E2open Collaborative Channel Inventory Management
Channel inventories can represent either significant business opportunities or considerable risks for suppliers—depending upon how well they are managed. A supplier that can effectively position inventories in the channel to match demand will maximize revenues and minimize inventories. By contrast, a supplier that cannot risks not only stock outs and inventory write offs, but also the loss of customer good will—leading to lasting damage to its business. E2open Collaborative Channel Inventory Management brings a new set of technological capabilities to channel inventory management, providing suppliers with a set of tools and capabilities that they can use to create new avenues for business and competitive advantage.
E2open Collaborative Channel Inventory Management makes it simple to electronically capture the data you need from all your channel partners—even after inventory has changed title. The product also includes rich business intelligence capabilities that enable you to analyze channel data and create a “bird’s eye” view of your demand inventories.
Key Features
- Channel inventory data capture
- Communication of on-hand inventory and inventory target levels
- Communication of customers’ demand/consumption plans
- Notification of replenishment shipments to VMI hubs
- Exception-driven workflows and email alerts
- Aggregated data views and exports
- Rich reporting and KPI measures
- Data auditing
- Data integration
Key Benefits
- Granular “bird’s eye” view of channel inventories
- Earlier identification of potential channel replenishment problems
- Shorter channel replenishment process lifecycles
- Better supply-demand planning
- Increased revenue capture
- Decreased inventory liability
- Faster cash conversion cycles
- Improved S&OP forecasting
- Increased operational efficiency
- Flexible integration with customer systems
- Lower TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) than competing solutions
As a supplier, channel inventory management is a necessary cost from doing business—but one that can be a significant operational burden. Collaborative Channel Inventory Management is designed to decrease this operational burden by providing a management-by-exception framework. Using the exception management framework allows you to run your channel inventory management operations on “auto pilot,” addressing only those issues that are flagged as exceptions. In this way, your resources can be more efficiently focused and your operational efficiency significantly increased.
