SAP Plans Upgrade Of Apps for Retailers

Computerworld - SAP AG last week announced an upgraded version of its business applications for retailers that's designed to boost demand-forecasting accuracy and give users more flexibility when they're planning what to stock in stores.
At the Retail Systems 2002 conference in Chicago, SAP said the mySAP Retail upgrade will introduce new merchandise management and planning tools and let retailers more tightly integrate planning activities into their inventory management processes. Due out by the end of September, the release will also offer additional product allocation, promotion planning and pricing features.
In addition, SAP said it plans to resell retail forecasting software developed by Taegerwilen, Germany-based SAF AG and eventually embed the technology into its retail applications to automate forecasting and product replenishment functions. The SAF tool is available now from SAP.
Joshua Greenbaum, an analyst at Enterprise Applications Consulting in Daly City, Calif., said retailers and the application vendors that sell software to them have mainly focused on trying to squeeze costs out of the supplier side of supply chains. But, he added, "poor forecasting means too much product, too much inventory and too much waste in a retail market that lives and dies by the thinnest of margins."
The forecasting and replenishment engine can be purchased as a stand-alone set of applications and connected to other back-office systems without putting SAP's R/3 software in place, said Hunter Harris, vice president of retail business development at SAP.
The enhancements, particularly one that will reduce the time it takes to format data for new store openings, sounded appealing to Shaker Heights, Ohio-based OfficeMax Inc. Steve Baisden, a spokesman for the office supply retailer, said the sooner the company can get new stores up and running, the better.
Two years ago, OfficeMax began using pieces of the SAP Retail suite, which includes human resources, merchandising and finance modules. Baisden said the company has since seen significant productivity improvements in its business operations.
He added that OfficeMax expects to save $3.3 million in annual operating costs through a combination of Version 4.6 of SAP's retail software and a new distribution system.

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