Key features of implementation of ERP in trade

"Trade" features of ERP

As you know, for trade organizations processes of financial accounting and planning, commodity accounting, management of warehouse transactions and stocks, supply chain managements and vendor relations, controls of transport and logistics, customer relationship managements and also personnel managements are critical. Also, existence of the powerful block of a business intelligence is very important for trade enterprises.

As for functionality of MRPII, it here is almost not demanded. The organizations executing assembly of the sold products or preparation of the sold food and nonfood products can use the blocks or separate applications implementing MRP and (or) management of a compounding. But there is no production as such here. At the same time, trade management has a number of common features with "lean production", in particular, dependence of planning of all internal processes on the external demand.

Besides, it are required for all companies working with individuals the additional functions of an information system allowing to automate transactions in trading floors and also "mobile" trade and (or) trade "from wheels".

Thus, an ideal ERP system for trade organizations should be capable to connect together all processes from demand analysis, advertizing and promotions of goods, before ensuring permanent existence of necessary products in warehouses and in trading floors, taking into account the used model of business, permanent optimization of all cost types and implementation of the adopted development strategy of the company.

Specifics of projects

As for implementation project implementation, it is possible to select the following features of the trade industry. On the one hand, business models of the companies which are present at this sector of economy rather well give in to classification, and transactions are, as a rule, standardized. Thus, the set-up standard solutions and standard techniques of their deployment, or their certain combinations are quite widely applied to the enterprises with more complex organization of business processes here.

But, on the other hand, the trading companies seldom are able to afford three-five-year implementation projects and, usually set much more smaller terms of execution of works. Small projects (for example, automation of separate shop of retail network) are executed sometimes in 3-4 months, large projects usually last up to 1-1.5 years.

Besides, almost one and all implementations of ERP systems in trade include development of the system of classification and coding and design on its basis of the single database containing the nomenclature the offered company to sale of products. The specified base should contain a set of parameters of the described goods, including color, a style, aroma, a type of packaging, packaging, a sort, the supplier and a great number of others. At the same time it is necessary to provide a possibility of adding of any number of additional parameters and also storages of their "history" and work with their values depending on time of their entering into base. Enough often such works are followed by actions for data transfer from legacy systems and their consolidation.

Not less often found task is integration of the ERP system with the specialized Retail-systems (for example, TradeX) and also a retail store equipment (POS terminals, scanners of barcodes, etc.) what the corresponding specialists and software solutions, anywhere, except trade, not demanded are necessary for.

Industry "organizational issues"

There are also organizational features of trade enterprises. In particular, the companies of the industry are under construction according to the star scheme: network of standard outlets and the central office to which all of them are connected. At the same time in outlets the "operational" functionality is implemented, and at the central office consolidation of the data accumulated in retail chain stores, their analysis, financial accounting and planning and other transactions providing company management as a whole is performed. Often this structure turns on the uniform warehouse terminal from which distribution of goods by outlets and also the transport division performing delivery of the specified goods in destination points is performed.

The last feature allows to break an implementation project of a single system into stages or in parallel the going subprojects. For example, works on automation of activity of a warehouse complex, separately – works on automation of transactions in shops or works of "mobile" agents and mobile outlets, and separately – implementations of CRM, SRM blocks, financial, analytical circuits and (or) management subsystems are separately performed by labor resources.

All the same – ERP

Thus, it is impossible to recognize projects of complex automation of trade enterprises "simple" in any way and to say that "these ERP systems are only in the industry". The lack of the MRPII block (which is not always used also at manufacturing enterprises) "is quite compensated" by need of automation of logistics, warehouses, trade operations, vendor relationship managements and clients.

Implementation projects of methodology of ERP in trade have the specifics which, undoubtedly, it is necessary to consider, both to customers, and contractors of projects (for the last, however, it is hardly necessary to worry). The specified features are reflected both in functional requirements to ERP systems, and in requirements to experience and qualification of integrators. In many respects they determine both terms and stages of project implementation. Accounting of all (majority) of the features inherent in automation of a trading activity allows to reduce significantly the risks and costs connected with implementation and, of course, is a necessary component of the works preceding the project.