With stiff competition and growing consumer awareness, organisations across various sectors are reinventing their sales and distribution networks. Companies are using telecom and IT tools to improve day-to-day sales operations and enhance efficiency.

Achieving seamless connectivity is the top priority for enterprises in verticals such as retail, manufacturing, travel and hospitality, and media and entertainment. For meeting their communication requirements, most organisations have established networks based on the hub-and-spoke model. Under this model, the enterprise acts as the hub, whereas spokes or extended communication nodes are used to provide services in various areas. Companies use such a model for managing the complete life cycle of their products or services, right from manufacturing to delivering the product. The key advantage of the hub-and-spoke model is that it is easily scalable and facilitates effortless integration of new applications and technologies.

To meet their communication requirements, companies rely on multiple technologies and platforms including Ethernet-based WANs, leased lines, IP-VPNs and MPLS. Ethernet continues to be the most preferred WAN technology for providing dedicated internet connectivity. Enterprises are also using fibre for achieving last mile connectivity. Other solutions adopted by organisations include IP-PBX and VoIP as they involve low maintenance costs and are easy to deploy.

Besides putting a robust telecom network in place, organisations are deploying a number of mobility solutions for achieving automation in their sales and distribution functions such as order processing and tracking, inventory management and sales forecast analysis. Secondary sale automation is a key focus area for companies planning to foray into new markets as they need to equip their distributors with scalable, efficient and cost-effective systems in order to facilitate real-time business intelligence.

Cloud-based integrated secondary sales software and predictive analytics are gaining popularity amongst enterprises as they help companies evolve a cost-effective go-to-market strategy and reach underserved markets. Several vendors are targeting enterprises with a range of solutions such as planning, analysis and reporting modules; smartphone-based order booking modules; dealer and distributor modules for order processing; inventory management and billing modules; and servers for generating feature-rich reports.

Most companies also use software applications such as sales and distribution analytics, and supply chain visibility solutions to streamline operations. Such solutions enable organisations to manage end-to-end distribution functions such as financial accounting and inventory, and facilitate seamless data transfer between various locations and warehouses across the country. They also provide managers a consolidated view of primary sales; secondary sales; and stock at warehouses, in the distribution chain, in transit, and with retailers and distributors. For greater access to their supply chain, organisations are opting for business management solutions like extended enterprise resource planning (ERP), which enables backward integration with suppliers? systems. Another solution gaining traction amongst enterprises is integrated billing, which offers faster and highly flexible modules that are critical for point-of-sale operations. Individual modules for tracking shelf plan, stock movement and shelf replenishment are also being deployed.

Going forward, an IT-enabled sales approach is expected to be adopted by both large- and small-scale enterprises for offering customised and extended support services.

tele.net surveyed various organisations with wide sales and distribution networks to assess their telecom requirements and solutions, the key challenges faced by them and the future requirements. The following questions were asked in the survey:

?What are the organisation?s key technology requirements?

?What is the mix of service providers and vendors used?

?What are the key issues and concerns regarding telecom infrastructure?

?What are some of the mobility and enterprise applications implemented by the organisation?

?Which network security tools has the organisation implemented?

?What redundancy tools are being used?

?Which new product or service holds the most relevance for the organisation?

Key technology requirements

Globalisation and growing consumer awareness have resulted in a highly challenging business environment for players across industries. Mid- and large-sized organisations support a wide sales and distribution network to ensure effective delivery of their products and services to the end-consumer. To stay ahead of competition, a large number of organisations have strengthened their telecom infrastructure and utilised various technologies for WAN connectivity. Companies deploy technologies such as leased lines, ISDN, Ethernet, and IP-VPNs. Ethernet offers them the flexibility for future upgrades in a cost-effective manner, while ISDNs provide fast connectivity and higher bandwidth for video usage, etc. For example, Spice Global has deployed MPLS circuits for connecting its warehouses at various locations to the head office. The infrastructure is used to access the SAP business application. Moreover, Spice uses point-to-point links for data replication at other locations. To facilitate communication within the organisation, the company has deployed videoconferencing tools, audio bridges and various other messaging platforms. By adopting telecom and IT tools, Spice has managed to simplify its daily operations and streamline information flow between its various offices and retail stores. Movie distribution company Eros International has also made significant investments to establish a robust telecom network. The organisation?s telecom network comprises leased lines, MPLS, IPLCs, ISDNs, ATM/frame relays and the internet. Leased lines offer a variety of bandwidth, which allows the media and entertainment company to customise its broadband package. Leased lines support data-intensive applications and network traffic, and facilitate branch office connectivity.

