How a FMCG company smoothen process for their stack holders and channel partners with the help of Web & Mobility solution?
This case study is about one of the most complex and robust solution in Web based and mobile app developed to help an FMCG company in bringing effectiveness in their Claim operations. This project is extremely special to us as we were involved in it since the inception of the idea to developing the final product and providing support service.
Project understanding the system with an example.
The client has a manufacturing unit and has a strong network of channel partners (distributors) who distributes products in PAN India driven by a large no. of professional sales channel of the company. Company’s manufacturing unit produce upto 100 plus products. The client sells a segment of product to the distributor in Rs. 100 price (distributor price) and further distributor sell to ultimate customer in (100-8=92{example}) price which is considerably less and scores 8% margin on it. The distributor purchases multiple products from manufacturers and sells at less price.
Here, the distributor is at loss doesn’t mean that distributor is in loss. Here Distributor claims the deducted price (Rs. 8 as per stated example) plus 8-10% in other words this manufacturing company returns the loss + X% return to the distributor.
Every month, the distributor claims this price from the manufacturer at the end of the month by uploading their purchase quantity and selling price.
In the overall process, FMCG company has to maintain the large data of 5000 plus distributors every months claims and ensure a proper reimbursement into distributor bank account. The manufacturing company used to deploy manpower into it for calculating the claims so that distributor can get their claim amount predictive and on fingertips.
Shortcomings of the system.
There were shortcomings from the stack holders and channel partners side
- How can this process become easy for the manufacturer to handle every month ?
- How can we make this solution handy so that distributor claim process become easy for them?
- How fast finance department settles the claim amount to distributors?
What was our objective?
To make this journey of client claim process easy and optimized we dig deeper into the quantitative data of manufacturing unit, like how many products, no. of distributors, no. of customers of particular distributor and so on along with the unit operational process of passing the claim. We started by keeping one goal of providing an optimized solution for the client. We suggested a Web app that can show the calculated claim of every month automatically.
The idea
A handy solution in the form of an Android app and IOS app for distributors to upload the invoices they have to claim in easy-to-use. An exclusive user is permitted to pass the claim upon checking the quality and matching with the selling no. of the particular distributor.
Claim journey from distributor to manufacturer: We had to devise a way on how to enroll all the roles in one cloud-based solution that is involved in the process.
Module for the user enrollment process.
Manufacturer sales team who deals with distributors and customers in their assigned region (Ex: West Zone > Maharashtra > Mumbai).
Distributor : Who purchases stock from the manufacturer
Claim manager: Who has the authority to validate the claim and transaction
Manufacturing unit super admin: who can control every role
Note: Sales team has its own hierarchy in this system
Mobile app for distributor:
- The app makes this process handy for distributors who can upload invoices (PDF/DOC) and manage quantity.
- Can predict the claim amount instantly
- Can check the status of the claim
Mobile App for the Sales team:
- Can track the distributor performance by months
- First Validation passes by sales group if sales invoice and the claim amount is correct
- Approve the claim amount of the distributor
Web application for super admin:
- Able to manage all controls in the system
- Track status of a claim for every zone
- Track contract’s expiry between distributor and customer
- Quick stats dashboard
Module for the user enrollment process.
The process not only helped the company to speed up the process of claim and settlement but also gave the ability to monitor everything in real-time. This made predictions on sales, offers, and other marketing practices more efficient and now being used for the growth of the company.
This project was challenging but extremely rewarding. On one hand, it helped us to understand the challenges of manufacturing and distribution companies our team has polished the skills of delivering an extremely effective IT solution.
If you are also willing to make your company IT-enabled and make digitization your growth engine, Synram Technolab is here to help you.