SAP for Retail
Encyclopedia
“SAP for Retail” is an industry-specific application software
from the software vendor SAP AG
and is focused on the global Retailing
industry. SAP for Retail is a set of software solutions that supports demand management
, merchandise management and planning, supply chain
, store operations, and base financials and Human Resource Capital functions.
The solutions support most retailing processes, including:
• Contracting: Contracting makes the basic procurement decisions and updates the relevant base data.
• Demand Management
/ Forecasting
: group and analyze the demand from customers and replenish the stock accordingly.
• Purchasing
: Purchasing involves the placing of orders by determining supplier, article, quantity and time. It also includes subtasks as limit calculation, requirements calculation, purchase order quantity calculation, stock allocation, order transfer and order monitoring.
• Goods receipt: Goods receipt is the quantity-related logistical equivalent to the purchasing order.
• Invoice verification: The value equivalent to the goods receipt are the invoice arrival and the invoice verification with the subtasks: invoice acquisition, invoice checking, invoice release, subsequent invoice processing and processing of subsequent conditions.
• Accounts payable: The major task of creditor accounting is handling payments, i.e. the payment for the open items resulting from the supplier’s invoice.
• Marketing
: Here operational marketing is meant like updating of customer master data, the assortment and merchandise policies (in particular: assortment planning, sales planning and turn-over planning, listing and delisting of articles).
• Pricing
: With pricing, the activities for business goals, product costs, competitive information, and business rules can be performed.
• Sales: Sales includes the subtasks of customer query processing, customer offer processing, creation of order records, order processing, possibly customer complaints processing, and sales representative support.
• Goods issue: Tasks of the goods issue involve the route planning, planning of the order picking, the actual order picking, the goods issue acquisition and adjusting of the inventory.
• Billing: evaluation of the customer delivery note, the various forms of invoicing the customer and the calculation of subsequent reimbursements, together with the production of any required credit and debit notes.
• Accounts receivable: The central task here is the administration of the debtor accounts and the monitoring of the payment.
• Warehousing: warehousing performs the bridging function between procurement side and the sales or demand side. This involves the subtasks updating of the warehouse master data, stock transfers and posting transfers, cross-docking
, the stocktaking in the warehouse, and the warehouse control.
• Point-of-Sale: Place where the customer stops to purchase goods with the following tasks: process sales transactions and returns, process exchanges, with ability to declare sales transactions null and void and manage pending sales.
• Business analytics
: Examples include: Customer Analytics (e.g. customer frequency, loyalty analysis), Store Operations Analytics (e.g. promotional sales, actual labor versus scheduled), Merchandising Analytics (e.g. Sales by item, top selling items, vendor scorecarding, inventory analysis), Supply Chain Analytics (e.g. fulfillment rates, deliveries, stock overview)
In 1999 SAP acquired Campbell Software Inc. in Chicago (USA). Campbell itself was founded in 1989 and developed a software for workforce management
and personal time recording. Thanks to the integration into SAP Human Capital Management (SAP HCM), it is possible to manage any time account reflecting the complex overtime and bonus rules defined in the various overall labor or company agreements.
In 2006 SAP acquired Khimetrics (Scottsdale, AZ) and Triversity (Canada). Khimetrics developed demand management
software, which supports retailers in the synchronization of their strategy and customer demands. Triversity developed a point-of-sale solution, which not only sums up the articles and prices, but allows also store inventory maintenance, customer relationship management
and services for store and multi-channel processes.
In 2009 SAP acquired SAF AG (Simulation, Analysis and Forecasting) -- they develop automatic order and forecasting software for retailers. SAF AG was founded in 1996 and is located in Tägerwillen (Switzerland) with subsidiaries in the U.S. and Slowakia. Before SAP acquired SAF, both companies had a long history of cooperation using SAF's order and forecasting
software as part of SAP Forecasting and Replenishment solution.
Application software
Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with...
from the software vendor SAP AG
SAP AG
SAP AG is a German software corporation that makes enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations. Headquartered in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, with regional offices around the world, SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software...
and is focused on the global Retailing
Retailing
Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...
industry. SAP for Retail is a set of software solutions that supports demand management
Demand management
Demand management is a planning methodology used to manage forecasted demand.-Demand management in economics:In economics, demand management is the art or science of controlling economic demand to avoid a recession...
, merchandise management and planning, supply chain
Supply chain
A supply chain is a system of organizations, people, technology, activities, information and resources involved in moving a product or service from supplier to customer. Supply chain activities transform natural resources, raw materials and components into a finished product that is delivered to...
, store operations, and base financials and Human Resource Capital functions.
The solutions support most retailing processes, including:
• Contracting: Contracting makes the basic procurement decisions and updates the relevant base data.
• Demand Management
Demand management
Demand management is a planning methodology used to manage forecasted demand.-Demand management in economics:In economics, demand management is the art or science of controlling economic demand to avoid a recession...
/ Forecasting
Forecasting
Forecasting is the process of making statements about events whose actual outcomes have not yet been observed. A commonplace example might be estimation for some variable of interest at some specified future date. Prediction is a similar, but more general term...
: group and analyze the demand from customers and replenish the stock accordingly.
• Purchasing
Purchasing
Purchasing refers to a business or organization attempting for acquiring goods or services to accomplish the goals of the enterprise. Though there are several organizations that attempt to set standards in the purchasing process, processes can vary greatly between organizations...
