The client’s problem
The management team in a Scandinavian B2B wholesale company wanted to improve their commercial performance, however their growth was limited by several operational challenges. They had large quantities of product master data which was incomplete, and difficult for the sales teams to find, use and trust. Furthermore this data was in several cases stored and maintained in multiple repositories by different people with limited data discipline experience. Multiple applications were used to perform the same commercial activities and on top of that executing sales had too many unnecessary “change of hands” before being completed.
Our approach
Oleto Associates formed a team and executed an intensive 4 week process. First, the existing commercial processes, organisation, product master data, and product hierarchy was diagnosed and root causes for the operational challenges where identified. Secondly, the team together with the client defined their future commercial setup and a new product hierarchy containing thousands of SKUs. Thirdly, the application landscape was analysed and initiatives for reducing overlapping functionality were detailed. Finally, additional waves of improvement initiatives were defined as well as a business case, an implementation plan and a change management approach to support the client in harvesting the benefits.
Value delivered
Efficiency improvements across the commercial setup were defined – in some areas 20+% in cost savings per year once the initiatives would be fully implemented. These cost savings could be realised without any significant investments. Also the entire management team became aligned around how to improve the commercial setup and took ownership on securing it.