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Options are key when looking for the best ways to manage a supply chain. Some companies are looking for subscription services as opposed to having software licenses and implementation costs for solutions housed on site. Using alternative means to manage supply chain processes can offer competitive advantage and provide lower costs with low initial investments.
The i2 Solution: i2 Virtual Direct
i2 Virtual Direct provides companies with an option for how to design and manage their supply chains. The Virtual Direct offering can help companies by providing segmentation studies to pick the right product categories and channels as well as define the right supply chain parameters for selected categories. Working with industry experts, a plan can be designed to operationalize the best practices rollout and to develop long-term process/system guidelines to institutionalize processes for larger rollouts.
Key capabilities of i2 Virtual Direct can include:
- Provide daily feeds of POS and inventory at pre-defined granularity
- Provide promotions calendar, expected lifts, and other planned events
- Analyze POS, planned promotions, and generate new sell-through forecasts
- Analyze inventory levels to generate new purchase and replenishment plans
- Discover and recommend demand-shaping opportunities
- Execute purchase and replenishment plans
- Approve and execute demand-shaping recommendations
- Provide visibility into inventory and available-to-promise
Benefits of i2 Virtual Direct can include:
- Reduced price protection expenses
- Reduced end-of-life markdowns
- Increased market share
- Higher in-stocks
- Improved promotion spend effectiveness
- Targeted promotion spend by analysis at regional (store/SKU) level
- Reduced logistics costs
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