The Challenges that Remain for One Aspiring Global Sourcing Vendor

Despite Eqos's auspicious growth, accretion momentum, accumulative savvy, and absolute acquaintance as a provider of all-around sourcing and supplier administration solutions for the retail accumulation alternation accepted (please see the antecedent locations of this series: One Vendor's Quest to Garner a All-around Sourcing Ecosystem, A Retail Sourcing Suite Congenital on Experience, The Secret of One Vendor's Success in the Retail Accumulation Chain, and How One Sourcing Vendor's Offerings Are Bolstered by a Wealth of Services), it would be heedless not to accede the challenges that still approach on the border for Eqos (www.eqos.com).

Eqos is, afterwards all, still an advancing aggregation with a blossom applicant agenda (especially alfresco the UK), and with abounding artefact enhancements and improvements yet to be developed and launched. As such, the bell-ringer still lacks all-around name recognition. Thus, abounding of the aboriginal few proof of conceptbarter came from the UK market.

As for biting the US market, angry antagonism has already arise from TradeStone Software (see A Well-designed Band-aid for Sourcing: Its Technological Foundation and How It Works). Like Eqos's solution, the TradeStone Suite is aswell a scalable, multitiered, server-based action appliance congenital on the standards-based Java 2 Action Edition (J2EE) development model, with abutment for Web casework and adaptable markup accent (XML) that is leveraged for integrations (see Understand J2EE and .NET Environments Afore You Choose.)

The two vendors' offerings and aspirations arise to be similar, with anniversary bell-ringer sometimes getting accusedof copycatting the other's letters and offerings. Yet in their efforts to accumulate up with anniversary other, the companies are in actuality acceptance anniversary other, as able-bodied as the bazaar in general. However, the companies are abutting the bazaar from altered perspectives. While Tradestone is a almost new software company, Eqos has acquired from its ancestry as a consulting aggregation with a collaborative belvedere into a provider of accepted appliance annual provider (ASP) hosted solutions.

The affair of accretion the brand occurs because of the complication of all-around barter and all-embracing logisticsan complication that stems from accepting to absorb so abounding parties or intermediaries and their accompanying processes. Namely, buyers, adopted sourcing offices, and agents that accept to accord with targeted suppliers (contract manufacturers) in agreement of behest processes, arrangement negotiations, artefact sampling, superior and safety, the tracking of avant-garde addition notices (ASNs), addition status, authoritative compliance, banking settlements, supplier scorecards, bid comparisons, and so on, is alone one allotment of the absolute process.

But what about the added accompanying processes complex with acquiescence and testing partners, bounded and all-embracing third affair acumen (3PLs), customs, banking institutions, administration centers (DCs), alone stores, and so on? Accommodating and enabling bales forwarders, non-vessel operating accepted carriers (NVOCCs), consolidators, community abode brokers, consign administration companies (EMCs) and consign trading companies (ETCs), addition associations, addition brokers, addition agents, consign packaging companies, etc. added complicates the picture. For added information, amuse accredit to APICS Certified Accumulation Alternation Professional (CSCP) Learning System, Module 2: Building Aggressive Operations, Planning and Logistics, 2007.

Also, the bazaar in which all all-around sourcing vendors accomplish is characterized by aboriginal adopters, and it is rapidly evolving. A aggregation of Eqos's accepted ability and agency will be challenged to advance its aggressive position adjoin competitors accepting decidedly greater banking resources, name recognition, and added resources. The bazaar is awful fragmented, and the acuteness of antagonism can be accepted to access in the future, area antagonism ability arise from centralized development efforts, consulting companies, added software companies, banking institutions, logistic companies, community brokers, forwarders, and third affair development efforts.

As user companies abide to embrace the bulk of broader sourcing and all-around barter administration (GTM) solutions, software vendors will generally be looked aloft to accommodate administration and to add added bulk to the absolute adjustment activity cycle, including acquirement adjustment management, absolute landed bulk modeling, allowance and claims, acceptation and consign compliance, aegis regulations, and added seamless affiliation with balance adaptation and barter costs systems.

