BPM services for CPG companies

Overview

Today’s Challenges for CPG Companies

CPG companies face unique challenges such as decreased consumer spend, the rising cost of inputs, and diminishing growth opportunities. In addition, buying patterns have become complex due to changing consumer preferences, resulting in lesser monies. Retailers seem to dictate terms of services, price, quality packaging, etc., demanding more services for less. To sustain their competitiveness in a consumer-centric world, CPG manufacturers must seek ways to reduce costs, maintain profitability, and improve productivity.

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How Infosys BPM Drives Value for CPG

The Infosys BPM CPG practice offers customized offerings for CPG companies in:

  • Context solutions
  • Supply chain solutions
  • Customer-centric solutions
  • Analytics solutions

CPG Transformation Solutions

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Our BPM Outsourcing Services for CPG

CPG companies are increasingly focusing on their core businesses with a need to increase their top line performance. With the constant rising consumer demands, competitive pricing, fragmented mass markets, a complex global supply chain and product portfolios, innovation, cost-saving initiatives, and operational consolidation is a business imperative. In the CPG Industry we see:

  • A constant need to increase profitability and reduce costs with efficient sourcing decisions and an efficient supply chain management process
  • A need to meet customer's changing needs and requirements with speed-to-market often with complex new products
  • Increased trade promotion expense
  • Inconsistent, inaccurate product, customer and vendor data with legacy and disparate systems leading to a loss in revenues and profits

Finance and accounting

The need to reduce costs and achieve process efficiencies in the F&A space drives the CPG industry to outsource the Finance & Accounting (F&A) function. Infosys' offerings in this space address issues such as the high costs of F&A services, need for high-quality service, and need for automation through the implementation of technology enablers.

Human resources

Human resources outsourcing (HRO) is evolving in CPG companies. The complex operational landscape and sub-standard integration of delivery often prevent cost savings.

Infosys' end-to-end HRO solution is based on a repeatable transaction process and HR technology platforms and standards to optimize HRO engagements with standardized and improved processes.

Master data management

Master data management (MDM) presents a unique challenge to CPG companies due to the large volume of items, vendors and customers, and frequent changes to item attributes. Multiple legacy systems and the disseminated ownership of item attributes complicate the maintenance of accurate data records.

The Infosys BPM MDM solution creates a robust and responsive master data foundation. It manages item, vendor and customer data to ensure data quality. The solution provides a unified and accurate master data by consolidating disparate and, sometimes, conflicting records.

The Infosys BPM-IDLM platform solution leverages Infosys BPM's deep domain expertise and predictable offshore delivery capabilities and TIBCO's Collaborative Information Manager (CIM) and partner products to provide a unified view of data across the enterprise. The solution ensures process discipline in information management.

Benefits

  • Reduces time-to-market through faster set up of new items, suppliers and customers
  • Provides an integrated view across the organization, enabling innovation and faster introduction of products
  • Reduces downstream supply chain inefficiencies through improved data quality and ownership
  • Ensures better control and visibility of supplier, product and customer data
  • Enables key client resources to focus on critical business and customer-facing processes
  • Ensures consolidation-driven efficiencies and process improvements
  • Reduces costs by leveraging Infosys' Global Delivery Model
  • Enables integration of inorganic growth with a rapidly scalable operating model
  • Provides robust and predictable implementation by combining our technology and integration expertise
  • Enables a phased implementation approach based on the client's process maturity and financial requirements
  • Offers flexible hosting options such as in-firewall and vendor-hosted models

The Infosys BPM supply chain solutions enable collaboration across the supply chain function, develop a responsive organization, enhance consumer needs, and generate significant cost savings and financial returns.

Procurement

CPG manufacturers are devising strategies to improve responsiveness in supply chain management and gain visibility into real-time demand signals from the retail channels. The visibility of most manufacturers is limited to retail-level transactions, preventing the benefits of supply chain visibility, cost containment, increasing customer demands, and globalization. CPG manufacturers must reduce costs, consolidate products and operations, and build responsiveness to enable e-business strategies.

