ales & Distribution helps to achieve the goal more effectively .Sales and Distribution interfaces with production planning for preparing the sales plan keeping in view, both the management goals and the Production Plans. Sales & Distribution is Management of vast customer base, complex pricing strategies.
Sales and Distribution, defined through a combination of Territory, Customer and Agent Definitions. The system has been designed to provide an effective and efficient Sales & Order Management for all. Pricing of a Sales Order may be defined as specific or generic, based on either the territory or the customer parameter. Sales Territories are defined hierarchically. Within each territory respective customer details are defined, through which their history can be tracked against orders. The customers can be regrouped on the basis of ABC classification. You can even block and unblock transactions with a particular customer. In case of Dealers and Distributors, credit limits may be defined at the time of appointment.
Sales and Distribution Management integrates with Inventory Management and takes care of actual scheduling for availability of Finished Goods. Sales & Distribution also constantly interfaces with Financials as the Sales Invoice is based on the Sales Order and discounts & taxes, which also result in a Sales Voucher being generated in Financials. During the collection process, Sales & Distribution interfaces with Receivables. Adjustments are made against Invoice. A Bank Receipt Voucher is generated as & when a collection is made, incorporates sales documents such as Request for Quotation (RFQ), Quotation Registration, Sales Order, Delivery Advice, and Invoice.
Sales and distribution companies are experiencing considerable changes in their business environments. The competition is becoming more global. Product life cycles are getting shorter and customer preferences changing rapidly. Reduced delivery lead times are a prerequisite to compete, and offering customized products is of vital importance. Customer loyalty cannot be taken for granted anymore. Increased efficiency in distribution is a key factor to ensure that companies retain a competitive edge and improve both profit margins and customer service. In helping business to obtain a competitive edge Sales and Distribution, a comprehensive set of the best components from quotations to logistics management across the supply chain.
Marketing plays a very important part in sales. If the marketing department generates a potential customers list, it can be beneficial for sales. The marketing department's goal is to bring people to the sales team using promotional techniques such as advertising, sales promotion, publicity, and public relations. In most large corporations, the marketing department is structured in a similar fashion to the sales department and the managers of these teams must coordinate efforts in order to drive profits and business success. Driving more customers "through the door" gives the sales department a better chance by ratio of selling their product to the consumer. There may also be a downside to this phenomenon. Very often (for legal reasons, e.g. in non-store retailing) companies have to provide credit to customers.
Quotation
Sales quotations are created through a manual entry and all information that would be required to confirm a sales order are captured and validated by the system. A sales quotation is like a customer order, except material reservations and statistical follow-up are not carried out. It can also create a sales quotation by copying a previous quotation and changing it as needed. On confirmation of the quotation you can select all or part of the quotation to a sales order with a reference to the quotation.
Made-to-Order
A Product Configuration helps you and your customer define and verify make-to-order or assemble-to-order requirements, ensuring accurate, build able orders. This knowledge-based system captures the valuable know-how of your marketing, engineering, and manufacturing personnel and makes it available to every member of your sales force.
Price List
The concept of differential pricing by maintaining multiple price lists for a given item. On order placement it selects the price list based on the rules defined in the system. It is equipped with tools for creating, copying and changing prices list for different market segments, eliminating the need for repetitive manual entry. These tools also help your agents, dealers and stockiest to generate their price list based on pricing policies framed by your organization.
Discounts
Discount models define the discounts that are automatically entered for a customer order line. Discounts are defined in the price list and can configured to market segments on limit values in the discount scale (eg. quantity, amount, etc.). The size of the discount can be varied based on an order size or based on quantity or volume scales achieved over a predefined period. The discount module regulates changes carried out in item discounts and determines the manner in which they have to be presented on the invoice.
Sales campaign and promotions
Sales promotions can be defined by capturing critical components of the sales campaigns like discounts, period of the campaign, eligibility criteria, target achievements. It can also be configured to apply restrictions on the promotional schemes based on geographical region, market segment etc. Promotion management is integrated with order entry so that valid promotions retrieve sales prices or discounts pertaining to the campaign into the order line automatically. For new product promotions credit and return policy can be switched to an "Over- ride" mode so that your channel partners can place their routine orders without having restrictions imposed upon them due to non performance or slow off-take of a new products. Sales & Distribution should be equipped with tools to plan and monitor samples issued to the field staff and allows you to analyse and correlate the impact of samples issued and increase in sales volume.
