Solutions & Strategies for Supply Assurance and Collaboration

The single view of purchase orders and a unified end-to-end buying cycle (covers a connected procure-purchase, record-report and order-cash process stream) enables an integrated and fully networked supply chain ecosystem.

The ultimate goal is to ensure that merchandise or inventory moves seamlessly in the supply chain and point-to-point transactions take place between stakeholders without financial or operational roadblocks.

Moreover, financial and physical supply chain data should be made available to the broad network of partners, suppliers and other third parties.

In an Omni-Market, Omni-Channel & Omni-Tier retail supply chain, a long-term strategy for enabling a transformational fix for seamless order/transaction management, visibility and collaboration is a key imperative. Per EKN’s June 2014 survey of 83 retailers, such a strategy begs attention as 51% of retailers do not use an integrated process or systems for managing purchase orders, buying processes, trade documents, finance options and payment settlements in the supply chain.

More concerning is the fact that 6 out of 10 retailers report no change or decreased performance when it comes to chargeback rates and cost per purchase order.

These and many more unified P2P process and technology-related gaps plague supplier, vendor, 3rd party logistics, and other relationships with the retailer and vice-versa.

Such problems can lead to escalated transaction cost per invoice, low contract compliance, longer lead times for orders, slow cash-cash conversion cycles, increased chargebacks and vendor dissatisfaction, among other problems.