Trade - Why customizing is no longer enough

The transformation in retail has a name: Amazon. The US company has revolutionized book retailing and set a completely new standard in the process.

It is not the company-specific processes in logistics that distinguish the online giant from the USA and account for its success.

Rather, it is customer expectations in terms of service that the provider has revolutionized. And not just in book retailing, but in all retail sectors.

In the past, retail companies have spent a lot of time and money adapting and tailoring industry-specific standard software and, in many cases, in-house developments to map company-specific processes.

This gave them a competitive edge in terms of the efficiency of their logistics and the breadth and depth of their offering. This meant that even the most unusual special request could be fulfilled on time. But all that is in the past.

Given the standard Amazon has set, it is no longer the customizing of systems and applications that makes the difference in the competition.

Rather, it is service and advice that enable retail companies to stand out from the online competition today.

The good thing is that this is their true core competence. But if they don't at least reach the standard expected by consumers here, the customers who have remained loyal to them so far will become unfaithful to them over time.

Service and advice

What could advice and service in retail look like in the future? Two examples may suffice here: Instead of "just" selling washing machines, a household advisor would tailor the optimal mix of appliances, tariffs and suppliers to the customer's individual needs.

And instead of "only" paying attention to the right shoe size and fit, shoe salespeople would advance to become style consultants before printing out the individual shoe directly in the store.

But service must not end with the purchase. Retailers must have answers to questions such as: Was the quality control of the shoe produced in the store fully documented, was it photographed so that claims for exchange due to production defects can be excluded?

Were the conditions under which the electricity contract was concluded really the most recent ones? Who documents this in a legally secure manner? Who guarantees that customer advisors in the retail sector have constant and rapid access to the relevant information and systems in order to carry out their tasks?

For example, photos taken in the store must be assigned to the correct customer file and both the retailer and the end customer must be able to access them immediately in the sense of self-service.

After all, a consumer usually complains about any damage on the following day at the latest - whether via the online store, by e-mail, by phone, or on social channels. If the photos are then not retrievable, no one understands.

Such scenarios are only possible with an enterprise-wide, process-oriented information management system that also automates many tasks.

After all, new digital business processes and models can only be developed in retail if all information - not least from customer correspondence via e-mail, social media or even traditional mail - is linked to transaction data and evaluated. This is more than Big Data: this is Big Content.

It is this combination of ERP and content that is at the heart of enterprise-wide information management. In other words:

All unstructured information, including rich media, is managed as automatically as possible across all system and department boundaries along the digital processes from and to the end customer and linked to the structured information, the ERP data.

The good news is that these automated, cross-system content processes for more service and advice in retail can be mapped seamlessly with standard products from SAP and OpenText. Customer-specific adaptations and in-house developments are not necessary for this; configurations are completely sufficient.

User experience decides

Thanks to self-learning mechanisms, OpenText BusinessCenter for SAP Solutions enables retail companies to permanently achieve automation levels of 90 percent and more in the capture and further processing of incoming information.

The OpenText solution is written in SAP code and its functions are available within the respective preferred SAP interface - whether SAP GUI or SAP Fiori.

This automation allows the potential of the new ERP generation from Walldorf to be fully exploited in terms of speed, so that inbound communication does not become a bottleneck.

But what about outbound communication? Today's customers want a fast and, above all, personalized response - and they want it on the channel they are using.

On this OpenText Document gives

Presentment for SAP Solutions is the right answer. The solution is a platform for enterprise-wide document and correspondence design, delivery, and multichannel delivery.

The documents can be digital or in paper form, created in a batch process or made available on-demand.

This includes interactive correspondence to turn documents into real dialogs. This allows companies to create customized correspondence that can be modified in real time, while guaranteeing centralized control of branding and corporate identity.

Whether in inbound or outbound communication, a user experience that meets today's expectations thrives less on text and more on rich media and digital assets such as audio and video files, photos, graphics, presentations, and more.

OpenText Digital Asset Management for SAP Solutions serves as a central management solution for all digital media files and their underlying information. Among other things, it integrates seamlessly with SAP Hybris Commerce.

With its help, users can reuse and recycle their media assets in many corporate workflows. In addition, the integrated workflow capabilities save time. They simplify management, tracking, and project work across the enterprise.

The fast ones win

In the digital economy, it's not the best that win, but the fastest. Retailers should recognize the advantage in terms of speed that integrated standard software offers - both in implementation and in operation.

With the right solutions, they can optimize service and advice, win new customers, increase customer loyalty and thus keep the online competition at bay.

OpenText Media Management for SAP Solutions

In the digital economy, digital asset management (DAM) is an enabling technology for customer experience.

Digital asset management software can be used to organize, store, and distribute rich media content such as images, videos, animations, podcasts, and more.

Digital asset management software worthy of the name enables organizations to access digital assets anytime, anywhere, and optimizes the customer user experience in sales and service.

OpenText Media Management for SAP Solutions is such software specifically for SAP legacy customers. It extends business processes with digital media workflows and DAM services for secure, controlled access to digital media assets - in front of and behind the corporate firewall.

The integration of the OpenText solution with SAP Hybris enables users to easily manage all of their digital assets throughout the omnichannel experience and end-user customer journey.

Company profile

OpenText is pioneering the digital world, enabling businesses and governments to turn any type of information into value and services, whether in their own data center or in the cloud.

The Canadian provider is a specialist for Enterprise Information Management and creates the basis for digital business models and innovations with its platform for enterprise-wide information management. Further information on OpenText is available at www.opentext.de available.