DataXstream Customer Success Story Series
Cannabis Distributor & Specialty Retailer poised for rapid growth looks to OMS+ for real-time inventory management and OPPS integration
Hosted by: Kathleen Taggert
Featuring: Dick Koch, Delivery Program Manager, DataXstream
Retail businesses are continuing to invest in offerings that allow for a mix of online offerings as well as in-person interactions. While the events of 2020 drove more consumers online, there are many that still want the in-person experience. Finding a way to seamlessly interact with customers across multiple channels is paramount for retailers moving forward.
A leading Cannabis specialty retailer found themselves in this position. They were experiencing rapid growth in their industry and were wrestling with maintaining a seamless cross-channel order management approach to their business. One of their biggest pain points was having disparate systems for e-Commerce order management and Point of Sales (POS) that created inventory issues, which negatively impacted their customers’ experience with their brand.
DataXstream was brought in by one of its reseller partners to help. The specialty retailer’s current system – a legacy system that integrated with SAP – was not getting real-time upgrades of inventory. When customers went online to order their cannabis products, the e-Commerce site showed available inventory. However, their system was not integrated into their sales counter solution so when that same customer went into the store to pick up their order, the POS had already sold the available inventory causing customer dissatisfaction and lost sales potential.
OMS+ – End-to-end visibility across the entire workflow
Since DataXstream’s OMS+ is embedded with SAP, we were able to quickly provide increased end-to-end visibility over the entire order workflow, regardless of the source. When a user enters an order, OMS+ updates the SAP system instantly so exact inventory can be seen across the entire system, regardless of what platform is being used. OMS+ also integrates well with other applications outside of SAP, such as the specialty retailer’s Magenta web system which was used for their e-Commerce site to receive orders. If a customer placed an order on their website or purchased it in the store, OMS+ could see the exact inventory and make real-time updates to their data.
Scalability and performance testing
Another challenge for this Cannibis Specialty retailer was their specific growth and scalability requirements. They were looking for a solution that could scale very quickly and adapt to their growing business as new states legalized and they were able to open more stores. They wanted confirmation that DataXstream’s OMS+ could handle this kind of growth and level of order processing.
Several performance tests were conducted, and the results were impressive. The automation technology of OMS+ optimizes productivity and we were able to complete 23 fully tendered transactions per second, resulting in successfully processing 200,000 orders in one hour. This would support 1,100 of their stores at peak capacity. OMS+ more than satisfied the customer’s need for scalability and showed that it can adapt quickly to growth demands.
Omnichannel Promotion Pricing Service (OPPS)
Even as the real-time inventory and scalability issues were solved with OMS+, the specialty retailer still needed a way to ensure its pricing and promotion information is consistent across all its sales channels. Legacy systems often have a hard time providing an accurate view of customer buying behavior and in-store and online pricing and promotions are often out of sync with one another. The specialty retailer selected SAP’s Omnichannel Promotional Pricing Service (OPPS) tool, a powerful solution that will hold all of the specialty retailer’s promotions, discounts, and coupons to provide consistent promotional pricing information across all channels. OMS+ integrates seamlessly with SAP’s OPP solution so changes and customizations that are made to SAP flow synchronously over to the OMS+ system. This allows the specialty retailer to provide consistent promotional pricing data across all its sales channels.
From start to finish, DataXstream’s strong integration within SAP and our ability to adapt quickly proved to be a strong suite for this specialty retailer. Together with SAP, we provided a powerful solution for making real-time updates to their data that brings all of their disparate channels into one seamless system allowing them to better control inventory and increase their customer engagement. For more information about OMS+ Cross-Channel Order Management solution, go to https://www.dataxstream.com/sap-solutions/sap-point-of-sale-solution-3/
About Kathleen Taggert
Software Development at DataXstream – builds models in SAP Data Intelligence, conducts data processing, performs data analytics, Knowledge Base technical writer and editor. Interested in cybersecurity, quantum technology, and triathlon.
About Dick Koch
Delivery Program Manager at DataXstream – been with the company for 15 years. He started as a developer/EDI analyst for an international freight forwarder and then took a job with Anderson Consulting working on Texas Instruments’ SAP implementation. He also worked on projects with Dupont and Microsoft at Anderson Consulting before coming to DataXstream.
