Help Improve Retailer Relations

Maintaining a good relationship with your retail customers is essential for your business. In order to build and maintain a solid relationship, you must continuously deliver the right product mix at the right time. In addition, you need to instantly recognize which products of yours are selling and how you can update the ones that are not. Apprise Software, with our full-suite ERP software system Apprise^®, can help you identify and improve your entire supply chain, resulting in happier retail customers and greater profits. Streamlining your supply chain can result in fewer chargebacks, more accurate forecasting, increased profitability and margins, and higher quality products.

Below we have identified four of the way ways in which Apprise Software helps you improve your retailer relationships.

1. Utilizing integrated EDI tools results in fewer errors. Apprise Software's electronic data interchange (EDI) functionality enables you to improve collaboration with your customers. Using our EDI brings a higher level of compliance, faster information processing, decreased costs, improved shipping accuracy and much more.

Many retailers use their own unique EDI processing rules, and Apprise Software can provide ongoing map creation to each retailer's specifications. We also provide daily transaction monitoring and full technical support. Our EDI solution is fully integrated into our ERP software, which provides a higher level of data integrity and security. Although EDI is built on standards, not all EDI vendors are the same. At Apprise Software, we specialize in consumer goods EDI because we know the right EDI partner can be the difference between a good or bad supplier score and a positive or negative retailer relationship.

2. More accurate forecasting for long lead times. Consumer goods companies are unique in that they require long lead times. Any mistakes in forecasting and distribution resource planning mean you will not have the right product mix available to ship to retailers. Apprise® includes timephased tools that help consumer goods companies account for long lead times and inventory on-demand. Our forecasting also integrates point-of-sale data, customer forecasts, sales trends, seasonality, inventory status and other inputs to help you can improve purchasing and inventory management.

We know that best-in-class forecasting and distribution resource planning tools will help you keep your retail customers happy. That's why we provide a rule-based environment that automatically identifies and alerts you to any issues based on exceptions to criteria that you define. Apprise also provides maximum efficiency and control to purchase from multiple suppliers, trade in multiple currencies, and manage inventory across multiple warehouses.

3. Warehousing tools improve efficiency. Implementing the correct warehouse management tools can provide a competitive advantage for your business. Apprise Software offers both paper and wireless warehouse functionality. Adopting wireless technology in your warehouse offers many advantages. This includes streamlining workflows, improving data accuracy and speeding physical inventory and cycle counts. All of these advantages will improve your warehouse accuracy and efficiency, in turn reducing your shipping errors to retailers.

We also have flexible tools for order staging. We know when you pick a small number of products for a large number of orders it is easier to stage orders during the pick demand process. This helps you streamline your warehouse processes when dealing with large retailers.

4. Supplier Production Monitoring improves product quality. Apprise ERP software includes innovative supplier production monitoring functionality. Overseas third-party manufacturing poses unique challenges for consumer goods companies. Our supplier production monitoring functionality enables you to monitor, manage and track the production activities of all your overseas providers.

Having greater visibility into the production activities of your third-party suppliers helps ensure your operations stay on track and on time. You will be alerted in real-time to any delays or issues with production or product quality, which will help you make faster and more informed decisions. Knowing the production status of your products means your entire supply chain will run smoother, helping ensure you end up always shipping the right product mix at the right time.

About Apprise Software

Founded in 1984, with offices in North America, China, Korea, Australia, Czech Republic, and the Netherlands, Apprise Software is a leading provider of integrated ERP and SCM software and services for consumer goods distributors and manufacturers. Leveraging the latest technologies — such as Microsoft^® .NET, wireless warehouse solutions, RFID, cloud and iPad applications — along with industry best practices, our solutions deliver reduced costs, improved efficiencies, enhanced revenues and profitability, and a quick return on investment.