Zyme Using Analytics To White Paper
- 1. Business Discovery White Paper In the fast-moving, hypercompetitive consumer electronics market, to be competitive, companies must: • Track sales and monitor inventory by geography • Improve demand planning by product mix • Improve demand forecasting • Identify which products sell in which regions However, most OEMs do not have an easy way to track and analyze store-level and product-level sales and inventory data. Many retailers provide only aggregated data. Even if retailers were able to provide the data at the necessary level of granularity, the data volumes can overwhelm OEMs’ data warehouses and BI solutions. Reports are often static, preventing users from doing the analyses they need. Furthermore, comparison with same-store, year-over-year metrics is often unavailable. In this paper, we will examine how recent trends in business intelligence solutions mean that analytics can drive business discovery for the consumer electronics market. Trends in Analytics Solutions According to a recent Gartner report, “Vocal, demanding and influential business users are increasingly driving BI purchasing decisions. They’re choosing easier-to- use data discovery tools over traditional BI platforms, with or without IT’s consent.” Users are being influenced by trends in consumer-oriented technologies—search, social media and applications. They are looking for the simple, fast experiences they have with search tools such as Google; the shared, social aspects of Facebook and Twitter; and the focused, personal and shared aspects of the apps they purchase for their smart phones. To satisfy these requirements, there is a new set of business intelligence tools for “business discovery”. These tools use an associative process to link data, enabling users to integrate, visualize and search for the answers to their business questions. The best business discovery solutions move beyond reporting to interactive, focused solutions for analyzing business Using Analytics to Drive Business Discovery in Consumer Electronics Channels Changes in the electronics industry demand chain including: • More sources of channel data • More data richness • Greater number of decisions • Less time for decision making have led to a need for timely, high-quality channel data for business rediscovery purposes. Figure 1: Interactive business discovery—track inventory by attributes such as product family, retailer and store number “ ” Powered by
- 2. CEA Webcast data. With these tools, data is democratized, available not just to power users, but to any user who can formulate a question or type a search term. Trends in Consumer Electronics Recent trends in the consumer electronics industry are driving a need for these types of simple, focused business discovery solutions. Historically, consumer electronics manufacturers have relied on distributors to reach mid-tier retailers but are now establishing more direct relationships with these retailers. This has created a significant increase in the number of sources of channel data. Furthermore, manufacturers are getting more store-level data, rather than simply aggregated data. For example, manufacturers are looking at store-level sales by SKU, to determine patterns in demand and to optimize inventory. Store-level data is much richer than aggregated data for a given geography, but managing the data volumes can be a challenge. Mid-tier retailers are pushing manufacturers to take on more responsibility for inventory management, down to the distributor or distribution center level. Manufacturers need to monitor daily or weekly inventory levels and adjust shipment to avoid stock-outs or excess inventory. The increased number of decisions to be made requires good data to support and inform those decisions. Finally, according to CapGemini, the product lifecycle has dropped from one year to three to six months in the last decade. At present, approximately 30% of the average consumer products portfolios is replaced every six months. This gives manufacturers less time to react to changes in sales and inventory. In short, changes in the demand chain of the electronics industry including: • More sources of channel data • More data richness • Greater number of decisions • Less time for decision making Have led to a need for timely, high-quality channel data for business discovery purposes. Figure 2: Consumer electronics manufacturers need the ability to view sales by top store numbers in a given region Powered by
- 3. Copyright © 2012 Zyme. All rights reserved. Zyme is the leading provider of channel data solutions for global technology companies. We offer cloud-based SaaS applications and managed services for multi-tier channel visibility, which seamlessly integrate with CRM and ERP systems such as Salesforce, SAP and Oracle. Zyme supports customers with verified channel sales and inventory data from distributors, retailers and resellers in 180 countries to better manage mission-critical business processes, including revenue recognition, incentive payments, partner network management, sales commissioning, and supply chain planning. For more information, contact Zyme at 1-877-262-8993 (US) or +44(0)1189-006723 (UK),or visit www.zyme.com. WP-080912-0 CEA Webcast Case Study—Acme Electronics Acme Electronics is a major consumer electronics manufacturer in a rapid growth market segment, selling through a wide network of large and mid-size retailers. Acme received sales and inventory data from its channel partners, but lacked any practical way to view and analyze the data. Additionally, Acme needed to look at store-level sales and inventory data, but lacked the capacity to do so. Objectives Acme began an initiative to improve supply chain and sales business processes. Their objectives were to obtain: • Information on sales and inventory trends, rather than just quarterly data • Store-level information on sales and inventory levels • Product-level visibility at the store level To achieve these objectives, Acme chose to implement ZAP Retail Dashboard, Zyme’s solution for channel business discovery. As a result the company was able to: • Identify several key markets in the US where market penetration lagged the national average • Analyze variances in sales seasonality, inventory patterns, and returns rates by type of retailer • Monitor SKU inventory by region to prioritize replenishment and avoid regional stock-outs Conclusion Analytics can drive business discovery in the consumer electronics channel by providing the tools necessary to analyze your channel sales and inventory data.