Challenge:
Managing a company’s supply chain and retail transactions can be a difficult and error-prone process that takes time away from more strategic work.
Export document and refund management is complex and subject to audit, especially as the number of shipments and customers grows.
Retailer shipment advice creation and tracking of shipment and logistics require companies to work with third-party websites and forms, which is time-consuming and potentially subject to non-compliance fines.
Vendors need point-of-sale data to conduct critical analytics but accessing the data from retailer websites on a weekly basis is inherently, an inefficient process.
Solution:
AlliedMedia has the automation solution your company’s Supply Chain and Retail team needs to improve its efficiency. Let’s just say, you can raise the BAAR!
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BAAR (Business Automation, AI, and Robotics) is a virtual agent, our multi-pronged automation solution to a variety of corporate needs.
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With the help of BAAR, your company’s Supply Chain and Retail team won’t need to manage documentation manually or work with third-party websites and forms. With the time they save, they can devote more resources to strategic work such as ensuring customer satisfaction and making recommendations based on point-of-sale analytics.
This page details how BAAR can optimize your company’s Supply Chain and Retail department. Please refer to our other pages for more information on BAAR’s HR, Legal, IT, Finance, and IGA (Identity, Governance, and Administration) capabilities.
Automate Export Document and Refund Management
Export document management can encompass invoices, bills of lading, quality control documents, packing lists, etc., and in some cases, dangerous goods declarations, and materials safety data sheets (MSDS). Even as the number of shipments grows, it is important to manage export documents in an organized manner, because the documents may have to be found and provided if and when an audit occurs.
Refund management is relevant to any company that offers full or partial refunds for the return of goods or cancellation of services. The opportunity cost of devoting more time to processing refunds (by updating inventory listings and general ledgers) is less time left over for more strategic work.
BAAR offers a simpler alternative:
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Export Document Management:
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Manages the mailbox or folder in which export documents are received
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Classifies documents and converts them to searchable PDFs
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Extracts data and merges documents by invoice number or PO number
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Refund Management:
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Updates a refund file that downstream systems can pick up and process
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Automation of downstream systems is possible for certain applications
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Automate Retailer Shipment Advice Creation and Shipment and Logistics Tracking
A shipment advice, also known as an advice note, is typically mandated by the retailer in a particular format for every shipment. Failure to follow the formatting rules often results in fines being levied against the vendor. Unfortunately, creating shipment advices for every item shipped is a tedious and time-consuming process.
Shipping and logistics tracking is generally managed by third-party logistics providers and communicated over their websites. It is time-intensive for employees to have to access multiple third-party sites to track shipments, monitor delays, ensure adherence to service-level agreements (SLA), and verify the provision of proofs-of-delivery (POD).
BAAR reduces the risk of fines and human error:
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Retail Shipment Advice Creation:
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Creates shipment advices in accordance with formatting rules
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Reduces the risk of accumulating fines due to formatting errors
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Shipment and Logistics Tracking:
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Accesses third-party websites, tracks shipments, and maintains schedules
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Monitors SLAs and notifies when they are not met
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Collects critical documents such as PODs from third-party websites and adds them to a document repository
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Automate Point-of-Sale (POS) Analytics
All large retailers provide their vendors point-of-sale data, such as inventory numbers, quantity of goods sold, etc. These are critical statistics because they allow the vendor to match their supply to the customer’s demand without shortages or excessive surpluses. However, processing the data can take hours every week if vendors must download it from retailer websites or if they lack the appropriate analytics tools.
BAAR automates this routine process and presents the data to vendors in a useful format:
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Out-of-the-box capabilities:
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Comes with over 30 global retailers already set up in the system
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Data processing:
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Logs into retailer portals and downloads POS data
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Processes, analyzes, and presents the POS data in the form of dashboards to assist demand planners
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Set up BAAR and Open New Possibilities in Shipping, Logistics, and Point-of-Sale Data
This was just an overview of BAAR’s Supply Chain and Retail capabilities – our virtual agent can do much more for your company.
If you’re interested in learning more about how BAAR can help your company achieve its full potential, contact us today to request a demo.