More Customer Quotes
"The process of dovetailing the flow of information with the physical product across multiple supply chain configurations internationally is extremely complex. Eqos was the only vendor we considered that could satisfy our exacting requirements and provide flexibility for the future. Its platform approach was not only unique but allows Debenhams to move forward in a modular, measurable and manageable way."
IS Director, Debenhams
"Our on-shelf availability was at 99% at the beginning of the week. It was down to 93% on Friday. Having this Real Time data in front of us now, we could react much faster than we'd done in the past. On-shelf availability was back up to 99% by the beginning of the week."
Director of Logistics, Procter & Gamble
"The first time I saw this, I had a real 'Life will be different from now on' feeling, it had a more profound effect on me than any other piece of software I've ever seen. I couldn't stop thinking of the ways this could affect our business, and make life much, much easier. This could revolutionise the way we work, not just help us with the supply chain stuff."
IT Director, Major Wholesaler
The development of a private portal will enable Debenhams to achieve significant benefits. "We chose to start with the critical business process of ordering and receiving goods as there are enormous benefits to be gained from having complete visibility of our global supply chain. Through knowing exactly what is happening, we will be able to react much faster to product demand".
IS Director, Debenhams
"Forecasting of promotional uplift is difficult. However, we had a feeling that the reason why spikes in the supply chain occurred was not through poor forecasting but poor planning. The system exposed the fact that in some cases suppliers had different expectations of, for example, the planned dates of promotions or the codes of products. We were surprised that some of the differences were so big, but importantly we were able to see them before the start of the promotion. We can then go back to the manufacturer and together agree the correct dates or best estimates."
Director of Logistics, Sainsbury's
"Working closely with suppliers is a business imperative," says Diane Carter, Supply Chain Operations Director, Sainsbury Supermarkets Ltd. "We believe this new investment [in Eqos] will help us work with them more effectively, irrespective of their size, and enable us to be more responsive to customer demand through jointly identifying problems earlier and being able to proactively manage issues through to resolution."
"Eqos is a long standing partner that has developed a strategic relationship with our IT provider, Accenture. ARM was built quickly and inexpensively."
Supply Chain Operations Director, Sainsbury's
"Nestle invests millions of pounds ensuring that our information systems are optimised to provide our customers, the retailers, with the best possible service. Internet-based systems like the Eqos Platform now give us the opportunity to synchronise dynamic supply chain information with that of our customer. This helps to ensure that we both deliver the best possible service to our common customer: the consumer."
Planning & Logistics Director, Nestlé UK
"Our suppliers believe our co-process system is way ahead of the others, and that our information exchange is more complete. The benefit for Sainsbury's is there is "no longer a blame culture" between the company and its suppliers. Stock levels are lower than they have ever been and administration has been reduced… The suppliers can see how they are doing, and we have better availability of products for customers."
Supply Chain Operations Director, Sainsbury's
"Sainsbury's has been extremely proactive attacking old ways of working and this implementation will further advance our trading relationship with advantages for both parties" says Chris Tyas, Supply Chain Director for Nestle. "We have achieved a lot through collaborative working in recent years, with significant benefits to both parties. In particular, we have seen improved availability, better sales and better stock management leading to fresher product for the consumer and less stock write downs".
Chris Tyas, Supply Chain Director, Nestlé
"The system allows both companies to make more accurate forecasts of future sales, so avoiding under-or-over-stocking of products." Now everyone can see the levels of stock that are going out of the shop door each day. Promotional product availability has been improved to 98% from 85%.
Head of Logistics, Nestlé UK
"We do end up changing our production plans around a lot, and this technology enables us to smooth things out… The main impact of the system is a much wider breadth of information. Our commercial people are incredibly excited by it.
Logistics Operations Manager, Oscar Mayer
"It's notoriously difficult to predict what consumers are going to do until you put the product in front of them. This approach enables us to get the product on the shelf, see what the customer has done, and react quickly to it. You can get the information back within 24 hours."
Planning and Logistics Director, Nestlé UK
"Information about regional advertising of a product can also be shared and this allows us to influence the specific store systems to ensure we satisfy customer demand. With the Eqos system, information and knowledge can be circulated very quickly. Now several of our suppliers have started to use it, there seems to be an increasing thirst for data which can improve decision making. The good news is that it means that the consumers will get the specific product they need."
Director of Logistics, Sainsbury's
"We will be able to pass on consumer dislikes, comments and desires much more efficiently. Where previous paperwork was a bit of a nightmare and the feedback was complex, we can now focus on responding to the customer."
Director of Logistics, Sainsbury's
"We can go into a promotion and come out of a promotion with lower levels of inventory. During the promotion itself we can look at Epos figures to see how the sales are going and get our logistics right. The real benefits have been improved sales, simply because we now know what the availability of our product is to the customer."