In addition to establishing a robust telecom network, companies deploy various software and mobility applications. To streamline data and ensure uniformity across stores, Unique Infoways has adopted an ERP system. The company uses ERP for managing functions related to stock transfer, billing, accounts, customer details, etc. Another widely used tool is customer relationship management (CRM). Using CRM, companies organise, automate and synchronise business processes including sales and distribution activities, marketing and customer services. To provide greater access to distributors and retailers, most companies develop a dedicated enterprise portal device, which provides various stakeholders in the business value chain easy access to details including order status and dispatches, along with shipment details and outstanding amounts. This information could be used to place orders, make amendments, payment transfers, etc. Apart from the manufacturing and services industry, mobility solutions are gaining adoption in the power distribution space. By deploying ERP solutions, power companies are able to access data across various departments. This allows them to make relevant data and information available to key personnel across the country.

Meanwhile, several respondents have established data centres. Companies use data centres for functions such as ensuring server uptime, data recovery and backup, and storage management. Telecom service provider Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited has established data centres in Noida and Chennai. The tier 3 green data centres house about 700 high-end servers. These facilities support functions such as billing, CRM, ERP, marketing campaigns and value-added services.

Security is a major concern for most of the surveyed companies. To secure their networks, companies deploy security mediums such as Symantec AV, the System Center Configuration Manager, Checkpoint firewall and the intrusion prevention system. For example, ZengaTV, a free live and video-on-demand web- and mobile-based TV service provider and content distributor, uses Amazon?s firewalls and intrusion detection systems to ensure protection against external threats. Further, to mitigate external security threat-related risks, the company has created isolation circuits to create its own VPN. The VPN set-up allows access to the company?s IP addresses that are being used by its employees and no external element is permitted to access its systems.

Service providers and vendors

Organisations with a wide sales and distribution network use a mix of operators and IT vendors to meet their communication requirements. These include Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Vodafone India, Tulip Telecom, Tata Communications, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited, Tata Communications, Sify Technologies and Juniper Networks. Hardware and software products and solutions are provided by players such as BlackBerry, SAP AG, Symantec, Check Point Software Technologies Limited, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Websence and Fortinet.

Key issues and concerns

With technology obsolescence within a short period, the biggest challenge for the surveyed companies is to keep pace with evolving technology without overstretching their resources and budgets. Other challenges include frequent migration to new systems, integration of new applications, selection of the appropriate operator and vendor for upgrading legacy systems, management of network downtime and ensuring network security.

Mobile and enterprise applications

Organisations supporting large sales and distribution networks use a host of enterprise applications and software. These include mobile email, mobile data connectivity, push alerts, videoconferencing, corporate intranet, sales force automation, field force management and mobile access, ERP and CRM. While email is the most commonly used application, players also utilise web hosting, audio- and videoconferencing, and instant messaging. For both small and large companies, audio- and videoconferencing solutions offer a cost-effective means of communication and an easy way to track day-to-day activities. Several companies are equipping their salespersons and field staff with connected devices to provide access to real-time information.

For example, Lemon Mobiles uses ERP applications to connect over 500 distributors and 25,000 retailers. The mobile handset distributor uses ERP for managing functions such as stock transfer, which helps its workforce track finances, deliveries and sales invoices. Further, the company uses an ERP system across its 350 service centres. The employees at the service centres use ERP to track consignments and place orders, whereas distributors use the application to monitor various transactions in their region.

Network security

The majority of the companies have put in place a multi-tiered security set-up to protect their networks from internal and external threats. The most commonly used platforms include firewalls, built-in server security, antivirus packages, and password protection and intrusion prevention systems.  To ensure security on the company premises, a large number of organisations track emails and store crucial data on password-protected servers. Increasingly, companies are also using surveillance systems to ensure safety against theft and unauthorised movement on the premises, and in warehouses and retail stores.

Network redundancy

Companies with a large sales and distribution network are required to provide secure and reliable information anywhere, at any time to their sales personnel, distributors and retailers. Therefore, a large number of organisations are factoring in redundancy in their networks to address issues regarding uptime and response time. For backup and data recovery, most of them use leased lines, ISDN lines, data archiving, firewalls, storage area network systems, security audits and security operation control centres.

The way forward

The majority of the companies surveyed plan to make significant investments to upgrade their existing telecom infrastructure. For example, Barista Lavazza plans to deploy VPNs to streamline connectivity across its offices. The company will use VPN to provide support for operations spread across multiple locations and simplify the process of data updating. Further, it plans to use facilities such as audio- and videoconferencing at its corporate office. A large number of other companies are focusing on establishing flexible communications infrastructure, which can be easily upgraded to support mobility applications, distribution networks and sensor networking.

Companies are also examining the adoption of cloud computing and big analytics. Cloud computing is being viewed by organisations as an effective business tool to minimise network-related security risks. Moreover, these companies are investing in big data analytics to combine structured and unstructured data to ensure informed decision-making. Going forward, these companies would increase investments in new technologies to leverage telecom and IT tools, streamline their operations and enhance customer experience.