Given user companies' acquaintance of their charge for GTM solutions and the like, there is a deluge of point band-aid providers that specialize in attenuated areas of this growing yet burst market. Such areas ambit from landed bulk calculation, retail artefact lifecycle administration (PLM), afterimage and accident management, collaboration, consign compliance, trading certificate generation, chancy actual handling, accumulation alternation and assembly planning (see Assembly Planning and Scheduling Software for the Textile Industry: Unknown Frontiers), advance times, appraisement or annual optimization, and administration adjustment administration (DOM), to added complete busline administration capabilitiesjust abundant to ataxia the bulletin and crumb at the abeyant revenues of full-fledged retail sourcing players. For a bulk of abeyant competitors in the market, see Challenges and User Recommendations for a All-around Trading Solutions Provider on a Roll.

Eqos would acceptable point confidently to its focus on supermarkets and hard-goods and soft-goods retailers, its blessed chump references, and the amplitude of its solution, complete with business action administration (BPM) and business intelligence (BI) enablement. However, even if not as accomplished and acknowledged as Eqos is in these areas, some of the above bazaar players will acceptable be able to edge into a bulk of enterprises and abate the allotment of the Eqos's annual dollars.

While generalist sourcing vendors like Ariba and Perfect Commerce ability not accept the retail ability per se, they ability still could cause the arrest or cessation of some controlling decisions. Additionally, accustomed SAP's contempo ecosystem advance to recruit the SAP Powered by NetWeaverand SAP Certified by NetWeaverally (see Multipurpose SAP NetWeaver), it ability not yield continued afore the behemothic ally up (or eventually acquires) with some of the aloft providers, appropriately creating a barrier of access for Eqos and its aeon to its all-inclusive install base. The aforementioned could alone be accepted from Oracle accustomed its contempo appetence for acquisitions and for rolling them into the Oracle Fusion platform. And let's not overlook the retail industry bounden JDA Software of i2 Technologies.

Furthermore, accustomed Eqos's needs and its intentions to augment its approach away and to accouterment industries above retail (for example, customer packaged appurtenances [CPG], customer electronics, or biologic manufacturers), the bell-ringer ability end up with bifold the bulk of investment (expenses) and added antagonism from these markets' incumbents.

Following this, the abiding ambition is to ability a sourcing-as-a-service,game-changing action by alms the broadcast band-aid bulk via agreeable ally and on-the-groundannual partners.

Partner Type	Example Categories	Reason for Partnering	Advantages for Eqos	Advantages for Partner
Technology	platform	market credibility	global reach	gap in the footprint
Sales and Implementation	global / regional / country-specific systems integrators (SIs)	scale	sales leads and global reach	consulting revenues
Sales	retail-specific consultancies and content providers	route to market	sales leads	new business streams
Application	retail enterprise resource planning (ERP) / supply chain management (SCM) / PLM / supplier relationship management (SRM) vendors and resellers	route to market	installed base	gap in the footprint
Service Provider	order / logistics / 3PLs / financial services	route to market	installed base	gap in the footprint

Table 1. Eqos's alliance strategy and value proposition

To that end, Eqos has been occupied lately with devising a sound alliance program and strategy in terms of goals, revenues, markets, and channels. The strategy seems to be doing well within the initial phase of identifying target geographic regions (the UK, the US, continental Europe, and the rest of the world) and channels as well as the types of partners (see Table 1). Only time will tell how well Eqos will execute the subsequent phases of recruiting the partners, striking the mutual commitment (to the agreements with spelled-out roles and responsibilities, commitment levels, marketing plans, etc.), and pursuing the joint engagement developments and joint support programs (in terms of education, training, Web-based support, incentives, ongoing relationship management, etc.).

The Secret of One Vendor's Success in the Retail Supply Chain

Eqos's Underlying Accord Platform

At the amount of Eqos's alms is a belvedere that provides the key apparatus for business to business (B2B) collaboration, including activity management, workflow management, aperture management, business rules, reporting, analytics, Web services, alerts and exceptions, and security. While these appearance are accessible out of the box, abandoned business processes can consistently be congenital to bigger bout the customer's accepted and approaching sourcing and supplier administration practices.

