More resources about Invent Tech, Invent-Tech

inventtech — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 17:50:23 +0000

rfXcel, the leading provider of supply chain execution solutions, today announced the release of Version 3.1 of Active Retailer Portal, a revolutionary product that promises to increase store-level inventory visibility and improve promotions and new product introduction execution. The Active Retailer Portal product is the most recent version of the product and can be deployed as a traditional enterprise software solution or as a hosted Software-as-a-Service model. The product provides support for Promotional Compliance, Seasonal Item Management, New Product Introduction and Inventory Optimization. This product will be officially launched at the upcoming National Association of Chain Drug Stores Supply Chain & Logistics Conference on March 25-27 in Orlando, FL.

“Active Retailer Portal represents a new way to optimize store-level execution, thereby driving additional sales without increasing unit labor costs. We’ve heard from our customers that this solution is essential to providing the visibility necessary to ensure that the right products arrive on the right store shelf at the right time,” says Glenn Abood, CEO of rfXcel.

“The launch of the Active Retailer Portal application represents the second business application from rfXcel that relies on the breakthrough Active Intervention Architecture. By leveraging technologies that allow users to proactively address issues before they become problems, we’ve revolutionized the retail supply chain by providing an integrated software solution that allows for real-time proactive intervention. Retail management, store operators, and business partners can now have a real-time operational view of promotion execution. Inventory per store and across stores can also be optimized to minimize out-of-stocks and improve system-wide inventory controls,” says Jim Chiang, Vice President of Products and Strategy.

Version 3.1 of the Active Retailer Portal supports real-time workflow, exception management, and active notifications. It provides Information-on-Demand for real-time processes and can provide both operational and historical performance summary reports and real-time alerts. Users can compare relative performance across stores and system-wide, as a promotion or New Product Introduction progresses. Supply chain professionals can then measure operational efficiencies before, during and after a promotion is executed. In addition, store-by-store analysis and supplier analysis can be achieved on a single platform for all partners. The technology is based on open standards and can be deployed in either a subscription or license model.

The Active Retailer Portal provides benefits to store-level execution, including improved sales for products of up to 30% and improved Promotional compliance to 100% . It’s able to deliver these benefits by increasing visibility at the store – level, while leveraging current technologies and providing support for next-generation technologies like RFID. Version 3.1 supports many types of data sources, including Point-of-Sale transactions, IRI and RSI sales summary data, ERP/SCM/WMS systems, XML, EDI, Flat files, barcode reads, and RFID information.

rfXcel’s Active Retailer Portal allows users to act on problems before they occur. Daily store move reports enable store managers to manage and organize their daily activities and push product from the stock room to the sales floor in a timely manner. With the ability to provide real-time alerts, retailers can correct supply chain issues in real-time, reducing costly out-of-stocks, rushed shipments, and lost sales. rfXcel provides a suite of real-time supply chain optimization solutions that aim to increase visibility of inventory and promotion, seasonal, and new product introduction activities between retailers and manufacturers. rfXcel’s Active Retailer Portal is designed to empower retail users by providing data from internal systems as well to improve supplier analysis by using data from their supplier systems.

Active Retailer Portal not only monitors products throughout the retailer operation, but also provides real-time notifications to help ensure correction of any issues and movement of displays and products to the sale floor on-time. This increased effectiveness can provide both retailers and suppliers with significant sales uplift ranging from 20% to 30%. This products has benefits for multiple product categories, including promotions, seasonal items, new products, and general inventory optimization. As an optional feature, Active Retailer Portal can also monitor proximity of products or displays within a store. This feature enables a clear view into whether product is actually where it should be in a store and therefore, enables very precise sales tracking and analysis of those items.