As an industry that thrives on manufacturing products for the daily consumption of consumers, the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry has massive scope for growth.
The FMCG industry is fast-paced, with multiple mobile components working in tandem for a steady outflow of products and glitch-free business operations. SAP Business One is the perfect software that can integrate with the various moving parts to orchestrate a well-functioning business. Its functions allow the business to uncomplicate daily set up and monitor all the departments effortlessly, resulting in an efficient all-round output.
Why do SMEs in the FMCG sector need to implement SAP Business one?
- Supply Chain Management
SAP Business one simplifies the supply chain process of FMCG companies. For instance, materials at multiple warehouses can be tracked and managed with ease. Moreover, the bar code scanning option helps in understanding the in and outflow of items, making it cost-efficient and straightforward to track the current status of the product.
Production in FMCG companies requires effective management of raw materials coming in from multiple locations. After the inventory is logged into SAP Business One, any depletion on stock below the set level is immediately notified. This eliminates dilemmas due to stock unavailability. Therefore, SAP Business One ensures that the inventory is available at the different storage units is possible through a few clicks, especially during the peak seasons, allowing the business to scale up and meet the current demand and supply trends.
Centralized, differential access to the inventory data makes it easy to manage workflow. This eliminates double orders or backorders, leading to accuracy in purchase to sale, increasing cost efficiency.
- Finance Planning
The automation feature provided by SAP Business One makes finance management a cup of tea. The software streamlines the processing of invoices for all the purchases, revenues and profits, payments received and made, simplifying the business’ accounting.
Built to cater to SME’s, SAP Business One offers transparency in the cash flow of every department. This aids the business to plan, understanding the demands of various departments relative to current market trends. The management can take strategic decisions such as cost-cutting and new outlets based on insights gained through this real-time data.
With data-driven decisions, maintaining relevance in the current competitive landscape is much easier. Additionally, this helps the company build business resilience, anticipate downturns, and build preventive measures for potential problems. SAP Business One protects all concerns that come along with managing finances, ensuring business owners are better equipped to expand their business into different markets.
- Order and customer management
Customers are the focal point of the FMCG industry. Whether the business is a primary distributor (a manufacturer of the products) or the secondary distributor, SAP Business One covers all aspects of order management and customer service.
SAP Business One offers dedicated segments to address the concerns and questions of the consumers. In particular, all the data that is available, can and is stored separately depending on the purchases made, order quantity, time of purchase, and frequency, etc.
Additionally, documents can be attached to customer profiles along with notes from personnel regarding previous or future orders. This gives a comprehensive picture of each customer’s journey with the brand allowing personnel handling customer care to personalize the interaction. Communication with customers is also simplified and transparent, building trust. This helps companies in resolving issues faster, enhancing customer service while building a brand name.
- Delivery and schedule management
Delivery schedule and logistics can be tricky if there is no way to track the order once placed. With data required from various departments, order management is challenging. SAP Business One simplifies this process through customizable options to set up the delivery life cycle of products based on business needs. This helps businesses even during peak seasons.
Orders placed can be easily tracked and pipelined for shipping and delivery as per the predetermined time schedule. Pain points can be instantly addressed and managed, streamlining logistics.
- Production and Sales Targets
The production rate and quality of each product are the building blocks of any business. The shelf life of a product can greatly affect the profit-loss scale of a manufacturer. SAP Business One helps in forecasting trends and managing the products on the shelf.
Additionally, the system provides real-time information on evolving customer needs ensuring only good products are sold. Notifications are sent out when the products need to be cleared if they are not sold within the time limit.
SAP Business One reduces the wait time in generating reports. With an in-built analytics system, sales reports are clear and show great detail of information. The sales teams can leverage this information along with the production reports and outgoing products data to create targeted campaigns for the business.
SAP Business One has multiple advantages for FMCG SMEs. It targets streamlining daunting tasks to simple automated techniques, ensuring the management knows where the business is heading.
Price categorization
Typically, the price list for various products and services sets the sales price for a limited period. Additionally, this is the standard used when offering discounts for bulk orders. The discounts offered are categorized into discount groups based on an existing price list.
Discount Groups
Discount groups offer the most responsive type of pricing. This makes it possible to assign a discount group to specific business partners, certain groups of partners, or all business partners.
The discounts offered are fixed for a particular product, product group, or a combination of multiple products, features, or brands.
Within these discount groups, multiple discounts can be fixed. For instance, discounts can be offered on particular product groups and for certain manufacturers or brands within the same discount group. This allows discounts to be set at a percentage or be calculated based on the quantity bought.
Special Price for Business Partners
Special prices for business partners enable companies to offer discounts or surcharges on products for business partners and varied groups.
These special prices are highly flexible. It is possible to devise special price lists with or without a standardized price list. Additionally, these prices do not have to be on the price list associated with the business partner
A discount or surcharge percentage can be fixed for certain business partners which will default into the rows as products are added for special pricing. These percentages can be changed even after adding the product.
This further allows the special price to be updated and recalculated when the reference price list is updated.