In added words, the technology enablers of the belvedere accommodate a basic framework that allows affairs and purchasing organizations to rejuvenate their anachronous sourcing and supplier administration processes. One archetype of such an enabler is a individual adaptable markup accent [XML]-based abstracts interface with a categorical activity and Web casework adhesive that can be leveraged for defended affiliation over the Web. Because Eqos's alms is congenital on the service-oriented architectonics (SOA) concepts of reusability and standards-based interoperability, and is based on the vendor's all-encompassing acquaintance with bequest systems and packaged applications integration, Eqos can bear pre-configured, cross-enterprise business processes that alloy both new and bequest functionality into a added articular process.

In tune with the account of business activity administration (BPM), Eqos equips barter to configure and reconfigure (or orchestrate) processes as they advance over time. As already mentioned, interoperability and connectivity are key credo of Eqos's collaborative platform, back businesses accept to await on their absolute IT assets to streamline, configure, and abutment business processes that amount enterprise, supplier, and accompanying account provider operations. The BPM accoutrement appropriately aswell acquiesce the appliance to be configured to abutment well-oiled business processes rather than it getting shoehorned (or forced). For added background, amuse see Business Activity Management: A Crash Course on What It Entails and Why to Use It.

The belvedere enables business analysts to archetypal the data, activity and interface requirements of the organization, and accomplish software to abutment the beheading of that model. This is facilitated by the architecture, which appearance assorted layers of casework and authentic interfaces, such as

* abstracts casework to archetypal business advice needs and map to databases;

* presentation casework to archetypal interactions amid humans and the software;

* appliance casework to archetypal business rules, processes, and workflow;

* aegis casework to ensure adapted allegory of duties and information; and

* alien Web casework to accommodate with limited systems in a defended manner.

As the bazaar becomes added acquainted of the allowances of an SOA architecture, companies' expectations accept added in agreement of the accomplishment of cross-enterprise, business activity support; a abatement in the accident associated with the affiliation of new systems; and bigger use and accomplished allowances from bequest IT assets. It is acute to accomplish chip afterimage beyond supplier networks (including the industry content), as bequest IT assets aswell bear amount to new business models, and there is an accustomed change of solutions as new technologies become available, after massive disruption to the absolute systems' footprint.

Enabling a Individual Adaptation of the Accuracy and Managing Analytical Paths

Some of the archetypal allowances of the aloft architectural concepts are the users' adeptness to advantage absolute IT investments through abstracts affiliation in adjustment to accredit quicker acknowledgment with real-time transaction processing, while removing constraints to advance capabilities as new technologies become available. It is important to agenda that the Eqos belvedere appearance a individual athenaeum of abstracts and activity advice for user enterprises and their accumulation chains. This is because today's retail ambiance requires added than the adeptness to artlessly clue a product's success, accustomed that the ample bunch retailers (channel masters) wish to administer aggregate from artefact launches through to the planning, execution, and post-event assay of retail events.

Accordingly, Eqos's centralized athenaeum of advice ensures that authentic and basic artefact advice is in abode to facilitate this assay for all the parties. To that end, an online annal and angel archive of every artefact can be retained in the arrangement calm with the advice pertaining to the packaging artwork and blueprint that are aggregate with packaging designers and manufacturers. This can ensure added absolute ascendancy during the architecture phase.

Additionally, accustomed the abounding parties circuitous and the endless interactions that yield abode beyond the retail accumulation alternation (where abounding things can go wrong), analytical aisle managementfrom abstraction to artefact deliveryis the cornerstone of Eqos's absolute offering. In the branch of activity management, the analytical aisle is the set of activities that defines the continuance of the absolute activity activities' network. Back these analytical activities accept absolute little float or baggy (usually zero), a adjournment in any analytical aisle activity will adjournment the absolute project. Abounding retailers are active beneath aeon turns beyond added seasons, which leads to both added aggregate and complexity. Managing such an ambiance is creating the charge for bigger ascendancy and added afterimage to ensure that appointed activities advance according to plan, and that stakeholders are appropriately notified of exceptions.

Thus, the abstraction of leveraging analytical aisle administration is to accredit buyers to automate and abridge circuitous sourcing processes, accepting them to administer added artefact curve added bound and with a lower accident of failure. By leveraging accepted activity assignment structures that cover responsibilities and due dates, Eqos's solution, somewhat agnate to Microsoft Project, enables users to specify an ideal analytical aisle and admeasurement adjoin it. It aswell helps them arrange best practices (provided templates accredit the accelerated conception of agnate new projects to be managed) beyond artefact curve and affairs and purchasing organizations.

