Retailers agree on return in investment in Aldata systems, says AberdeenGroup

An AberdeenGroup report has found that Aldata customers performance levels met or exceeded those of companies that AberdeenGroup deemed Best in Class Performers in previous studies.

The report, Building the Agile Retail Supply Chain, says that the integrated set of supply chain applications provided by Aldata enabled retailers to manage their business processes in a consistent standard way and realise impressive results.

According to the AberdeenGroup report, The advantages that standardised process and information integration provide supply chain managers are significant. Aberdeen has found that companies exhibiting these traits are three times as likely to have on-time delivery and order fill rates above 97%. Nearly three quarters of Aldata customers also say that they have realized reduction in both inventory and inventory cycle times, resulting in lower operating costs and improved customer service.

This AberdeenGroup report provides significant insight into the competitive advantages that the Aldata retail supply chain suite brings to our customers with its completely integrated applications, said Mark Croxton, Managing Director of Aldata Solution UK Ltd.. Strong vendor management and collaboration, on-time delivery, order compliance and tight alignment between IT and business all contribute overall high performance ratings for Aldata customers.

AberdeenGroup found that a large percentage of Aldata customers exhibited operating characteristics that contributed to enhanced performance and differentiated them from the peer group they are being compared to. For example:

* Performance measurement Aldata survey respondents measure corporate and partner performance much more frequently and on a much broader scope. Almost 40% of them measure it on a weekly or daily basis, and three quarters of Aldata companies say that they measure performance enterprise wide, twice the rate of other companies to whom they are being compared.

* Common Platform To reach their supply chain planning goals, nearly 66% of Aldata customers feel that integrating applications on a common platform is the best approach in deploying enabling technology. This same segment feels strongest about the need for integration of supply chain processes and information within the enterprise. The benefits of an integrated platform extend further than that for most Aldata customers. Examples include improving data quality by more than 7%, reducing invoice matching error rates by more than 5% and lowering pricing errors by more than 6%.

* Aldata customers excel at vendor collaboration Aldata customers demonstrate a much higher rate of electronic data integration with their trading communities than their counterparts.

* Inventory Turnover Aldata users far out-distanced best in class companies in how quickly inventory moved through their supply chains. Almost half of Aldata users turn their inventories more than 10 times annually. In comparison, 20% of best in class companies claimed the same level of performance.

* On-time Delivery Over two thirds of both Aldata users and best in class companies say that their on-time delivery rates are between 97% and 99.9%. To compare how high a level of performance the majority of the two groups are operating at, only 21% of average and poor performers said that they maintained the same level of service. Interestingly, almost three quarters of Aldata users felt that they exceeded the on-time delivery performance of their European peers.

* Cash to Cash Cycle Time High inventory turnover accounts for the very short cash to cash cycle times Aldata users enjoy. Almost 75% of them say that it is on average 30 days or less. Those companies identified as best in class operate at a lower level of performance when measured by this Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Only 31% say that their cash to cash cycle times are less than 30 days, with the majority of companies, 44%, saying that 60 days is the average.

The Aldata retail supply chain suite is a single, integrated system that helps retailers and grocers generate, manage and fulfil consumer demand by automating their merchandising and supply chain operations. By enabling flexible, exacting control over the flow of data and goods throughout the supply chain, Aldata gives retailers improved visibility across their supply chain, helps increase operational efficiency and enables them to achieve greater differentiation and competitive advantage.

To obtain a copy of the AberdeenGroup report, email jenni.torronen@aldata-solution.com