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ExtranetWorks In Use... Retail: Data Collection from Point Of Sale: Acme Stores Company Acme Stores represents a typical company grappling with how to get information from remote locations and automating workflow within their enterprise. Problem How to get point of sale data, real-time, from remote locations and automate the coordination of inventory, distribution, and purchasing functions based on that data. Also, how to automate the business processes used both internally by accounting and operations staff, and externally by business partners and vendors. Solution Provide Acme Stores with point of sale (POS) software that conveniently runs over a WAN (Internet) to their corporate headquarters. In addition, automate the workflow within the organization by using triggers that make decisions based on data and other events. By automating the exchange of information with key vendors, inventory can be automatically replenished. Relatively simple to implement, the system provides end-to-end integration from the demand chain to supply chain and logistics, creating a comprehensive, cost efficient, and easy-to-deploy system. Background Acme Stores needs information from its retail outlets to quickly make informed business decisions. Data from point of sale terminals can assist Acme Stores in making money through better marketing decisions, and reduce costs by automating purchasing processes, and inventory costs by automating interaction with vendors. Wal-Mart and other large businesses are able to collect data about purchases nearly real-time using a network of satellite uplinks. By having data so readily available, business decisions come more rapidly. For instance, knowing a particular store sells a higher volume of an item, store specials and advertising can be used to further exploit this trend. Perhaps a vendor offers Acme Stores a special deal on a palette of electric fans, and Acme wonders if a particular store might be able to move them—look at your point of sale data in real-time to find out. By collecting data real-time, better decisions can be made. Acme Stores needs to order Widget A from a supplier, but ordering more Widget B’s could bring down the cost of the entire order—is there a trend to support ordering more Widget B’s? Widget C’s are not selling well, can you get a price concession or promotion to assist your sales? Acme Stores also wants to reduce the growing administrative costs of ordering items, and is concerned about the cost of inventory. Warehouse space is getting tighter and expanding would reduce profits. By automating the purchasing process and letting the vendor manage inventory, costs could be significantly reduced. Furthermore, vendor managed inventory (VMI) not only reduces or eliminates inventory expenses, but allows Acme Stores to profit from interest earned between vendor billing cycles. Acme Stores also recognizes that specialized items could bring in additional revenue, but these sales are too unpredictable to stock inventory. By relying on vendors to direct-ship items, Acme Stores can obtain more revenue streams, eliminate expensive items from inventory, and automate the sales configuration and fulfillment process. The ExtranetWorks Solution ExtranetWorks is an easy fit for Acme Stores. Point of sales terminals are hooked up to the Internet, and run ExtranetWorks POS application to scan and check out items from their store. Credit card purchases can be processed at the same time, and registers are connected to the home office entirely via the Internet in a highly secure environment. When an item is scanned at checkout, the ExtranetWorks software removes the quantity for that item from the inventory for that store—but does so via the Internet, directly on corporate databases. Transactions are instantaneous. Corporate decision makers have the data they need for additional purchases. Advertising and marketing decisions can be made immediately rather than waiting for monthly or quarterly inventory audits. Using ExtranetWorks applications built along business rules and processes (rather than data-centric applications requiring organizations to adapt to the software), workflow can be captured and automated. Triggers can check inventory items and send an automatic buy command to the purchasing agent, even producing the purchase order automatically. The workflow engine allows the purchasing agent to see only the items and tasks that need to be worked on. A simple check box can send an order on its way to a vendor, across the Internet in another state or country. A similar application is used by the supplier to view new orders from Acme Stores, and the process can be entirely automated. Technology plays a key role in lowering TCO and ROI. Applications are not distributed to remote workers and locations on diskette or CD ROM, but rather through the Internet real-time, as they are being used, by the ExtranetWorks Java application broker (JAB). JAB is server application software that runs on a Windows NT server and interacts with clients via their web browser. If a request is made for creating a PO for office equipment, the needed application, data, and logic are delivered automatically by JAB to the user. If the user hasn’t created a PO for a couple of months, and your software changed—say the manager’s name is now required to submit the PO—the newest software is downloaded to the user on demand, via the Internet communication session. If price override information is needed, the application is changed on the server and the next session will cause the newly requested data to be captured. No retraining is required, no disks, and support costs are dramatically reduced.
Figure 1: Data is collected at point of sale locations and updated at the corporate office. Suppliers interact with Acme Store data and supply stores based on point of sale data. Internally, Acme Store headquarters can use ExtranetWorks workflow to route PO’s and reconcile invoices. Back at the home office, JAB is updating information in legacy databases, from the Inventory system on an HP/UX with Oracle databases, for instance, to the customer information on the accounting system. By delivering application content, logic and data via a common web browser, an enterprise wide heterogeneous environment is built. Purchase orders are filled out as easily by a marketing person on their Macintosh as they are by a purchasing manager on their desktop PC, or a mobile sales person via a notebook computer. Simultaneously, vendors can be monitoring your inventory and constantly replenishing your inventory—at each store if desired. Acme Stores can also create purchase orders and use the workflow engine to move them from person to person along the approval process, then to the supplier for fulfillment. Invoices can be submitted electronically by the vendor and updated to Acme Store’s AP system, and automatically reconciled with the shipment. Summary With ExtranetWorks software, retail stores can automate their entire process, or just the critical parts of it to start. Commitment can be much lower with projects that have a smaller scope, however the corporate computer system can grow to meet the demands and business challenges of the company. In fact, the ExtranetWorks Session Manager software allows Internet applications to scale to more than one server—preventing slow downs. ExtranetWorks can deliver the same functionality of high-end ERP systems at a fraction of the time and cost. If million dollar, multi-year ERP systems are not in your budget, let us show you how we can build a cost saving, revenue producing system for you—using your existing applications
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