Johannesburg, 14 Oct 2015
Two Oceans Marketing, a leading provider of marketing and distribution services to the South African Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry, has implemented the Sage X3 and Sage Inventory Advisor from Sage Enterprise to streamline stock management. Parity Software Solutions, a Sage Enterprise Business Partner, helped the company to roll out the software.
In addition to offering merchandising, warehousing and distribution services to local and international FMCG companies, Two Oceans Marketing sells products from around 20 major vendors to retailers around the country. The retail groups to which it supplies goods include some of the country's largest national brands.
As an established user of Sage 300 (formerly known as Accpac), Two Oceans Marketing wanted to put in place an inventory management solution which would enable it to consolidate all of its retail customers and principal suppliers onto a single platform. It hoped this would help it to massively improve efficiencies as well as provide better reporting information.
Says Stephen Steele, Managing Director at Two Oceans Marketing: "In the past, we had to process orders for each retail customer as well as pick products for each principal separately. Adding to the complexity of the environment is the fact that we have a range of product-specific discount and rebate structures for each retailer, and need to produce statements accordingly.
"With Sage X3, we now have a single database and common customers for our principal companies. Sage Enterprise Intelligence, meanwhile, gives us easy access to all the reporting information we need across customers and suppliers."
An immediate efficiency gain is that Two Oceans Marketing now has a single picking ticket for each retailer across all of its suppliers. In addition, Two Oceans Marketing no longer needs to manually create a consolidated month-end journal to get a complete view of its business.
Bank reconciliation has also been automated by means of importing statements into the system using the Parity cash book. If Two Oceans Marketing takes on a new principal, it is now a simple matter to add the company, sites and products on to the system.
"We set up the system in multi-company configuration with multiple financial sites to give Two Oceans Marketing full financial information for each principal company and region," says Riaan Wolvaardt, Head of Sage X3 consulting at Parity Software Solutions. "The solution facilitates the trade agreements Two Oceans Marketing has with different customers through business rules we have written into the trade portals that it uses to manage orders from major retailers." These trade portals were originally built for Two Oceans Marketing by Parity Software.
"Sage Inventory Advisor helps your Sage X3 solution work smarter by using the data already in your system to reduce stock-outs, excess inventory, and working capital," says Keith Fenner, ?Senior Vice President Sales - Sage Enterprise and Head of Sage Middle East.
"Sage Inventory Advisor takes very little time to deploy because it is in the cloud, and it is designed to integrate with your Sage X3 solution. Companies such as Two Oceans Marketing are able to easily ensure they have the right inventory in the right place at the right time, helping them to grow their businesses."
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