Sales Order
Sales Order Management ensures order accuracy as it captures, maintains, and shares product and distribution information across your enterprise. It meets your order processing requirements from rapid, repetitive order entry to complex, detailed orders with multiple shipping schedules. The system automatically splits the orders into divisions or pre-defined objects, based on the items ordered, eliminating manual segregation. This feature enables the organization to monitor sales performances and facilitate autonomy, of these divisions or objects
Orders can be generated by any of the following methods:
Direct Entry
You can enter order lines using different panel layouts. You can use a detailed panel where all information is editable. Or, you can use a panel for quick entry so only item number and quantity need be entered in each line. Full-screen entry is another option. Regardless of the method used, you can define the contents of each panel.
Sales Agreements
Customers can place sales orders on terms and conditions defined in an agreement. This is maintain detailed of the sales contracts such as price lists, payment terms, items and validity of the agreement, minimum order, maximum order per period and total order value of the contract. The system checks the enforcement of the terms on each order entry.
Auto replenishment
Orders are generated automatically for replenishment at customer warehouse. This is managed by either generating an order at specific time intervals or on reduction of stock to pre-determined re-order level. Through this integrated approach to order fulfillment, purchase requirements are planned to satisfy the orders at the earliest and at the lowest cost possible. Customer relationships, and ultimately your competitive position in the market, are strengthened.
Channel Partner Replenishments
Allows you to dispatch goods based on requirements and demands received by the channel partner from their customers, eliminating the need of the channel partner to stock inventory at its own location. Similar to auto- replenishment, to automatically generate orders for your Channel partners. They could be Stock -and - sell agents, consignment agents, dealers or any other entity. Channel partners are connected to you and follow the rules and structures that you specify in your system.
Order entry Checks
At order line entry, the system carries out different checks as set in the customer or order type. Examples are:
Reasonability checks to ensure the quantity matches the customer's buying pattern for each item. This covers the buying information for the customer and item over a predefined purchase period.
Reasonability checks can also be set as a maximum/minimum quantity per agreement line or customer/item relation, without using the customer-buying pattern.
Duplicate checks ensure that the customer has not ordered the item more than once for the same confirmed delivery date.
Credit
A hierarchical credit policy can be specified at an item, divisional, organizational, and customer level. The credit check is carried on a hierarchy, defined on the amount outstanding, period of the amount outstanding, maximum value of gross order value. The system has capabilities to define complex credit policies where divisional credit checks are compared with organizational limits and customer limits with respect to geographical regions or sales agents. The credit check process is invoked at the time of confirmation of the sales order or invoice generation, to ensure compliance with the credit policy.
Available to Promise
Available to promise (AtP) is a powerful tool providing projected inventory positions in a time-phased manner. A system stimulates the effect of production orders and customer orders till the required date, calculating a "Should be" status of items for a required date taking into consideration current stock position, demand forecasts, production lead times, and Min Stock requirements. Conversely it can also determine the earliest delivery date for a required product and quantity. A system reviews other sourcing alternatives across the enterprise instead of planning customer deliveries according to locally available inventory and capacity. AtP calculations ensure that there is sufficient product availability for a specific customer and, if so, to identify exactly where and when that product is available.
Invoicing
A system allows you to create invoices automatically on completion of order acceptance. It provides the flexibility to allocate stock by expiry date, lot number or FIFO methods. With extensive invoicing and reporting functionality, you can accurately and easily prepare, calculate, and submit invoices. A provision to segregate a sales order and create invoices according to divisions of the organizations based on the items they manufacture or market. It is possible to have separate invoices for trading; consignment sales etc.The system can be configured to accept a minimum value per invoice. These can be further specified for each division individually. The invoicing process is completely integrated with the Accounts Receivable, Sales Commission, Customer discounts, General Ledger, Taxation, inventory management, costing and Sales Analysis modules.
Sales Returns
An activity that is closely monitored by the management providing an indicator of the effectiveness of planning, forecasting and distribution activity. It also throws light on areas of possible revenue leakages. Sales staff can be penalized as per sales incentive schemes to avoid "dumping" of goods by over enthusiastic sales staff to achieve targets. Return of goods sold under special promotions schemes are tracked so as to ensure that the customer or stockiest does not get benefits of the scheme on return of goods sold under a scheme. The system blocks future invoicing of an item for a predefined period in the event the stockiest or Agent has returned a substantial quantity in the past. The system provides an option of automatically generating a credit note or providing replacement for returned goods. It calculates the tax effects for the option selected and creates the necessary entries to the effected modules. For return of products where the organization is merely a marketing agent, the system initiates purchase return procedure. Depending on whether the goods returned are saleable, have expired, or need re-processing, the system automatically updates the inventory and gives the necessary general ledger effect.
