Snapshot
Company: Canon India
Project: Getting access to real-time information
on stocks in the channel
IT Head / CIO / CTO / Project Lead: Shikha Rai,
Director – IT
With many schemes launched on
secondary sales data, Canon India needed real-time information on
secondary sales and channel stocks. However, since reports were
collected on a monthly basis, the firm had to wait for around a
month before it could take any action. Further, consolidating the
sales done by partners against various schemes was time consuming
and the error rate was high.
To address the above issues, Canon India made an enhancement to its
web-based portal, which was accessed by more than 400 channel
partners, with the rollout of an important module called
‘Stocks and Sales.' This module aimed at getting online
information of stocks in the channel and secondary sales done by
the partners. Today, the solution has given real-time information
on stocks and sales, making it an invaluable tool for the Canon
Sales and Marketing, Inventory planning and Finance
teams.
Partners punch their sales data
(retailer-wise) on a daily basis after putting in a one-time
opening stock. Regular update of data is ensured, as all stock
protection claims and sales schemes depend on the data furnished by
the web portal. Hence, it becomes essential for the partners to
update data.
Productivity has also improved
significantly as salesteams do not have to chase partners for
manual or excel reports. Team members have graduated to analysing
sales trends, fast moving SKUs andregional preferences, resulting
in better forecasts and inventory
planning.
Scheme settlement is now streamlined
due to access to updated data. Canon can hence make a commitment of
30 days, towards partners, to settle claims. The partners also
benefit as they can get their claims processed faster, without
having to consolidate data from various
sources.
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