: Purchasing involves the placing of orders by determining supplier, article, quantity and time. It also includes subtasks as limit calculation, requirements calculation, purchase order quantity calculation, stock allocation, order transfer and order monitoring.
• Goods receipt: Goods receipt is the quantity-related logistical equivalent to the purchasing order.
• Invoice verification: The value equivalent to the goods receipt are the invoice arrival and the invoice verification with the subtasks: invoice acquisition, invoice checking, invoice release, subsequent invoice processing and processing of subsequent conditions.
• Accounts payable: The major task of creditor accounting is handling payments, i.e. the payment for the open items resulting from the supplier’s invoice.
• Marketing
Marketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
: Here operational marketing is meant like updating of customer master data, the assortment and merchandise policies (in particular: assortment planning, sales planning and turn-over planning, listing and delisting of articles).
• Pricing
Pricing
Pricing is the process of determining what a company will receive in exchange for its products. Pricing factors are manufacturing cost, market place, competition, market condition, and quality of product. Pricing is also a key variable in microeconomic price allocation theory. Pricing is a...
: With pricing, the activities for business goals, product costs, competitive information, and business rules can be performed.
• Sales: Sales includes the subtasks of customer query processing, customer offer processing, creation of order records, order processing, possibly customer complaints processing, and sales representative support.
• Goods issue: Tasks of the goods issue involve the route planning, planning of the order picking, the actual order picking, the goods issue acquisition and adjusting of the inventory.
• Billing: evaluation of the customer delivery note, the various forms of invoicing the customer and the calculation of subsequent reimbursements, together with the production of any required credit and debit notes.
• Accounts receivable: The central task here is the administration of the debtor accounts and the monitoring of the payment.
• Warehousing: warehousing performs the bridging function between procurement side and the sales or demand side. This involves the subtasks updating of the warehouse master data, stock transfers and posting transfers, cross-docking
Cross-docking
Cross-docking is a practice in logistics of unloading materials from an incoming semi-trailer truck or railroad car and loading these materials directly into outbound trucks, trailers, or rail cars, with little or no storage in between...
, the stocktaking in the warehouse, and the warehouse control.
• Point-of-Sale: Place where the customer stops to purchase goods with the following tasks: process sales transactions and returns, process exchanges, with ability to declare sales transactions null and void and manage pending sales.
• Business analytics
Business analytics
Business analytics refers to the skills, technologies, applications and practices for continuous iterative exploration and investigation of past business performance to gain insight and drive business planning. Business analytics focuses on developing new insights and understanding of business...
: Examples include: Customer Analytics (e.g. customer frequency, loyalty analysis), Store Operations Analytics (e.g. promotional sales, actual labor versus scheduled), Merchandising Analytics (e.g. Sales by item, top selling items, vendor scorecarding, inventory analysis), Supply Chain Analytics (e.g. fulfillment rates, deliveries, stock overview)
History
In 1994, SAP acquired Dacos Software GmbH, which was located in Saarbrücken, Germany and renamed it to “SAP Retail Solutions”. Before the acquisition SAP used the R/3 components MM (Materials Management), SD (Sales and Distribution) and Warehousing also for the retail industry. One of the most visible changes after the acquisition was a top-down menu, where users could add additional functionality, data and additional organizational units to the standard components. Over time the materialmaster became the article master, more functionality and applications were added and more acquisitions completed the offer.In 1999 SAP acquired Campbell Software Inc. in Chicago (USA). Campbell itself was founded in 1989 and developed a software for workforce management
Workforce management
Workforce management encompasses all the activities needed to maintain a productive workforce. Sometimes referred to as HRMS systems, or even part of ERP systems...
and personal time recording. Thanks to the integration into SAP Human Capital Management (SAP HCM), it is possible to manage any time account reflecting the complex overtime and bonus rules defined in the various overall labor or company agreements.
In 2006 SAP acquired Khimetrics (Scottsdale, AZ) and Triversity (Canada). Khimetrics developed demand management
Demand management
Demand management is a planning methodology used to manage forecasted demand.-Demand management in economics:In economics, demand management is the art or science of controlling economic demand to avoid a recession...
software, which supports retailers in the synchronization of their strategy and customer demands. Triversity developed a point-of-sale solution, which not only sums up the articles and prices, but allows also store inventory maintenance, customer relationship management
Customer relationship management
Customer relationship management is a widely implemented strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing,...
and services for store and multi-channel processes.
In 2009 SAP acquired SAF AG (Simulation, Analysis and Forecasting) -- they develop automatic order and forecasting software for retailers. SAF AG was founded in 1996 and is located in Tägerwillen (Switzerland) with subsidiaries in the U.S. and Slowakia. Before SAP acquired SAF, both companies had a long history of cooperation using SAF's order and forecasting
Forecasting
Forecasting is the process of making statements about events whose actual outcomes have not yet been observed. A commonplace example might be estimation for some variable of interest at some specified future date. Prediction is a similar, but more general term...
software as part of SAP Forecasting and Replenishment solution.
External links
- Biggest SAP forum
- Official Webpage of SAP AG for the Retail Industry
- Official SAP for Retail Community Homepage on SAP Community Network (Implementation, Forum, Solution Map, Wiki)
- Official site of the America's SAP Users' Group
- Official site for National Retail Federation
- Official site for Retail Info Systems News
- Official site for Food Marketing Institute
- Official site for Association for Retail Technology Standards