Optimizing the Customer Experience Successful retailers must focus on creating great customer experiences. The good news is that most retailers have a lot of information about products, customers, shopping histories and more at their fingertips to help them recognize and fulfill customer needs. Retailers have the opportunity to use that data and insight to optimize the customer experience and foster loyalty and profitability using four key principles.

Read: Optimizing the Customer Experience

Four Key Principles for Understanding and Meeting the Needs of Omni-Channel Customers

1. Enhance the customer connection 2. Break down channel barriers 3. Build profit intelligence into experience

strategy 4. Translate loyalty into long-term success

Meet the Author:

Scott Welty is vice president, retail, JDA Software. With widespread retail experience and a focus on business process optimization, Welty has helped hundreds of companies select the proper solutions to attain increased revenue, profit and efficiencies.

Copyright © 2012 JDA Software Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Rise of the Cloud For companies seeking rapid transformation and long-term supply chain leadership, cloud resources are an essential mechanism that delivers the right technology, people and processes to quickly revolutionize the entire business. When paired with best-of-breed supply chain solutions, a well-planned cloud deployment can lower a company’s upfront costs while minimizing risk, driving immediate bottom-line savings and reducing the time it takes to achieve a full return on investment.

Read: The Rise of the Cloud

Cloud resources can be optimized to create dramatic improvements in these and other critical business areas:

Revenue maximization Inventory optimization Forecasting accuracy Demand and fulfillment optimization Business-wide synchronization

Meet the Authors:

Joe King is senior vice president, JDA Cloud Services. In this role, he is responsible for JDA’s global Cloud Services business, including sales, support and operations.

Steve Davis is vice president, JDA Strategic Services. In this role, he is responsible for bringing business transformation and leading practices to JDA’s worldwide customers. Copyright © 2012 JDA Software Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Shift to Reshoring More than a decade after many manufacturing companies started moving their production operations to lower-cost countries, the industry is again on the brink of a major global shift. Many of the offshore cost advantages that once existed are now beginning to erode. Companies should reassess their global manufacturing strategies with a deliberate, balanced approach that considers the total cost of manufacturing a product for a specific market, including location, before making any long-term capacity decisions.

Read: The Shift to Reshoring

Meet the Author:

David Johnston is senior vice president, manufacturing and wholesale distribution, JDA Software. In this role, he is responsible for strengthening industry and executive-level relationships with JDA’s customers and key prospects.

When leveraging supply chain segmentation to assess, define and create the best sourcing strategies, manufacturers should:

Regionally match supply to demand Recognize the trade-offs Execute with flexibility and efficiency Factor in the value of speed to market Drill into the cross-sections of different

market attributes and dimensions Strive for better service at lower cost

Copyright © 2012 JDA Software Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

The New Age of Category Management

The cost of getting an assortment wrong, or failing to ensure product availability, cannot be underestimated in today’s hyper-connected and ultra-competitive retail world. When shoppers leave a store because they can’t find an advertised special, they may be abandoning a cart full of non-related items. They may be headed to a competitive channel, where they can build long-term loyalty. The impact of one disappointment can be significant and lasting.

Read: The New Age of Category Management

Category managers are turning to scalable technologies that enable efficient, automated processes for assortment planning, space planning and replenishment including:

1. Cloud services 2. Space-aware assortments and

store-level planograms 3. Three-dimensional visualization

Meet the Author:

Danny Halim is vice president, industry strategies, JDA Software. He is responsible for developing strategic supply chain innovations for the consumer products industries.

Copyright © 2012 JDA Software Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Consumer-Driven Transportation Network

Manufacturers and retailers must increase their overall supply chain flexibility and responsiveness to meet the increasingly impatient and fickle demands of consumers. In terms of transportation, this means relying on more flexible schemes and multiple modes that might include private fleets, third-party truckload carriers and parcel carriers – and even mixing modes in new and creative ways.

Read: The Consumer-Driven Transportation Network

Meet the Author:

Fabrizio Brasca is vice president, global logistics, JDA Software. He is responsible for developing innovative transportation and logistics strategies across all industry verticals.

