Order Management Solutions for Brands and Distributors - I

Hashbrown Systems has a long-distinguished history of simplifying highly intricate, manpower heavy, stress inducing, and error prone processes. Before we jump to the absolutely superior skill set of the team at Hashbrown Systems and the products, solutions and services that we have to offer, it would be wise to understand the problem as unambiguously as possible.

Without further ado, let’s look at this diagram. This is distribution network of a Brand,

It is a simplified diagram, so simplified you might feel that this problem is not worth it, and I would not blame you, a retailer or a distributor seldom reads blogs on the internet but sometimes the brand marketeers do. 

The diagram is just snapshot of the most essential process in the entire supply chain – the order.

The order is what keeps the chain flowing. The Order contains the information that helps a brand deciding how much to manufacture, when to deliver, how many trucks to hire and where it would go. Answers to hundreds of highly pertinent questions with regards to the business are contained in the order.

But this is not how an order is generated, here is distribution network of a supplier/distributor, who at all times is working with multiple brands as he should. 

Again, this is a simplified version. A not so successful distributor would be dealing with at least ten times of what is portrayed in the diagram and a successful would be dealing with tens of brands, hundreds of distributors and thousands of SKUs. 

Here is a feeble attempt in visualizing normal flow of orders between a small set of retail outlets, distributors and brands.

Every line in this diagram is an order form that more or less looks like this –  

You could be associated with FMCG, Pharmacy, Restaurant, Catering or café. The problem is one of need, efficiency and reliability. It is also about lowering wastage, improving inventory turnover, increasing profits and above all freeing up time to do a bit of higher thinking.

...to be continued