In addition, the band-aid presents graphical representation and abetment of the analytical path, monitors accessible tasks and backward tasks, sends alerts as necessary, and automatically sends updates to alien systems that bear amount to above barter (such as Tesco, which manages tens of bags of tasks in the Eqos arrangement anniversary day).

Some accepted allowances from the solution's deployment cover a added proactive administration of bartering projects, added abreast and added accelerated accommodation making, and answer accord through a aggregate compassionate of the tasks at hand, area any articular baggy can be taken out of the artefact activity cycle.

Further, beheld advertisement accoutrement and analytics are aswell capital in allowance buyers, merchandisers, and added retail decision-makers barometer success or assay botheration areas quickly. As explained in Contemporary Business Intelligence Tools, dashboards can accredit admiral to adjudge the business, highlight called issues, and assignment down to assay the basis could cause of problems almost quickly. This adeptness comes from the astute beheld affectation of the cachet of artefact portfolios based on real-time data, while abandoned aggregated accordant abstracts are delivered via automatic architecture to executives.

Focused on carrying a graphical account of the business's health, Eqos Dashboards enables an aggregated beheld apperception of assorted artefact portfolios. In accession to appraisal success and anecdotic problems quickly, this dashboard aswell allows multiple-level, drill-down capabilities through to aboriginal antecedent documents. Users can save approved analyses as favorites and bear on a predefined schedule, while outputs to an activity abstracts barn are accessible too, if appropriate.

As for enabling cardinal trading ally to acquaint throughout the sourcing activity (the success of clandestine characterization programs is awful abased on retailer-supplier collaboration, from artefact architecture through to selection, production, and ultimate accumulation to the administration centermost [DC] and stores), Eqos Supplier Hub Administration enables suppliers to self-register and advance their branch contour advice (that is, the accelerated onboarding of new suppliers is fabricated possible). This aperture aswell provides suppliers with absolute Web admission to the retailers' systems, enabling them to accede with the arrangement terms, advance their response, and accommodated (or exceed) accomplishment objectives. The aperture aswell provides the foundation from which retailers can baddest -to-be trading partners.

In agreement of abeyant benefits, lower technology requirements for supplier accord acquiesce for added supplier involvement, which in about-face removes advice silos and barriers ahead preventing supplier execution; supports added constant interactions amid the banker and its suppliers; and drives up supplier accomplishment by creating a adeptness of information-sharing.

Integrated Eqos Sourcing Suite

Eqos's belvedere abandoned is not acceptable to accomplish the allowances claimed by the bell-ringer and its customers, neither at the top band (from the advance of the clandestine characterization business, faster time to market, bigger artefact availability and beneath stockouts, added aggressive offerings and bigger chump value, broader admission to all-around sources and advance of absolute imports), nor the basal band (from decreased costs of appurtenances awash [COGS], bigger margins, bigger efficiencies and bargain operating costs, bargain account and tied-up cash, bigger authoritative compliance, and bigger adeptness to administer risks).

Thus, to advice with the inconvenient truth of retailers' realitythat there is still a assembly of tasks that crave spreadsheets or added abecedarian claimed computer (PC)-based accoutrement (see The Anatomy of Retail Sourcing Processes)built aloft Eqos's collaborative belvedere are eight audible modules with anatomic capabilities aimed to abode retailers' affliction points.

These eight modules can be deployed as stand-alones, or they can collaborate with anniversary added in a many-to-many relationship. They can be aggregate aural the afterward two artefact suites: Eqos All-around Sourcing & PLM and Eqos Supplier Management. By amalgam all-around sourcing, supplier performance, artefact lifecycle administration (PLM) processes, and accumulation alternation afterimage into a cohesive, feature-rich solution, Eqos enables retailers to added finer administer trading relationships, advance their advantage for supplier negotiation, bear added margins, abate markdowns, and assay added all-around sourcing opportunities

Since retailers accomplish in a all-around market, befitting clue of sourced articles at all the stages of their activity cycles is a key concern. Eqos's All-around Sourcing & PLM band-aid supports the absolute sourcing process, from artefact abstraction analogue to abundance accumulation (which implies afterimage of all orders and their accomplishment in the accumulation chain), including PLM and ambit fulfillment, artefact sourcing, adjustment management, and acumen visibility. Comprised of the afterward four modules, the Eqos All-around Sourcing & PLM apartment allows barter to bigger acknowledge the accurate amount of the sourced product:

1. From aboriginal abstraction to artefact specification, the Eqos PLM & Ambit Fulfilment bore proactively manages the architecture and commercialization activity while enabling accord a part of buyers and suppliers. It added links the architecture process, the commodity plan, and sourcing functions together, accepting buyers to adviser the cachet of new and absolute articles to accommodated season-critical dates.

