Retailing System for Wholesale

FIS Wholesale Distribution Suite is a wholesale solution suite that combines industry expertise with advanced cloud solutions and artificial intelligence (AI). The suite is designed to transform business processes of wholesale companies, increase efficiency and transparency and secure long-term competitiveness. When using FIS Wholesale Distribution Suite, companies will benefit from the agility and innovative power of their SAP S/4HANA Cloud solution without foregoing industry-specific functions.

Marc Bernhardt

Productmanager at FIS

What is behind FIS Wholesale Distribution Suite?

FIS Wholesale Distribution Suite is a modularly structured wholesale software solution fully integrated in SAP S/4HANA Cloud, which was specially designed for the requirements of technical wholesale. The solution combines decades of industry experience with state-of-the-art technology as well as consistent clean core principles and can be used with both SAP Cloud ERP and SAP Cloud ERP Private.

FIS Wholesale Distribution Suite extends the comprehensive functions of your SAP S/4HANA Cloud ERP by industry-specific functions that protect your digital process landscape against increasing competitive pressure by making it “weatherproof”. Optimizations for automating central decisions in sales and distribution and logistics, such as plant selection, delivery time determination and process management, considerably reduce manual interventions and sources of error. At the same time, customer consulting, order entry and price determination are modernized, accelerated and designed more transparently. The overall result is an efficient, reliable and consistently managed end-to-end process from inquiry to delivery and back processing.

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Retailing systems for wholesale with FIS | Industry-specific and tailored solutions | To the product

Which key business processes are covered and what role does AI play?

The suite supports intelligent functions along the central corporate processes, such as Procure-to-Pay (P2P), Master Data Management, Material Requirements Planning (MRP) and Order-to-Cash (O2C). This support enables merchants to work more efficiently and make data-based decisions.

Infographic titled “FIS Wholesale Distribution Suite: Your ERP for intelligent wholesale.” It describes an integrated ERP solution for technical wholesalers built on SAP S/4HANA Cloud with clean core principles, artificial intelligence, and flexible enhancement options. A central graphic labeled “FIS Wholesale Distribution Suite” is surrounded by benefits including increased efficiency and automation, higher data and process quality, and economic added value through optimized inventory, purchasing, and logistics. — FIS Wholesale Distribution Suite at a glance

The suite uses AI models wherever real added value can be generated to enable automated decisions in purchasing, MRP, sales and distribution and logistics and, consequently, to reduce manual interventions. AI-supported analyses increase data and process quality. Managed end-to-end processes ensure more stability.

Enhancement through FIS solutions

Further FIS solutions on FIS/bxp, the FIS-owned platform on SAP BTP, can be added to FIS Wholesale Distribution Suite. In this way, FIS enables you to add complex applications to your SAP S/4HANA Cloud ERP and, at the same time, maintain the clean core principle.

Shipping notification in SAP with FIS/edc for shipping notification in particular

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Connections to online marketplaces with FIS/TradeFlex

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Accelerated processing in the FIS/Freestyle Picking pickup store

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What economic added value does FIS Wholesale Distribution Suite provide?

Durch die Automatisierung von Geschäftsabläufen und die Optimierung von Prozessen bietet die FIS Wholesale Distribution Suite einen klaren wirtschaftlichen Mehrwert.

Companies can use FIS Wholesale Distribution Suite for the following processes:

Exhaust purchase conditions agreed upon (discounts, rebates, carriage paid limits etc.) up to the procurement optimum and, consequently, create the best provisioning for sales and distribution
Optimize procurement channels by using AI and have vendors automatically valuated by means of prices, delivery times and sustainability aspects
Recognize and avoid critical requirement situations

Make faster and easier decisions in sales and distribution and logistics, such as plant selection, delivery time determination and price calculation
Accelerate end-to-end processes from inquiry to delivery and back processing and make them more transparent
Fulfill customer inquiries quickly and in an uncomplicated way using the smart document entry cockpit for wholesale

Describe articles with 256 characters in different languages in the extended material description according to vendor requests
Use one-time articles in the overall process to avoid uncontrolled material master growth

Create high-performance AI analyses and forecasts
Optimize allocations between plants and storage centers to store the goods where they are needed

Essential benefits:

Lower storage and procurement costs through intelligent MRP and P2P processes

Optimization of purchase conditions, warehouse stocks and transport routes

Optimized price decisions: a transparent margin calculation is enabled for sales and distribution

Improved master data quality through one-time article management and extended material descriptions

Higher efficiency: automated and standardized processes reduce errors and increase efficiency

Conclusion: more than just a retailing system for wholesale

Today, wholesalers face various challenges: increasing customer requirements concerning retailing, delivery speed and transparency, high price pressure, complex assortments and volatile supply chains. At the same time, processes must be efficient, scalable and automated as far as possible to remain competitive.