Chris Tyas, Supply Chain Director, Nestlé
"Now we can co-manage forecasts with our suppliers, whereas previously we worked in isolation. Branded suppliers will have far more of an idea about what the impact of the advertising plans are, promotions they are running, and so on, so we can let them update our forecasts of their products on a continuous basis."
Director of Logistics, Sainsbury's
"The national account manager and the buyer at JS are the two prominent people that lead with regard to the setting up of promotions … What happened in the past, it was a paperwork system where the national account manager would fill in a pro forma and then it would get faxed to JS; JS would then have a look at it and there would be faxing it back and checking it worked and whatever. The problem with that is that once it started going through more than one pair of hands, the data was either diluted, changed, mis-interpreted; you can imagine how it got. So the obvious benefit … is the fact that now it's one piece of information that is used by both parties involved, so immediately you're down to one set of data. The other thing it's done is it's speeded up the process, because both parties can log onto the Internet at any time."
Logistics Manager, Chilled Food Supplier
"We are driving up availability by gaining access to timely information and using that information to help us better supply our customers. We are seeking excellence through eCollaboration. Key to this strategy is the ability to manage the dynamic trading information from all our customers regardless of what systems they use. The Eqos Platform will allow us to do that and also to allow us to eCollaborate with our suppliers upstream."
Customer Logistics Controller, Kraft
"These savings (£5 million in supply chain costs per annum) have been generated at an increasing rate since the launch in the spring of 1998 and their continuing rollout to more and more suppliers."
Collaborative Systems Project Leader, Sainsbury's
"What we wanted to do was put in place a business process which improved communication much more radically. What Eqos did was enable us to do that very effectively using Internet-based technology. What we needed was one version of the truth, one piece on paper or screen which was constantly updated by whoever is responsible for that data, which anyone can look at if they want to know what's going on. That effectively is what the Eqos system does. It provides the mechanism for having one version of what's going on. Except it's a little bit cleverer than that, because if somebody does change something or the status of the promotion changes in any way, it will actively send out emails to say 'hey guys, you need to look at this.'"
Head of Logistics Development, Nestlé UK
"Collaborating with suppliers using the Eqos solution means we can get products to market much quicker than before, taking about a week out of the design to in-store launch. That means tremendous savings, especially when you are dealing with 4 week promotional cycle times."
Supply Chain Director, Major Retailer
"This has been a revelation for our suppliers, as well as ourselves. All they need is a web browser and they get access to all this information and forecasting. They now have a much closer relationship with us. We are extremely happy with the results. We now have a very responsive system — if the weather changes for instance we can let suppliers know and change the products and quantities we order. "
Supply Chain Manager, Major Retailer
"We could see what was happening on a daily basis and change the production line to meet demand. The system was used to quickly and efficiently review the rate of sale and stock position of the retailers. Kellogg was then able to adjust production and supply schedules better to meet market demand."
Supply Chain Director, Kellogg's
"In our trials we've formed much closer relationships with suppliers. You get the chance to build up a good relationship rather than an adversarial one. It feels as though we're all on the same team now."
Inventory Systems Development Manager, Major Wholesaler
"Stock replenishment is by far the biggest issue — it's all about making sure we can get the drugs out to the doctors when they need them. Given the number of drugs on the market, I think that's something we'd really struggle to keep up with without the collaboration system — the early warning it gives us can make all the difference."
IT Director, Major Wholesaler
"We chose an Eqos solution because it leverages the full potential of the Internet for business-to-business collaboration. This has allowed us to make giant strides in improving our visibility for optimal control of our seasonal events, promotions and new product introductions."
Supply Chain Director, Major Retailer
"We can get products to market much quicker than before, taking about a week out of the lead time from design to in-store launch. This means tremendous savings, especially when we are dealing with four week promotional cycle times.
The first four days of a promotion are the most critical. By building a series of parameters into Eqos' Event application, we can rapidly determine whether it needs to increase or decrease stock on particular lines. This allows it to reduce stock holdings, improve on-shelf availability and bring down inventory costs."
"We wanted a solution that would get us to market quickly and give us an immediate return on investment. The platform also had to be scalable enough to handle data from thousands of suppliers. The Microsoft-based collaborative technology platform from Eqos was able to satisfy all of these requirements."
Supply Chain Director, Major Retailer
"As long as both sides are realistic you find out pretty soon if you've gone a bridge too far. And where we have more open relationships, its actually taken away some of the things that used to keep me awake at night."
Supply Chain Director, Major Retailer
"We were arrogant, we did not share information and we expected suppliers to pick up issues and deal with them alone. The CPS set out to change that culture and it has. There is no longer a blame culture between the company and its suppliers. We can share and manage information together on a daily basis so business can be planned better and we can communicate far more effectively. We have everybody's knowledge, which means that we have get the right answer right the way through the supply chain, so we are more likely to get the availability right."
Collaborative Systems Manager, Sainsbury's
"Working with suppliers in this way and through global exchanges has made us realise that CPS is pioneering in its field … with our system it is a win-win situation."