Infosys' Source-to-Pay solution designs standardized and centralized procurement processes to suit the varied needs of global clients. The features for compliance and monitoring of spend management enable visibility, improved processes, and sustainable sourcing.

Demand and supply planning

Demand and supply planning is critical to ensure an efficient supply chain at minimum costs to serve markets. Typically, demand and supply planning is disaggregated across multiple departments such as manufacturing, sales, etc., and spans multiple systems, preventing an end-to-end view of the entire supply chain. A fine balance between reducing inventory costs, working capital, and lost sales require inputs from multiple sources and exhaustive analysis to get optimal results.

Infosys' outsourced operating model is built on clearly defined processes and assigns responsibilities with technology multipliers such as workflow systems and analytical tools. It provides a disciplined method to achieve this fine balance.

Logistics management

A majority of CPG companies find it a challenge to manage logistics across multiple vendors, manufacturing locations, distribution centers, Carrying and Forwarding (C&F) locations, distributors, and dealers. Infosys' solution identifies low utilization routes and optimized solutions. Our solution enables efficient data management of transport vendors and contracts management with new transporters through research and analytics.

Sales and fulfillment

The CPG sales and fulfillment cycle involve a complex flow of goods, information and money due to interactions with multiple vendors, business partners, and internal departments, multiple checks and controls, processing of multiple documents, transactions involving a large number of Stock Keeping Units (SKUs), etc.

The Infosys BPM sales and fulfillment practice adopt a metrics-driven approach to help CPG companies enhance customer satisfaction, leading to top-line growth and inventory turns. It enables better asset utilization through continuous process improvements, enhanced visibility, and smooth interactions across departments.

Trade funds management

Managing promotions and discounts offered by manufacturers is complex due to the multiple layers of promotions, discounts and ad hoc promotions, and assumption-based category sales objectives. A majority of manufacturers provide retailers with trade discounts, quantity discounts, seasonal discounts, etc., adding to the complexity of trade promotions in terms of volume, price and process. This complexity must be addressed with a well-integrated, effective trade promotions cycle.

Trade funds management

Infosys' trade promotions management (TPM) solution maximizes effectiveness across the TPM process – planning, execution and monitoring promotions. Our solution enhances efficiency and revenues through strategic alignment, enhanced visibility, superior analytics, and integrated processes.

Benefits

  • Relieves the sales organization from non-core sales assignments
  • Allows tracking and monitoring of the performance of trade promotions
  • Enhances efficiency
  • Improves data quality and analytics of executed promotions

Customer relationship management

CPG manufacturers outsource customer interaction and support functions to reduce costs, without impacting the level of customer service provided. Most customer interactions in the CPG industry relate to consumer and customer service, online sales support, and helpline. Infosys has a robust portfolio of clients supported across multiple shifts and geographies, enabling significant cost savings.

  • Research and planning: Industry analysis, competitor analysis, and financial planning and analysis
  • Channel, supply chain and merchandising analytics: Customer, market and product analysis; brand and category analysis; demand forecasting and inventory analysis; and price and promotion analysis
  • Consumer analytics: Consumer behavior modeling, consumer panel data analysis, consumer segmentation, and market basket analysis
  • Reporting: Brand reporting, key account reporting, and service expansion

The reporting and automation features and data analysis for strategy development are based on:

  • Consumer behavior
  • Channel analytics
  • Supply chain
  • Merchandising

The Infosys BPM Knowledge Services team provides insights and futuristic, profitable business models for CPG companies. Our offerings include consumer behavior modeling; promotion effectiveness modeling; industry and competitive research; customer, market and product analysis; brand metric analysis; geographical, channel and SKU sales trends and analysis; and customer sales trends analysis.

Benefits

  • Identifies opportunities for additional business value
  • Helps make informed decisions
  • Provides a snapshot of operations with end-to-end reporting services

Request for services

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