This is what FMCG Manufacturer needs to know about modern data exchange technologies
Hi, my name is Jakub Frankiewicz and I am the leader of the consulting team responsible for Data Exchange solutions at Comarch.
How does the current market look for a FMCG manufacturer? They must react quickly to market changes and constantly rising customer expectations. Their products have to be widely available and at the same time aligned to the dynamically changing preferences of the consumer. Moreover, due to large number of competitors, the measures taken to strengthen their brand and long-term customer loyalty become crucial. In order to increase chances of success, the production process, supply chain and root-to-market strategy must be carefully considered and managed.
All these elements demonstrate that maintaining the competitive advantage in FMCG sector is very demanding. However, there are many high-tech solutions available to optimise key processes.
The most common area worth digitalizing is communication with various business partners. This cover cooperation with suppliers and customers.
The supply chain, financial or sales departments could be the first to benefit from that change. The significant advantage can be gain by just introducing, for instance, Electronic Data Interchange solutions in standard processes, such as order management, logistic operations, Account Payable or Account Receivable. First - it reduces the cost of overall communication, by eliminating paper documents. Second – it speeds up the order-to-cash process and significantly reduces the number of issues and mistakes within the exchanged documents.
In case of FMCG manufacturers that are selling and delivering goods indirectly to final points of sale, an appropriate route-to-market strategy can be supported by a modern data reporting solution. Receiving accurate and quality sales data on a daily basis from wholesalers and distributors allows to build strategy based on actual information, not estimations. It is especially important for running a business during and after the Covid19 pandemic. As noted in the State of Industry Report by Promotional Optimization Institute, companies should redefine their strategy on how to manage their products and supply chain and adopt to the current situation. POI foresees that data would be a foundation for a well-defined strategy. Nowadays, over 64% of companies struggle with data quality issues, the lack of data from all sales channels. This is why FMCG manufacturers can benefit from data exchange tools such as EDI, e-Invoicing, or Online Distribution platform.
This was just a glimpse of tools that could support FMCG manufacturers in their journey towards data management optimization. Stay tune for more and if you’d like to talk more about specific Comarch solutions in this area, contact me at: Jakub.Frankiewicz@comarch.com.
