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Retail Management

Notes highlighted earlier). Other technologies, in particular electronic data interchange (EDI) and the
Internet, have enabled supply chain partners to use common data. As noted by Christopher
(2000), this facilitates supply chain agility as companies can act based on ‘real demand, rather
than be dependent upon the distorted and noisy picture that emerges when orders are transmitted
from one step to another in an extended chain’.
Effective management of supply chain flows provides the key to putting the philosophy of SCM,
based around the concept of integration, into operational practice. It highlights the specific
activities that need to take place, and places a strong emphasis on the need for an integrated and
holistic approach to their management. A stepwise decomposition of the buy-make-store-move-
sell model, as carried out in the SCOR model, identifies in more detail what these activities are
and how they interact. Indeed, most of the activities typically seen by companies as being part
of SCM relate to the planning and control of these elements of supply chain functionality
(Fawcett and Magnan, 2002). In this context, “planning and control” is concerned with material,
money and information throughout the supply chain.
The centrality of information management in effective supply chain design is a central theme in
contemporary thinking. Recent years have seen the development and proliferation of a range
potentially valuable ICT tools. The key is to view ICT as a tool which has the capability of
enhancing supply chain integration levels. For this reason, technology has become a critical
SCM enabler in that it enables or facilitates higher levels of both internal and external integration.

Task Discuss about Flow of products and Information in Supply Chain.

14.4 Integrated Systems and Networking

The technology has now become an essential tool for retailing. Some of the important applications
of technology in retail sector are as follows:

14.4.1 Marketing Information Systems (MIS)

The term ‘Marketing Information Systems’ refers to a programme for managing and organising
information gathered by an organisation from various internal and external sources. MIS assesses
the information needs of different managers and develops the required information from
supplied data in time regarding competition, prices, advertising expenditures, sales, distribution
and market intelligence, etc. Information sources for MIS include a company’s internal records
regarding marketing performance in terms of sales, and effectiveness and efficiency of marketing
actions, marketing databases, marketing intelligence systems, marketing research, and
information supplied by independent information suppliers.

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