Question 1.

What is it exactly that syncra’s software does?

Answer:
Syncra Systems concentrates solely on supply chain collaboration and CPFR, i.e.,
an application that did not alter the participants' internal planning skills but
merely made use of their current ones.
The CPFR standards for data and communication infrastructure set forth by the
VICS Association were also taken into consideration when designing Syncra
System's products. Additionally, the business decided to create solutions that
were "vendor-neutral," meaning they could interact with and receive data from a
number of already-existing applications without requiring clients and their
business partners to modify any of their present programmes.
Question 2:
What problem does syncra’s software solves for its customers? Why would it be
worth spending time and money on software to automate this? Why is this
software necessary? Why can’t people just compare the two data streams
manually?
Answer:
Forecasts, orders, plans, inventory, and replenishment data were all made visible
by Syncra CT, which linked the existing enterprise systems of trading partners.
After that, it could instantly compare and synchronise data from the supply chain
and alert partners to any exceptions that needed to be resolved. At the heart of
this capabilities was the product's comparison and exception processing engine,
which enabled it to manage the enormous transaction volumes necessary for
large-scale deployments.
Each trade partner could customise their view of the data within user-defined
hierarchies and set exception circumstances that were significant from their point
of view because to the application's very flexible design.
Users could view the status of any exception, including whether its resolution had
not yet been addressed, was in progress, or remained unresolved, in a "Inbox" for
exceptions.
The business understood that if it wanted customers to use its products, it would
need to develop its own hosting capabilities. For a customer, having the
application hosted offered benefits because it was well-suited for hosting.
Customers would be able to adopt CPFR swiftly within weeks of a project's
commencement without the requirement for a substantial IT expenditure in
hardware, networking, and maintenance. Customers would only need access to
an Internet web browser in order to use the application.
The business created its Quickwin project management methodology to let its
customers quickly adopt CPFR and reap benefits. It coordinated the goals of a
client and up to five trading partners, and it led the parties through the exchange
of predictions, the handling of exceptions, and the evaluation of project
outcomes. It was intended for the entire pilot project cycle to yield measurable
results in 100 days.
The act of continuously gathering and transferring data to a destination is known
as data streaming. Stream processing software is typically used to evaluate, store,
and act on this data. Real-time intelligence is produced when data streaming and
stream processing are coupled.
Question 3:
Why is this software necessary? Why can’t people just compare the two data
streams manually?
Answer:
Users could view sales, orders, shipment, buyer inventory, and seller inventory
numbers for all periods for which data had been input into Syncra CT. They could
also view self and partner base, promotional, seasonal, total, and price sales and
order projections. Both a table view and a graph view of the data were available.
Users could modify their own forecasts in the table view and save those
modifications to the database. Users had the option to make a partner-visible
comment that they could attach to a specific value in a datastream at a specific
week in the table view. Users could choose to compare their own forecasts to
those of their partners, their current forecast to a reference forecast, their
current forecast to the previous revision of that forecast, their partner's current
forecast to the previous revision of the partner's forecast, or any combination of
these options in both the table and graph views. Users could access data that was
aggregated across the self, partner, product, and/or time period hierarchies in
both perspectives.
Users could check the history of loaded forecasts for both themselves and their
partners in order to follow changes. Forecasts were kept on file for ever.
Events associated with promotions: Users could choose a period or a range of
periods and specify a change in a product's pricing as well as the effect that
change would have on the prediction. Users could view a list of their own and
their partner's events as well as comments and additional information by having
these automatically loaded through a back end procedure.
Promotional strategy: A table displaying the promotional pricing and impact
quantity for a given time period for a given product or product category could be
provided. Promotional strategies only applied to sales projections. Additionally,
users had the option of viewing forecasts for self-current to prior, partner-current
to previous, or self-current to partner-current.
Users may create business rules for comparing datastreams, and if any of these
rules were broken, an exception message would be sent. These guidelines could
be established for both "rolling" time periods and specified time periods.
Exceptions Inbox: A list of exceptions that were produced when the conditions
were broken by the data. The level of self, partner, product, and period hierarchy,
type of exception, and variance were all shown in the inbox. Users could click a
link to get to the graph or table view where the issue occurred. Users might
connect to the conditions that caused the exception. Each exception may have its
status altered to reflect whether it was currently in progress, resolved,
unresolvable, etc. Exceptions could be owned by users.
Scorecards: Users could monitor a set of predefined metrics for any situation at
any hierarchical level.
Users may specify the data they wanted to retrieve from Syncra CT, download to
their desktop, and then import into any spreadsheet or database. To the user's
desktop, compressed data was fed over a secure connection.
Users might specify the screen layout.
Question 4:
Why did Walmart agree to increase its order lead times? Aren’t shorter required
lead times more desirable from a customer’s viewpoint, and isn’t Walmart the
most powerful firm in its industry? Why would they agree to take a step like this?
Question 5:
How integral are Syncra’s products to CPFR? Can these kinds of collaboration take
place without Syncra?
Question 6:
If this software is so great, and if a business process (CPFR) already exists for
making use of it, then why isn’t everyone in the retail industry signing up for it?
Answer:
Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment, generally known as the
CPFR Model, was created by VICS in 1998. It is actually a nine-step procedure
designed to improve supply chain integration. Simply said, the CPFR Model acts as
a cooperative inventory management system and facilitates the sharing of
forecast and planning information across multiple business partners.
There are below reasons due to which the software was not used by companies
and customers, The specific skill required to use it. Special people are required to
use this. Also It is not freedom to switch because once we properly start using it
then there is high risk to use another software.
It also looks like we’d be sharing sensitive data with suppliers; why on earth
would I do this when I know they’re also working with my competitors?”
Question 7:
How would you respond to the objections voiced by the potential customer at the
start of the case? Which of them are, in your opinion, the most valid?
Answer:
The main problem here is to How could he make people more easily understand
what his company and its products did, and how much value they added. Few
points are Increases in inventory also often resulted in an increased need for
unnecessary storage and increased handling of products. Firms also had to set
aside additional cash reserves to manage markdowns and product obsolescence
that could result from excess inventory being held and thereby impair
profitability. Ultimately, the excess inventory across the supply chain raised costs
for all participants. Inventory could then be thought of as "the physical
embodiment of bad information