Achieving True Transparency with Solutions from SAP and CAS AG

Consumer behavior has changed dramatically in modern times. Not so long ago, the shopping experience in department stores and supermarkets was almost a weekly ritual, but today it is rather annoying and superfluous in many areas.

Online, that's the new world - although of course this is no longer really new, but rather the entire online experience, reliability in the availability of goods, attractive pricing, simple shipping conditions and complaints and/or returns processes, coupled with fast delivery times.

Consumers do not want to do without advice, tailor-made offers, recommendations and personalization.

With complete transparency

All of this means that companies have been facing completely new challenges for some time now. Not only do internal processes urgently need to be realigned - completely new organizational units are also required in order to meet the "new" market segment on an equal footing.

Once a company has recognized what will be important in the future, aligns its own strategy accordingly and convinces critics and creatures of habit, it inevitably comes to the next point.

Often, heads are now bursting with ideas, the business is on fire and new ideas on how best to do something are coming out every hour.

This is often followed by disillusionment, with a look at the company's own software and system landscape, also known as architecture armageddon.

In the "basement" of the company, you come across outdated systems, non-agile software solutions which, to make matters worse, are perhaps also "built in" in such a way that software upgrades are hardly conceivable.

This is then based on a 1:1 changeover without actually adding new functionalities in the first step. Proprietary solutions combined with in-house developments, the systems do not communicate with each other in the way that is urgently needed to meet the new requirements.

But how is this supposed to work if the article master is stored in one system, but the online store accesses completely different data pools and in turn disposes of the data to a possibly third system in the group?

Real-time analyses unthinkable, 360-degree information on stocks or customers not feasible. Playing out offers or promotional content directly depending on the customer's behavior and this is based on evaluations that take place directly in context. An almost impossible task!

Dilemma: Legacy vs. vision

But what if the systems and applications cannot support this? Wait until all systems have been converted?

Certainly not a solution for the companies, who hardly want to see customers, some of them loyal regular customers, migrate to a competitor.

Nevertheless, the situation is not hopeless. The first way out of the perceived dilemma is actually to recognize the dilemma and allow this realization to take place.

Once the emotions have subsided, it's time to do something. But what? Do you start by replacing old ERP systems, do you completely change the online systems?

But without the substructure, this also has little chance of success. Often, individual isolated solutions including head monopolies are then established in the company, which solve individual subtasks but are not properly integrated into the big picture.

But this is not a stable path in the long term. The solid long-term path is to combine process innovation with the gradual renewal of back-end systems.

Touchpoints vs. back-end

On the one hand, there are the consumers, the real-time requirements, the agile shifts. Which pelt down on companies as so-called touchpoints.

On the other hand, there are the stable back-end systems, which appear to be cumbersome and do not (or should not) allow direct access or have the ability to summarize the data in such a lean way that it can be "consumed" efficiently.

Neither can the demands of one side be reduced, nor can the other side be enabled to deliver everything as required on an ad hoc basis.

As always, the solution lies somewhere in between, let's call it the "digital intermediate layer" for the sake of simplicity. But what can it be?

Customer Activity Repository

Let's take a look at this in the world of SAP systems. This approach was launched there a long time ago and can be found on the software shelf with SAP CAR (SAP Customer Activity Repository).

The SAP CAR platform is precisely this intermediate layer, which is almost real-time capable and achieves exactly what companies need with replication technologies such as SAP SLT (SAP Landscape Transformation Server).

Relevant data is brought into an in-memory environment without duplicate maintenance or harmful redundancies. But that's not all, of course.

With the appropriate applications on this data layer, it is possible to provide the crucial functionalities that are needed. The applications also take over the orchestration of this data.

Let's take the following example: All sales and goods movements are consolidated online via SAP POS DTA (Data Transfer and Audit), the stocks are replicated with SAP SLT from the retail ERP system and the Inventory Visibility function offers real-time stocks that can be consumed and used directly by an online store.

And all this without directly accessing an inventory-managing or "inert" ERP system. Sounds simple, but it really is, and the basis for further omnichannel and planning processes has already been created.

SAP Omnichannel

Using SAP OAA (SAP Omnichannel Article Availability), stock information is transferred cyclically to the online store so that it no longer needs to carry out its own stock calculation.

The omnichannel processes are then expanded to perfection with the sourcing component of SAP OAA. This SAP CAR component massively reduces the number of order rejections because the back-end system checks live during the checkout process where and how the customer is being supplied. The customer is delighted to discover that fast and punctual deliveries are not only possible with Amazon.

Forecast and planning

But that's not all: if the relevant data has already been replicated in the SAP Hana environment and in SAP DDF (SAP Demand Data Foundation) as a data layer for the consuming applications of SAP CAR and all sales are held, then it is easy to also set up SAP UDF (Unified Demand Forecast) as a forecast engine and "simply" use it.

This forecast information can then be used to carry out much more precise corporate and advertising planning using a standardized forecast or to implement optimal push deliveries to stores via SAP AMR (Allocation Management for Retail).

As you can see, you just have to get started and set the right course. The continuation and use of the applications and, in particular, the sequence are entirely up to the company.

With SAP CAR as a platform, this is possible in a very modular and integrated way. This is how you reach your goal with a modular system.

This no longer seems impossible. The modular approach means that companies are also able to transfer the "stable" system landscape to new releases or in-memory products in an orderly manner, as the middle data layer has already done a lot to "pick up" customers where they are.

Of course, there are always considerable investments behind the corresponding products. For this reason, it is of course also worth looking at the world of cloud solutions and checking which of the existing services are suitable.

In addition to SAP products, for example, there are also other solutions that make it possible to use digital data layers to equip the "old world" for "new world requirements".

One of these is CAS RDH (Realtime Data Hub). Affectionately called: "THE real-time capable solution for the migration of your application scenarios into the digitalized world".

With modern open source technology, appealing user interfaces and flexible data models, CAS RDH makes it possible to supply all processes with "real-time data" and to integrate this data into company processes.

Company profile

Since its foundation in 1988, CAS AG has been creating seamlessly integrated total solutions to reduce the complexity of business processes by combining strategy, process and technology consulting.

As an SAP Silver Partner, CAS AG offers comprehensive expertise in omnichannel solutions with SAP CAR and its consuming applications (SAP UDF, SAP OAA, SAP OPP, etc.) as well as the individual development of applications for operational store solutions and analyses with SAP UI5 and SAP Fiori.

www.c-a-s.de/retail