Collaborative Systems Manager, Sainsbury's
"We now have so much better information. We can help Sainsbury's manage its end of the supply chain by working out whether we are on, above or below forecast, enabling us to go back up our supply chain and manufacture more or less. It is the difference between driving blind or in clear visibility."
Head of Logistics Development, Nestlé UK
"Eqos has shown that it is possible to make changes to our business model very quickly and the Microsoft .NET platform is very flexible and responsive to our needs."
Supply Chain Director, Major Retailer
"Getting accurate product details, prices and descriptions across the different trading formats is a big challenge. We needed to go the IT route as we could no longer rely on faxes, phone calls and verbal communication. With the Eqos system we have been able to develop a speedy, accurate and flexible approach to supply chain management and by automating our processes, we have taken about a week out of the lead time from design to an in-stock position."
Supply Chain Director, Major Retailer
"We are all very excited about it. The results are phenomenal and our sell-through is higher. If they can see the true sales, they will be able to manufacture the right amount and they can plan better their programme of production. We are still breaking new ground. We are still working on the right way to go. But this is the way of the future."
Supply Chain Manager, Major Retailer
"Additional benefits are improved supplier and customer relations. Faster response times once promotions are live in-store mean that early forecast adjustments can be passed directly on to the chain's suppliers. Because we now share all this information daily on line, our suppliers can react too."
Central Supply Chain Manager, Sainsbury's
"The old mindset of retailers was that information needed to be tightly controlled rather than shared with suppliers. This meant that problems were being magnified throughout the supply chain, suppliers often had surplus stock, while retailers had empty shelves"
Central Supply Chain Manager, Sainsbury's
Of the 800 promotions that Nestle runs with buyers in the UK each year. 15% are with Sainsbury's "Before using the CPS system with Sainsbury's promotions were planned on an ad-hoc basis creating a great deal of chaos. Information between Sainsbury's and Nestle was shuffled about on scraps of paper, and there was never any time to evaluate promotions properly. It was an area that was crying out for management control."
Supply Chain Planning & Development Manager, Nestlé
"The benefits of CPS are mutual. Now everyone can see the levels of stock that are going out of the shop door each day. Promotional product availability has been improved to 98.5% from 85%. End-of-promotion evaluations also much slicker. Before there was never enough time to evaluate a promotion properly; we would just brush any left-over debris aside and begin the next promotion. Now the system automatically evaluates performance for us on a daily basis and links this back to our original objectives."
Supply Chain Planning & Development Manager, Nestlé
Sainsbury's Supply Chain Director, Martin White, found that Nestle availability on the shelves rose by 2 per cent to 97 per cent and overstocking fell by a quarter when the two companies worked together on promotions. White is adamant that further progress can be made, and fast. "The speed at which this area is moving has been phenomenal. We are looking at a total transformation within the next two years."
"Importantly for Sainsbury's, this technology [Eqos] will allow small suppliers to feature in the e-collaboration marketplace alongside the big ones. This inclusion of niche, specialist suppliers is crucial to all the supermarkets as they strive to meet the consumer demand for certain products, such as organic or fair-trade products."
Martin White, Supply Chain Director, Sainsbury's
"We have reduced our stock (…for promotions) from four to five weeks to just one week and have seen millions of pounds worth of savings. We're also finding a 20% reduction in out-of-stocks". "We estimated the costs of getting promotions wrong to run into several millions. Our savings using the Eqos system total millions per annum, and a 500% return on investment. The time spent in the planning cycle is cut by up to half and promotions are now 20% more available to our customers".
"Because Sainsbury's is now taking less of a risk on surplus stock, we can be more ambitious in our promotions. We recently achieved a typical year's increase in beer sales in one 'buy one get one free' promo"
"Without this move to online information sharing, as well as the cost of financing additional stock, at the rate that Sainsbury's were going the company would have had to construct three additional depots at a cost of millions due to the rise in promotional stock it was carrying. The overall savings have been considerable."
Central Supply Chain Manager, Sainsbury's
"We need to communicate with our suppliers and supply chain and collaborate on the processes we use. We wanted to make that as easy as possible to make gains in efficiency, time to market and accuracy." Debenhams installed a supplier portal — B2B.net — to deliver these improvements and to allow greater control over the business. "We had a look at building it ourselves or getting people to build it for us, or going for a package, but we thought Eqos gave us the best of both worlds — it's out of the box but allows us to build our own business processes."
Systems Controller, Debenhams
"We recognise the importance of working in real-time with suppliers as the ideal way forward for improving sales, costs and operational efficiency and, in particular, in driving category management within the business," says Jeremy Bird, Commercial Director of Wickes. "We knew we needed to leverage information and had to move away from 'old' technology to a more responsive and collaborative solution (Eqos) which shows everyone the same picture of performance."
Commercial Director, Wickes
