Solutions by Business Function

Finance

In the past, retailers only changed their merchandise to coincide with the changes in season or for customary events. But today's consumers are demanding and trend-conscious, accustomed to new merchandise hitting the store floor every few weeks. Retailers are developing, sourcing and delivering thousands of products to market, in very short time to satisfy this demand.

With this continual change in merchandise comes a deluge of orders that have to be placed, invoices that require matching and payments to be made. Finance has to manage these activities, working with numerous suppliers to minimize discrepancies that can result in disputed invoices, refunds and potential delays in production and receipt of goods.

The Finance team requires a solution that naturally integrates the downstream financials, including costing, invoicing and payment processing, with the buying team's sourcing and ordering process. A single view of financial information across the entire purchasing process — from the initiation of an order right through to final payment. Finance needs to be part of the whole merchandise lifecycle process to facilitate the rapid payment of invoices while keeping a close eye on trading partner performance.

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