The new omni-channel consumer is changing every facet of today’s supply chains. What are the implications for transportation networks?

Copyright © 2012 JDA Software Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Changing State of Retail For retailers today, it’s an exciting but challenging time. The e-commerce revolution has created a newly empowered consumer, who has high expectations for the retail shopping experience. How should retailers transform their businesses – and their supply chains – to support the omni-channel delivery of products to these new consumers? More than 100 retailers were asked their opinions on the changing state of retail, and their feedback – and what it means for the retail value chain – are reflected in this thoughtful piece.

Read: The Changing State of Retail

70% of survey respondents believe that shoppers will expect brick-and-mortar retailers to be able to trade off availability, convenience, price and assortment to get to the right deal for them.

Meet the Authors:

Wayne Usie, JDA Software’s senior vice president, retail, is responsible for strengthening executive-level relationships with JDA’s retail customers and prospects.

Kevin O’Marah is a senior fellow of the Stanford Global Supply Chain Management Forum, a leading research institute that advances the theory and practice of excellence in global supply chain management. Copyright © 2012 JDA Software Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Lifting Profits With high operating costs and considerable sensitivity to external forces such as fuel expenses, air cargo is a business of razor-thin margins and extreme cost pressures. Limited visibility into true demand, or prevailing market rates, make it difficult to set prices strategically. With increased visibility and transparency, carriers can better shape their products and pricing strategies to reflect real customer needs, creating a win for everyone in the supply chain.

Read: Lifting Profits

Revenue management solutions provide five key benefits that help carriers lift their profits:

1. Accurate demand forecasting 2. Capacity management 3. Price optimization 4. Increased collaboration 5. Market visibility

Meet the Author:

Anand Medepalli serves as vice president of freight transportation in JDA Software’s Pricing and Revenue Management Group. He is responsible for overseeing strategic business initiatives for the freight transportation industry.

Copyright © 2012 JDA Software Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Ultra-Connected Supply Chain The Voluntary Interindustry Commerce Solutions (VICS) Association recently unveiled its latest guideline for retailers and manufacturers titled “The Ultimate Retail Supply Chain Machine: Connecting the Consumer to the Factory.” This new guideline shows how time-phased, multi-echelon replenishment systems – also known as store-level distribution resource planning (DRP) systems – can link all activities to the store-level forecast, creating a complete and dynamic model of the retail supply chain. Insights from three VICS members who were key contributors to the recommendation are featured in this piece.

Read: The Ultra-Connected Supply Chain

Meet the Contributors:

Joe Andraski is president and chief executive officer of VICS. Considered to be one of the key leaders of CPFR®, Andraski created and launched the VICS CPFR Certification Program. Prior to VICS, Andraski held numerous positions with Nabisco, Inc.

Copyright © 2012 JDA Software Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Fred Baumann is vice president, industry strategies at JDA Software. He is responsible for the wholesale distribution and manufacturing industry strategy for key verticals within his segment.

Leroy Allen is senior vice president, logistics, Lowe’s, and a member of the VICS board of directors. He leads teams responsible for forecasting, inventory planning and replenishment, as well as vendor compliance and collaboration initiatives.

The Power of Community In today’s corporate environment, employees are often asked to do more — increase efficiencies, grow revenue, lower costs — with fewer resources. With more focus on the bottom line than ever before, professionals are looking outside of the walls of their own companies for inspiration on how to add value and drive innovation. For many supply chain professionals, JDA’s Users Group provides that opportunity. Recently, several supply chain professionals gathered to discuss the benefits of Users Group membership and the knowledge, contacts and opportunities they’ve uncovered through their involvement.

Read: The Power of Community

Meet the Contributors:

Copyright © 2012 JDA Software Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

George Frongillo Users Group President

Jim Caruso SIG Chair – Collaborate

Bill Hollars SIG Chair – Seasonal Profiling

Michael McClain SIG Chair – Space Planning

Lesley Klinger Users Group Administrative Director