FULFILMENT OPERATIONS ☛ WEB VERSION:
https://bit.ly/31V4SxX Planning to outsource:
Operations I
At a time when even Governments are
struggling to deal with the disruption caused by an unlikely scenario, it is not surprising that some retail businesses have found their own contingency planning to be lacking. Those lucky enough to have found themselves with an unanticipated peak in demand have had to deal with increased activity with depleted resources. Those unfortunate enough to find demand stopping overnight are left to cope with fixed costs and draining cash reserves.
t is with the 20:20 vision of hindsight that some businesses may now be
observing how others, having outsourced their operations, have been in a better position to ride out the storm.
However, this mode of operation cannot be switched on overnight. It requires careful and thorough planning, the selection of the right partner or partners, and a complete cost benefit analysis of adoption.
So, for those of you pondering the future in a positive way, here a few pointers to get you started with that planning.
Know your own business metrics Of course, you already know how many orders you have taken and plan to take by channel; you already know your suppliers, how many products you offer and how you deliver them to your customers.
Of course, you will already know your revenue, margin and cash flow. But when it comes to explaining your operations to a potential provider, there are a host
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of other details that are important to be able to share.
It is probably easier to consider two separate operational strands in the context of outsourcing: Customer Contact and Product Supply. Both will require modelling of activity at a minimum of weekly time- slices to be useful and to f lush out seasonal, sale and other variations in activity. Some outsource partners can service both aspects, and this could be beneficial depending on your mix and fit with their services.
Customer contacts What channels of communication do you offer? On-line, telephone and/or mail?
Do you have B2C and B2B sales?
For each, a weekly breakdown by channel will be needed:
• Orders • Enquiries • Returns/Refunds
The telephone channel is particularly sensitive to average call durations by type of contact.
Direct Commerce |
homeofdirectcommerce.com By Mike Thom, Independent Consultant
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