FIS Wholesale Distribution Suite creates the basis for future-proof, agile and automated wholesale processes. By combining decades of experience with public cloud, AI-supported process management and smart developments on SAP BTP, the suite offers a solution that assists companies in transforming their processes, make use of market opportunities and increase productivity. It is therefore the key for wholesale companies that wish to continue to develop successfully. The use of an integrated SAP ERP system enables the automation and optimization of processes from order management to inventory management.

FAQ – frequently asked questions

Digitization has newly mixed the rules for the wholesale game and forces wholesalers to adjust their processes and face the trend towards online trading.

E-commerce integration is decisive to make Internet presence a basis for e-commerce and efficiently manage online stores and marketplaces. Convenience factors in the B2B area are becoming more and more important as customer needs are geared to B2C merchants. It is necessary to automate business processes to guarantee a faster response to customer service and customer inquiries.

All in all, FIS Wholesale Distribution Suite can improve customer relationships by enabling better service and faster response times.

Advanced wholesale retailing systems offer far more than just inventory management. As high-performance software, they are a central component of successful companies. One of the advanced functions is an automated demand/sales forecast based on historical data enabling the precise planning of purchase and stockholding.

Moreover, these systems support the seamless integration with other business units, such as the field sales force in CRM or through the direct connection to new sales channels, such as e-commerce platforms. Enhanced analysis and reporting functions provide meaningful key figures concerning the flow of goods in real time that are used by companies to optimize their processes and make well-founded decisions.

Further important functions: fast inquiry to save time during the sales call, intelligent Warehouse Management systems, automatic plant determination as well as workflow automation. All in all, advanced retailing software helps wholesale companies efficiently control complex processes, reduce costs and sustainably strengthen their competitiveness.

When implementing an ERP system in wholesale, several decisive factors play a role to create sustainable benefits for the company. What matters first is a clear analysis of the existing retailing processes so that ERP software can be adjusted optimally to the specific wholesale requirements.

Another central factor is the selection of scalable and future-proof software that can keep pace with the corporate growth and be adjusted flexibly. Equally decisive is the integration of the ERP system into existing IT structures as well as the connection to other systems, such as for logistics, financial accounting or e-commerce.

In addition, the training and integration of employees should be planned right from the beginning as the acceptance of new ERP software is crucial for project success. Last but not least, a realistic schedule, sufficient resources as well as an experienced implementation partner are decisive for efficiently implementing the ERP system in wholesale and optimizing retailing in the long run.

FIS Wholesale Distribution Suite with FIS/TradeFlex supports wholesalers in adapting themselves to growing online trading and, at the same time, sustainably strengthening customer relationships in wholesale. The software solution combines classical retailing processes with advanced digital distribution channels and, as a result, creates a consistent basis for trade in goods via online, mobile and offline channels.

By means of integrated e-commerce functions, the software solution enables wholesalers to provide goods online, map individual prices and assortments and provide customers with current information on availability, delivery times and order status at any time. This increases wholesale transparency and considerably improves the shopping experience for business customers.

In addition, FIS Wholesale Distribution Suite assists wholesalers with intelligent analysis/CRM functions for a better understanding of customer behavior and targeted responses to it. Personalized offers, automated processes concerning goods, orders and services as well as a seamless integration of all distribution channels help build up long-term customer relationships. All in all, the software solution provides wholesalers with the required flexibility for a successful use of online trading and stand out from their competitors through a modern and customer-oriented handling with goods.

FIS Wholesale Distribution Suite relies on high data and process quality. An integrated retailing system such as FIS Wholesale Distribution Suite is used as a central data basis (Centralized Data Hub), which improves cooperation and communication within the entire company. This central availability of data promotes informed decision making across different departments. Redundancies are reduced and data integrity and accuracy improved through the integration of business processes. In addition, real-time evaluations and reports in the retailing system support decision making for purchasing and enterprise management.

FIS Wholesale Distribution Suite provides functions for optimizing the processing of purchase requisitions (PReq) and their transfer to purchase orders. The solution enables the integrated optimization of order quantities, prices and dates through additional process steps and intelligent decision-making aids.

In this way, costs for goods procurement can be reduced without endangering the delivery capacity. Moreover, the solution supports AI-based optimizations with regard to procurement channels by comparing, for instance, external procurements with stock transfers from individual plants taking sustainability criteria into account.

The implementation of SAP Cloud ERP provides wholesale companies with a number of strategic advantages. As an advanced ERP wholesale solution, it unites central business processes and provides comprehensive and current information on goods, stocks and customers. As a result, data-based decisions can be made more quickly and transparency within the company can be increased.

The integration of customer information and market analyses enable wholesalers to tailor their offers specifically to customer needs, optimize processes and clearly improve service quality. Moreover, the software solution supports the automation of recurring processes, which means that resources will be used more efficiently and sources of error minimized.

In the long run, the SAP Cloud ERP wholesale solution promotes sales growth as companies respond more quickly to market changes, implement customer-oriented strategies and can increase their competitiveness in the wholesale industry. As a result, the solution does not only offer operational efficiency but also clear strategic advantages for sustainable growth.

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