Inventory control
System should be provides real-time information about inventory levels across the enterprise and tools to manage the daily operational needs of multiple-site, multi- entity production facilities and warehouses.
Allocation of inventory
Allocation is the process by which a specific quantity of an item of batch/lot are blocked or made unavailable for further transactions.A system allows the user to select the lot or batches to be allocated. To each order line, stock can be allocated from a multiple of lots or batches and from multiple locations. It also allows the user to allocate the order partially leaving some quantity "open" for later allocation. Auto allocation executed from the sales order automatically allocates the stock based on a pre-defined method.
Promotional schemes, competition, usage pattern of the products may require that pack size of the product be changed. It is a common occurrence among pharmaceutical industry that pack size change and stock of the same batch is available in different pack sizes.
For certain environments or items it may be desirable to have full traceability from the receiving of raw materials to the shipping of finished goods. This feature enforces use of the lot number on all inventory activity transactions and provides full visibility in the inventory audit trail. Lot & Batch control is used to reference all materials issued. Lots can be traced in both directions, so you can follow the raw material through its consumption in the finished product to the customer delivered to. Or, in case of sales return you can start with the finished product and trace backwards to the purchase order for the raw material
Expiry tracking
The system tracks expiry and shelf life of items across the entire inventory structure. It makes items, which have expired or approaching expiry date unavailable to issue.
Physical "stock -tacking"
The system facilitates physical count of inventory with out disrupting dispatches by logically blocking and holding a storage area in a location. No goods can be accepted or issued from those areas till the counting is over.
Goods in transit
Occasionally called "Mystery stock", these don't get reported in an organization as they have been accounted out of a location but not yet taken into a location. System identifies these goods and considers their existence for inventory planning but makes them "unavailable" for issue. For locations connected by EDI, which receive dispatch documents electronically. System has an in-built password check, accompanying the goods to ensure that goods are entered into the system only on physical receipt.
Special Storage and Transportation Requirements
Certain items may need specific storage conditions like refrigeration, dust free environment etc. These conditions are specified in the Item master and are tracked by the system to ensure that only those locations that have been identified to have the necessary conditions accept the goods. The system also ensures that they are transported by transporters having the required facility. Transportation and storage documents are prepared highlighting the conditions of storage required.
International Sales
The organization to focus its energy on marketing their products global market by ensuring that proper export procedures are followed and undertakes the multitude of documentation required for export sales. This is maintain multi-currency price list with the base price list in the local currency allowing the flexibility to invoice in any currency as desired by the customer. It ensures that Letter of Credit (LC) documentation is carried out as per the terms and conditions required by the customer and its bankers
Export benefits
Track the export benefits under various government schemes like advance license, duty drawbacks and export passbook. Integrate export transaction with other modules, providing valuable information to manage currency risk. It also calculates export credit facilities provided by your bankers and incorporates them in financial resource planning.
Forecasting
Used advanced statistical algorithms and forecasting tools, which incorporate seasonality, special sales campaigns and leading indicators. It also ignores aberrations caused buy non-routine events for calculations of the sales forecast. A rolling forecast can be created for stock items based on lead times required to procure raw materials. In addition, Demand Planning provides bottom-up, top-down forecast editing to enable key users to manually adjust system-generated forecast numbers based on their knowledge of the business environment.
Requirement Planning
Based on this forecast, with Requirement Planning you can accurately determine when and where to produce and distribute finished products based on the availability of raw materials, capacity, and finished goods across your organization. To creates a requirement plan for procurement, manufacturing and dispatch of goods across the supply chain. If capacity and material are available any-where in the supply chain, the system will find and allocate these resources before incurring unnecessary transportation, overtime, or expedited delivery costs. BASE Work Flow® ensures that information flows across the enterprise and purchase and distribution orders are placed.
Hierarchy based incentive structures can be defined, wherein market segments are classified based on market potential.
Each division can have a separate accounting period for monitoring sales performance. They can be staggered over the organization avoiding "Month End" syndrome, thereby reducing the work loads during the month end and also ensuring that sale is evenly distributed across the organization
Taxation is a comprehensive tool to take care of the complex tax structures prevalent in the country. It automatically calculates the tax liability based on the nature of the transaction and the movement of goods. It is programmed to consider the following