmacy management systems include automating processes, streamlining workflow and enhancing customer base. However, choices are tough with limited products and the high cost of customized solutions. This paper offers guidelines for selecting the right system.
An improved online pharmacy experience helps pharmacy retailers in several ways, enabling them to attract new customers, enhance customer loyalty and increase sales of prescription drugs, services and front-end items. This paper identifies...
some of the common pitfalls seen in a typical online pharmacy operation and lists some additional services that can provide a unique, unified and seamless customer experience.
Product Development
The Apparel Industry faces a unique challenge of minimizing environment impact of its products, while maintaining fashion quotient. Regulatory mandates and growing awareness on the negative environment impact of apparel manufacturing...
make it imperative for the industry to follow a green product strategy. This paper explores how the adoption of a Green PLM can enable fashion retailers and manufacturers reduce the overall environment impact of apparel manufacturing without compromising on profits.
Infosys' GreenPLM framework adopts a process-oriented, tool-based approach to transform the product development process for sustainable products that comply with regulations. Our experts propose approaches to implement GreenPLM depending on the size of the...
organization, the maturity of its green development program, the budget and time available for process re-engineering, and support of the top management. The 'single green view' provided by the framework significantly reduces the consumption of resources, enhances operational efficiency and improves cost management across supply chain activities.
Organizations are adopting an eco-friendly approach to business and developing green products. Our experts propose green processes across the PLM (Product Lifecycle Development) lifecycle to reduce the environmental impact. Infosys' GreenPLM framework is based...
on the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) model. It addresses the complete green product development lifecycle that encompasses the environment, materials and energy.
Revenue Optimization
Price optimization solutions provide a scientific approach to help retailers improve margins and increase sales. Insights into strategies, methodologies and best practices in price optimization can help retailers mitigate risks in implementing these solutions and also maximize benefits.
Store Execution Excellence
Store task management aims to streamline workflow and communication between the corporate and stores, and optimize and drive execution compliance. While it helps improve customer shopping experience, ensuring that it does not impact labor costs is a challenge....
Can this challenge be met by integrating task management with labor scheduling?
Successful store execution involves selling profitably and satisfying customers, while keeping store associates motivated. However, retailers’ in-store efforts and investments have traditionally been piecemeal and disorganized....
Store execution excellence can be achieved only by adopting a holistic approach.
Supply - Demand Synchronization
Global sourcing presents benefits as well as challenges for apparel and footwear companies. In this landscape, retailers need to explore ways to reduce cycle-times and change merchandise assortments to match consumer...
demand. The approach adopted include implementation of new PLM, planning and execution systems. This paper discusses the capabilities required for product development, planning and execution to address the cycle-time problem.