The fragrance and cosmetics distribution/manufacturing industry has very specific needs dictated by the major actors in the segment. Those commonly accepted practices need to be handled by your business management solution. This continuation of our non-exhaustive list (view Part 1 here) demonstrates the expertise Southeast Computer Solutions acquired throughout its implementation projects during its 33 years of existence.
Customer Expense Tracking
Your business does not end when your units ship out of the door. You also need to handle everything that comes with managing what happens at the store depending on your agreement with the brands you are selling.
In some instances, this means maintaining or tracking expenses related to material inside of the store you are selling your brands into. This needs to flow all the way to the accounting for you to be managing effectively those promotions and branding opportunities.
This can also be tracked against budget so you never spend more than given by the brands that have given you their confidence.
Subcontracting Management
If you are managing kitting or are subcontracting part of your operations to a third-party manufacturer, our business management solutions can help you manage the relationship between yourself and the manufacturers.
From handling the pricing rules, the bill of materials of your finished goods with their related bill of materials with all the components to managing all costing levels, our solutions will give you the ability to gain full visibility over the process and consume your raw material upon creation of the order or at the moment of receiving your finished product into inventory.
Maintaining full control over your raw materials kept at each subcontracting location is crucial for your purchasing process and your supply chain as a whole.
Sales Territory Restrictions
Some products are not just destined to be sold in certain geographies. This could be related to certain packaging with language differences. For example, if you are selling into Canada, your labels need to be in English and French. It could also be related to some components of a product that are considered dangerous in other countries. Therefore, you will be able to sell certain references in a country but not others. If you are selling internationally this can quickly become a management nightmare.
There might also be situations where you cannot sell a specific product to customers because some states will handle your products differently.
Our solutions will give you the tools to manage those exceptions and make sure that shipments to those places will be prevented. Even better, our solutions won’t even let you place an order when these exception conditions are met.
Tradeshows
To get more business and to become very successful in this highly competitive market, your salesforce needs to develop their territories by participating to tradeshows and other events.
Tracking the units that are going to those tradeshows and the related expenses can quickly become tedious and be lost among the other parts of your business. Leveraging the project accounting modules as well as the inventory functionalities to handle those references going to trade shows allows you to know where things are and how much they cost at a glance. Inventory and accounting are merging to give you that visibility you probably lack with your current system.
Conclusion
Thinking about your next project and adopting a new business management software with the added complexity of an EDI implementation and real time business intelligence, Southeast Computer Solutions offer various solutions to cover the needs of the small to medium size business operating in this market. Call us today to find out how the combination of a great implementation team and systems can help alleviate the challenges you are faced with today!