Have you ever wondered why businesses accentuate data insights? Simple.
Businesses now realize that using data-driven strategies is not only a tool to improve business decision-making but to also survive.
Businesses in retail, manufacturing, FMCG, agriculture, automotive, etc. all face an overwhelming influx of data from a large number of sources. The challenge lies in effectively managing and utilizing data and making informed, strategic decisions across the distribution network.
This is precisely where Distribution Management Systems (DMS) come into play. DMS acts as a strategic asset, offering advanced solutions through real-time data analysis and data management capabilities, turning raw data into actionable and valuable insights.
Let’s look at how businesses can optimize their operations and compete in dynamic markets with data-driven strategies, through DMS.
Data-Driven Strategies in Business
The current business scenario makes it imperative to access and analyze real-time data, quickly and accurately. This is why data-driven decision-making, where data is analyzed to interpret and validate a course of action, is pivotal for today’s businesses, especially in businesses where complex distribution networks exist, like retail, FMCG, food, automobile, etc.
Data-driven strategies enable owners to strategically leverage data analytics and optimize their supply chain and business.
Instead of relying merely on experience or guesswork, your decision-making process becomes-
more detailed,
objective,
Evidence-based
Agile
Analytical
Accurate
This comes in really handy when, for example, you monitor sales team activities in real-time, gaining insights into customer visits, interactions, and order placements.
The power of real-time data analysis empowers growing businesses to
restock in-demand products,
capitalize on emerging trends,
reroute shipments to mitigate logistical challenges,
adjust pricing strategies as per market trends, and
ensure adequate pace with the market, if not more.
The Role of DMS in Data Management & Analytics
As the central nervous system of the business, a DMS can ensure a smooth flow of channel information across manufacturers, distributors, retailers, customers, and all related stakeholders. Your orders are accurately met and inventories reach their destination on time and without hassle.
For example, a Sokrio DMS, a mobile and web-based application that enhances retail sales and retail channel-related activity profitably, offers various features, as follows, that streamline and drive your business to new heights:
Real-time management Dashboard with data insights and performance metrics
Sales Team Route Planning, Activity & Attendance Monitoring
Automated and Real-time Purchase, Stocks, and Inventory Management
Simplified and real-time order management process
Customized Reports and formats
Virtual Retail Audit and Inspection
Market survey and intelligence
A DMS offers robust data management and real-time analysis. With an extensive and diverse array of data points, spanning from intricate inventory levels to the monitoring of sales representatives, DMS serves as a hub for all supply chain data-related activities.
The powerful analytics capabilities of DMS platforms include:
leveraging data-driven insights
keeping track of sales team attendance
monitoring sales team activities in real-time
Identifying emerging market trends
Visualizing logistics, demand forecasts, and customer engagement metrics.
efficient tracking of order statuses,
Monitoring inventory allocation,
Streamlining delivery routes,
And the icing on the cake is the customized, well-crafted reports, curtailed to your specific business needs, offering relevant data and insights for informed decision-making.
Challenges Created by Traditional Data Systems
Not having a DMS creates many data-related challenges that businesses face regularly. Let’s look at some major difficulties:
Quality of Data
A key difficulty many businesses face is ensuring reliable, high-quality data to the Top Management. Traditional systems fail at this due to time and loss of info in the communication channel.
Availability of Data
With most businesses that have widespread distribution networks, data is scattered in various forms & formats across multiple channels. Locating and obtaining necessary data from numerous sources makes decision-making challenging and complicated for the management.
Integrating Data
Even if data is available, Integrating data from multiple sources across various locations is a complex and time-consuming task to analyze and monitor progress. For instance, sales supervisors face challenges in manually monitoring, collecting, and integrating data when the distribution network is spread to multiple locations if not the whole country.
Securing Data
With the unethical and unauthorized access to data growing daily, businesses feel concerned about data security due to various unwanted access or hacking. Also, robust data security measures tend to be costly, well beyond budget.
Data Analysis
If you have hordes of unstructured data, analyzing them is itself time-consuming. If the data is not user-friendly or complicated, tasks become challenging. These complex data can be about demographics, products, pain points, sources, and other factors. So, misinterpreting data could be detrimental to a business.
Benefits of a Data-driven DMS
So, with the above-mentioned challenges faced by many local businesses, DMS provides some robust benefits, mitigating the challenges significantly.
Real-time Reporting
Expert DMS providers like Sokrio work as strategic partners of businesses to help them grow and innovate. By harnessing the power of KPIs, real-time reporting visualized data analytics, and sophisticated data management, these systems help retailers to adopt and implement data-driven strategies with precision and confidence.
Timely Analysis
Analyzing data from multiple sources in real-time helps you recognize supply chain bottlenecks and take appropriate measures to minimize risks
Read about a local case, where real-time performance helped an importer of one of the world’s premier lubricant brands reduce 75% of their Sales Team’s TA expenses. You can see here how data-driven strategies were used to emphasize management decision-making, helping minimize error and improve efficiency.
Faster & Transparent Data
DMS can help the management make better and faster decisions by presenting bottom-up and top-down sales forecasts of products, through visual mapping (Retailer Density Heat Map) and an insightful, user-friendly management dashboard.
Transparency is a critical aspect, especially if global supply chains are involved. Data-driven solutions significantly enhance transparency and collaboration among the stakeholders in the value chain of a company.
Efficient Data Integration & Tracking
Integrating data from multiple sources across various locations is a complex and time-consuming task to analyze and monitor progress. However, DMS reduces these challenges by automating inventory tracking, Real-Time Location Tracking, and Sales Team Performance Tracking.
Services like Sokrio provide tracking and reporting features accessible from both computer and mobile devices. These systems improve transparency across your distribution business organogram and give you a competitive edge. You can easily solve your distribution sales channel woes through a data-driven DMS.
Staying Ahead of the Curve
Distribution Management Systems equipped with real-time data analysis capabilities and advanced data management functionalities optimize operations and drive profitable growth. Through data-driven DMS, companies can:
identify potential growth opportunities,
get the appropriate tools and techniques,
offer superior services and
Eventually, gain more business than competitors
Final Words
The current business landscape requires continual evolution to sustain. Data-driven strategies have emerged as game-changers for companies seeking to compete and thrive.
By using the real-time data generated throughout DMS, businesses in retail, manufacturing, FMCG, hardware, etc. can gain unparalleled insights into market trends and operational bottlenecks.
Leveraging sophisticated algorithms and predictive analytics, a tool like Sokrio DMS tracks and monitors inventory levels, order management, and sales team performance, eventually streamlining distribution processes and improving decision-making. Embracing data-driven decision-making is your way forward, and DMSs are the tools to unlock this potential.