PLM initiates the new artefact development activity by capturing and autumn new artefact ideas, bazaar trends, and the added aboriginal architecture concepts. It supports the design, creation, and testing of prototypes. Once selected, a tech pack is created for administration and assay by the suppliers. Historical advice is captured for assay and advertisement purposes, and with a unified repository, the banker and its suppliers accept a individual chip appearance of artefact activity aeon information.

Ambit Fulfilment manages the beheading of the ambit or band plan. It allows the abduction of trends and concepts that admission the range, the products, both new and alternation curve that accomplish up the range, such key measures as stock-keeping assemblage (SKU) counts, and banking data, adjoin which the accomplishment of the plan is at accident of not affair the analytical division dates.

2. Eqos Artefact Sourcing provides the adeptness to carbon best sourcing processes from amount sourcing countries and into new sourcing locations. The bore supports the sourcing activity for clandestine characterization commodity from specification, through to alternative and bid management, to the antecedent acquirement adjustment date with the called supplier. It aswell proactively manages analytical aisle tasks for the banker beyond suppliers, affairs offices, and added trading partners.

The bore captures abundant artefact specifications, including packaging and amount requirements. It aswell issues requests for quotes to suppliers and receives structured quotes with abundant costs. The user is again able to assay quotes to actuate the best artefact appearance and costs adjoin requirements; baddest articles and acquaint the supplier to specify best artefact appearance and costs adjoin requirements; and ascertain and clue testing and sampling requirements. By accomplishing so, abeyant allowances appear from admission to all-around suppliers with lower amount goods, ensured accuracy of artefact data through accord with suppliers, bigger adeptness to assay and assay quotes, bell-ringer negotiations, and the bringing calm of commonly broken pre-SKU and post-SKU processes.

3. The Eqos Adjustment Administration bore manages the accepting of orders by the supplier and communicates any adjustment changes in abreast absolute time. It proactively manages purchasing-related advice flows, which encourages on-time shipments from factories and third affair acumen (3PL) providers, and supports capricious adjustment structures, a multi-drop DC, or absolute abundance delivery. The bore aswell provides retailers afterimage into shipments, with bright and accepted labels that can be scanned anon aloft cancellation to accumulate goods-handling activities and balance reconciliation.

By amalgam via XML messaging to address to or accept from added systems, and by automatically alerting trading ally to new and adapted adjustment information, the bore enables the supplier-buyer accord about to adjustment details, and appropriately provides a "glass pipeline" (visibility) of orders and their accomplishment in the accumulation alternation via suppliers, DCs, or stores.

In accession to ensuring a individual adaptation of the accuracy for all parties circuitous (as able-bodied as beneath miscommunications, misunderstandings, frustrations, etc.), its abeyant advantage can appear from bigger ascendancy through proactive active management, facilitated accelerated advice of adjustment status, and post-order decisions that can be fabricated adjoin added accepted information.

4. Finally, the Eqos Acumen Afterimage bore layers over absolute systems, and standardizes affiliation links to the enterprise, supplier, 3PL, and added systems, thereby accouterment a individual appearance of processes and advice after ripping and replacing absolute systems. As a afterimage layer, it manages the advice breeze from the time the appurtenances are accomplished from the supplier to the retailer, accepting all parties to apperceive whether the adjustment is accession on time in full, and to facilitate the order-receiving process.

Additionally, backed up by the analytical aisle administration capability, the bore advance SKU-level data of articles in alteration at anniversary point in the process, and ensures that activity is taken by adapted parties at the adapted time in the process. Eqos Acumen Afterimage can aswell detail absolute costs to accomplish the estimated against absolute amount analysis, and can accredit an assay of addition delays in affiliation to aboriginal sourcing requirements.