Aldata unveils technology for the next generation supply chain

ALDATA Solution, one of the leading providers of software solutions for the global retail industry, announces the latest evolution of its G.O.L.D. supply chain management software application, Version 5.

G.O.L.D. is used by nine of the Global Top 30 Retailers. Now, based on almost 120 man-years of development, G.O.L.D. Version 5 incorporates major design and architectural features as well as significant business process and functional extensions. The main architectural components include full web-enablement for all G.O.L.D.s core business modules (G.O.L.D. Central, G.O.L.D. Shop, G.O.L.D. Forecast and G.O.L.D. Stock), which permits significant economies of scale, data and software centralisation, enhanced user friendliness and more rapid deployment.

Mark Croxton, MD of Aldata Solution UK Ltd., said, G.O.L.D. V5 has been operational with major retailers in continental Europe for almost 12 months now and is in the process of being implemented here in the UK. We can safely state that our pioneering customers such as Groupe Casino (over 4500 sales outlets and 40 warehouses) and ATAC Groupe Auchan (350 sales outlets and 11 warehouses) amongst others are now really benefiting from G.O.L.D. V5. The product is well bedded-in and fully tested such that we can now count over 10 Customers worldwide who are either fully operational or in implementation.

G.O.L.D. V5 is a significant advance, providing lower-cost technical deployment and fast implementation possibilities for clients. These factors, coupled with the extensive functional enhancements, offer the highly competitive UK retail market enormous potential to address the challenges surrounding supply chain management. As retail companies are continuously looking for technology solutions to impact their business today, G.O.L.D. V5s vast benefits should continue to be well received by clients.

The principal benefits of V5 lie in the tight integration of the various modules. For instance, already based on one unique integrated item-level database, G.O.L.D.s item or article structure has undergone major improvements permitting precise calibration between the purchasing, merchandising, replenishment, sales and logistics processes. In terms of replenishment, the module G.O.L.D. Forecast (replenishment based on sales forecasting) has now been fully integrated with the central merchandising functions and warehouse replenishment optimisation to provide a comprehensive, integrated approach to both store and warehouse replenishment.

Design enhancements include, the ability to manage multiple merchandise structures with multiple levels; the management of commercial, logistic and other types of networks permitting the complete control of goods within the supply chain in terms of business organisation and policy; the incorporation of multiple site hierarchies; extensions to supplier contracts for commercial, financial and service conditions and the management of complex flows in a logistics network environment. Additional functional enhancements are for range management, promotion management, white and brown goods management, daily goods management (fruit and vegetables, fish, flowers) including product transformation and recipe management, import management, transport, rebate and budget management, full voice operations in the warehouse, and mobility options for store operations.

Finally, for supply chain event management, G.O.L.D. Events provides the necessary infrastructure for event detection and notification.

Current Developments: Mobility, Web Services, Traceability and RFID

Aldata continues to drive ahead with its product evolution and product developments underway include in-store mobility, extended XML interfacing and web services for an initial reduced set of business functions. Furthermore, based on its founder membership of the European-based SMART TRACING consortium (which includes SUN and Texas Instruments), Aldata has already begun a programme of development on RFID and traceability.

Croxton added, With G.O.L.D. V5, we have completed the most significant and major developments to G.O.L.D. that we have ever undertaken. Our investments have been extensive in terms of time and resource and represent the fruition of efforts by everyone within the company. He continues, G.O.L.D. V5 offers exceptional business and functional processing for all operations throughout the supply chain and simultaneously provides extended supply chain control. With our recent announcements on new global partnerships, the very positive analyses of our company and products by market-leading research firms and the latest signatures for G.O.L.D. by major companies both in Europe and the US, the delivery of G.O.L.D. V5 represents the culmination of one of our cornerstone strategies for development and growth.