CASE STUDY
PartSource Commercial Account & Credit Application
Introduction
Automotive parts is a big industry as per latest stats from last year stands at USD 2265.9 billion. Auto part retailers are major players forming chains of distribution network to commercial stores and even direct consumers through physical stores and repair shops. To attain competitive edge in this segment every manufacturer strives to have an efficient distribution system in place to ensure quality and above all availability of the products in market.
The wider the network of chains and efficient logistics in place; results in a synchronized authorized retailers’ network and easy availability of each part in this highly dense and competitive market.
Every manufacturer and distributor aim to manage wide retail outlets retaining the integrity of authorized products through best supply chain management.
On a small scale, the network of chains and franchises can be handled but if one is targeting a geographic location, such as a whole country, things can get disproportional/out of proportion.
THE CASE
PartSource, Inc. is a Canadian automotive parts retail chain owned by Canadian Tire. The retailer has more than 80 outlets/franchises and expanding the network of chains continuously to capitalize territory across various regions while maintaining the integrity of authorized resellers network.
THE CHALLENGE
A New Authorization Application of Franchisee. That’s some work.
A lot of paper work involved to add new franchisees (commercial customers). Document Trails starts from Area Sales manager to Store Manager then to Regional Manager Office and finally to Head office where it would be under review by several departments to ensure the integrity of application and credit limit allotment.
Roughly it would take several weeks to get approval if the documents are complete, if they are not and some info is missing, one can do the math of how time in-efficient it would get to only start a registration process of a new franchisee.
Managing the inventory and Credit Limits of Existing Franchisee
Reports of credit scores being received in mails and new inventory requests take a lot of time to get approved and issuance is delayed. Many accounts were being lost and there was a need of fast robust supply chain management reports to reduce approval times and replenish inventory in due course of time.
All Offices not in perfect Sync
Every department following their SOPs and once any request communicated to head office for quick approval, the case request is already in delay before it reaches there.
WHAT WE DID
To address all issues of delayed requests, application approval processes, managing the inventory and credit scores of all retail network, we designed, developed, and implemented:
- A state-of-the-art centralized cloud-based digital portal (CAMP) to have franchisee initiate the registration requests ready to be approved by Head office eliminating all document trails.
- Personalized Dashboard for each member/franchisee to view their credit limits and transaction records and generate inventory requests.
- Smart notification system embedded in portal to update members of Due payments, Log of payments.
- E-Statements portal for the piece of mind.
KEY FEATURES
- All key categories of registration of new franchisee packed in a simple request form to be filled and signed digitally to initiate the request.
- All sub offices and head office can review and approve/disapprove application through admin panels.
- A well-organized dashboard for members/franchisees to view the updated logs, transaction records, due payments, inventory requests in real-time.
- Inventory Management Hub to review the status of inventory of each member/franchisee along with easy to initiate inventory requests by members.
- All user data visible in admin panel with enhanced transparency and maintained confidentiality.
RESULT
After deployment and go-live status of the portal, the registration approval time for new franchisee was reduced by 75% considering the influx of new requests.The turn over of new franchisees have been dramatically increased while strengthening the business relationship with existing retailers through a well synced digital portal.
