Gain a clearer view and greater control

Supply chain visibility is absolutely critical in today’s retail environment. If you don’t know what you have, where it’s located and where it needs to be you can’t possibly make a success of your business.

We have a strong pedigree in providing supply chain solutions to the retail sector, including consultancy, software, infrastructure and managed services.  And we can provide you with all that you need to gain a clearer view of your supply chain, take control of its management and ensure that your business has the right product in the right place at the right time. We offer a range of products and services to help you achieve this critical capability, easily, cost-effectively and securely.

These include:

• Integrated merchandising
• RFID stock control and inventory management
• Field force automation
• Vehicle tracking

An integrated approach to merchandising

We can deliver everything you need to implement a fully integrated supply chain in your retail business. We can help you manage the complete supply chain, from supplier to customer, easily and cost-efficiently.  Our services enable you to manage everything from planning, design and sourcing, shipping and stock replenishment, regardless of the channel you operate in.

We’ll help you get a grip on your inventory, harness up-to-the-minute technologies to rationalise processes across the supply chain and minimise the capital tied up in stock.

Key areas include:

Our Integrated product lifecycle management (iPLM), which helps fashion businesses to streamline the entire production process and channels to market on a global scale. Merchandising management system effectively manages your inventory across the enterprise – helping you to buy smart and sell through efficiently. Additionally merchandise solution planning automates the time-consuming tasks associated with planning, enabling you to spend more time on the things that truly drive your business.

We have already enabled High Street retailers like Oasis, Monsoon and Phase 8 to drive down the complexity and cost of supply chain management and put in place an integrated approach to merchandising.

RFID stock control – keep tags on your inventory

More and more retailers are turning to Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags to give them a competitive edge and improve organisational efficiency. Placing RFID tags on merchandise enables them to be automatically scanned by strategically placed RFID readers and provides you with accurate, real time inventory information 24/7.

BT has successfully delivered RFID services to a range of industries. One leading retailer, through collaboration with us has tagged more than 250 million items of clothing in 20 departments, including men’s suits and women’s lingerie, with RFID labels.

By integrating RFID tags into detachable barcode labels, they can now tag clothing from 20 suppliers with 40 factories in 20 countries. This enables improved on-shelf availability in 120 stores supplied by 11 distribution centres.

For BASF, BT installed a system that integrated seamlessly with legacy IT infrastructure, improved the traceability of products and eliminated production bottlenecks.

We also provide the very latest in Asset Visibility services to help you keep track of your inventory.

Field force automation

Imagine how much more efficient your organisation would be if you could easily and cost-effectively automate your field service operations. BT understands just how critical efficient field service operations are to today’s businesses and offers a range of services that can help you improve productivity and gain a competitive advantage.

We provide the technology and consultancy services that enable you to deliver mobile access to essential business applications on the go, while simultaneously improving your resource and schedule management capabilities.

With BT Field Force Automation you can simply and efficiently:

• Enable field employees to access information on the move
• More successfully forecast work demand and balance resources across locations
• Enhance operational efficiency through leveraging up-to-the-minute business intelligence
• Plan your logistics operations more effectively and reduce transport costs.

Leading retailers, including, WH Smith, Morrisons and Sainsbury, have used BT Field Force Automation solutions to drive down the cost and boost the efficiency of their field forces.

Vehicle tracking – manage your fleet and mobile assets

It’s vital that you can efficiently manage your mobile assets and vehicle fleet if you are to stay competitive and deliver what your customers want, when they want it.  BT Field Force Tracking and Telemetry provides real time, location-based information that can help you to radically improve distribution, supply chain and field service management.

It will enable you to gain improved visibility, cost control and reliability, all of which will go a long way towards improving your customer service capabilities. With BT you can monitor your mobile assets in real time, remotely analyse and optimise route plans for maximum efficiency and enhance the security of your end-to-end supply chain operations.