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.