Surveying the software landscape

ERP into marketplace

We constantly hear clients say they want to have a single ERP system for all functionality, eliminating the need to develop interfaces/integrations between best of breed systems. They also want to eliminate the need to deal with multiple vendors and the associated IT complexities.

The reality is that a robust ERP system customized to the direct industry doesn't yet exist. But ERP systems are becoming more robust with direct marketing systems functionality. Two good examples are Sage ERP X3 (formerly Adonix) and Junction Solutions. Sage North America is working with direct merchants A.M. Leonard and Carrot-Top Industries; Junction Solutions has implemented its products at gifts cataloger Miles Kimball.

We also see several SAP value-added retailers developing marketing and implementation approaches to the multichannel industry. Look for these offerings to become stronger and meet the needs of the multichannel industry.

Limiting implementation time and cost

For many in-house, licensed software products, as much as 50% of the cost is in implementation services. To reduce the cost of more comprehensive systems software, companies are selling pre-parameterized software implementations to scale back the effort required by both the vendor and the client to implement the system.

Two examples of this are SAP (SAP Business All-in-One) and Manhattan Associates. Full functionality is generally visible to the customer.

So once the initial implementation is successfully up and running, your IT management and users can see how functionality can be expanded through changes to the system set-up parameters. The result is to reduce implementation cost, time frame and complexity.

Multichannel forecasting and inventory management

The challenge of planning, forecasting and managing inventory for retail, e-commerce, catalog and wholesale channels falls directly into the laps of merchandising and inventory control management. Direct Tech and Manhattan Associates have answered these needs with two different approaches.

Direct Tech, with 37 installations in direct/catalog companies, has researched and developed a statistically-based forecasting system for businesses that have product history. What's more, the vendor will import retail selling history to be combined in the model for companies that have stores.

Manhattan Associates, on the other hand, offers specialized planning, forecasting and management across all three channels, thanks to its acquisition of Evant several years ago. Its system looks at retail store replenishment and multidistribution center inventories.

Curt Barry (cbarry@fcbco.com) is president of F. Curtis Barry & Co., a multichannel operations and fulfillment consultancy.