Things to Plan while Integrating Order Management in Wine and Beverage Distribution
The food and consumer package industry is undergoing intense competition and restructuring. Growth has reached its peak, even in emerging markets. There is a greater choice in the market, resulting in more demanding customers. Opening new avenues for growth and increasing profitability of existing business have become mission critical. Moreover, in Retail Industry order management systems are the backbone of the business improving the operational efficiency by automating the order to cash flows.
Even most of the business in Wine and beverage industry uses an Accounting application for its bookkeeping. So the orders from the order management system are to be posted to Accounting application so as to increase the turnaround time for invoicing and revenue projection cycles. Here are the few listed bullet point in deciding the factors to be kept in mind while integrating an order management system with your Accounting Application.
- Requirement planning: Addressing Inventory challenges with a flexible flow
- Complex distribution system
- Items with low per units volume and price
- Route planning and scheduling
Customer Numbering
The order management system or any accounting system will have customer module in which all the customers of the business are listed and maintained so that the orders are raised against a particular customer. So each customer in the customer module/customer center will have a unique id associated with the customer name to identify the uniqueness of the customer record in the system so that it will be consistent across all the systems. Usually, the customer numbering is also known as customer master in most of the applications / Systems.
How warehouse management is managed for order fulfillment
Every order management system has an inventory/warehouse module, so each business will have the option to customize the inventory as per their business model and requirement. For Example, a wine distribution center has single/multiple inventories basing on the nature of its size, spread across geographical boundaries and other various factors which determine the number of inventories. From Inventory, the liquor cases are distributed to retailers directly and this distribution is facilitated by the warehouse management system, the quantity to be supplied to ‘X’ ’Retailer and from which inventory the stock to be supplied.
Understand Regulatory requirements and cross border trade in wine & spirits
Whether a business is planning to use the service of a registered importer or establishing an own import company, doing business in USA means understanding and complying with the legalities of the three-tier system. Becoming own importer can give pricing flexibility when dealing with distributors, but the legal fees and cost associated with running a US based import business often offset any potential gains. Using established US importer can greatly facilitate the import process as well as connect with the large distribution network, but can put upward pressure on the bottle price.
Order flow into Accounting by Warehouse
All the processed orders of the order management system will have to be migrated to accounting bank application for bookkeeping, reconciliation and other accounting purposes. In Order to create a fresh order in the Accounting application, the integration will help to create the same order of oms to accounting application so booking keeping made easy.
Invoicing and buying pattern to assist sales reps
Statistical forecasting technique provides insight into historical and seasonal trends and helps to strategize the promotional activities so the sales rep will have a fair idea of the buying patterns of the customers basing on the various demographic factors like age, gender, season, etc.
Customer balance and credit quality
Generally, the order management system catering to the wine industry will have replenished-based order process with the customers. Replenishment is based on the mutually agreed stock quantity with the customer and their accumulated credit limit.
DBSync has added a connector for Inventiv Software’s PocketAdvantage application, the leading Mobile Order Entry application in Wine & Beer and Spirits distribution. It allows integration of data between PocketAdvantage and back-office accounting applications like QuickBooks, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Sage and more. This integration provides PocketAdvantage customers the ability to use their mobile order management system to view their Customer, Inventory, Invoices and submit orders seamlessly with their backend accounting system.
Find more information at http://mydbsync.com/product/pocketadvantage
