As companies continue to look at automating more and more of their suppliers, several have moved beyond the scope of the traditional merchandise purchases. They have found that with different partnerships there are other supply chains to automate. Areas that are being looked at are what some call Expense suppliers which would include Service suppliers, Utility companies, replacement or repair parts and services and some are even looking at automating the process of warranty parts. Read more...

Last January you may have read my article regarding retailers that were traditionally distributing merchandise via Brick and mortar but are now looking at a Vendor Direct model to supply their customers. Many of these retailers appear to have realized the value of what I wrote and as such I have seen higher growth in the number of retailers having customer orders ship directly from suppliers/factories. The value to the retailer is that this allows the retailer to maintain or increase sales without the investment in maintaining inventory levels. Read more...

2010 is now behind us; many had a good holiday season while others, no so much. Regardless, it’s a new calendar year and time to start working on those 2011 projects. For some of you these projects will include the items that I’ve written on over the last 12 months such as –

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Our largest client has well over twenty-five million sku-store combinations. They manage all those sku’s sales tracking and demand planning with a small team of about 10 people. Read more...