Catalyst for Collaboration
On November 14, GNX and the WorldWide Retail Exchange (WWRE) finalized the merger of the two organizations to form Agentrics. Bringing together two separate businesses serving more than 50 global retailers and thousands of suppliers, manufacturers and distributors, Agentrics effectively becomes one of the world's largest retail technology solution providers from inception. But this newfangled outfit is much more than just another transaction with a "bigger is better" mentality. Each side brings its own unique value in the name of higher industry acceptance for business initiatives old and new, like collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment (CPFR) and data synchronization. Or does it?
Gartner analyst Andrew White says that while Agentrics is in the perfect position to facilitate collaboration between retailers and manufacturers, a new name and a re-launch of the same message is hardly groundbreaking. "Data sync is becoming more important, that's for sure. The bad news is that we the industry have known this for a while now." And even though Agentrics has been working diligently on improving its service offering related to global data sync, so has GS1 US, another firm that is also in the perfect position to facilitate collaboration. "The industry is rationalized, but perhaps not enough," says White.
Nick Parnaby, global director of marketing for Agentrics says he wanted to bring together the biggest retailers in the world, other than Wal-Mart because they have their own utility, and have them anchored around a single, hosted technology platform that enables them to conduct collaborative transactions with their trading partners. "Collaboration requires a lot of change management and there is a lot of industry work that needs to be completed," admits Parnaby. "We couldn't foresee moving forward or in a more accelerated fashion without bringing the retailers under a single platform. The critical mass changes the equation so much."
CPFR: Back In the Saddle
Even though Agentrics execs cite data sync as the current and future lifeblood of the organization, it's interesting to note that its CPFR offering is also gaining momentum amongst users. The company offers a "light, medium and heavy" approach to implementing CPFR, according to Parnaby, who cites the lessons learned back in February 2001 when the WWRE launched a global pilot program with 11 retailers and nine manufacturers. What did they learn? Some companies have the infrastructure to support a full CPFR rollout but most companies don't, particularly on the retail side. "That's why we broke it down into more digestible chunks with simple data sharing of events and POS movements," says Parnaby.
Agentrics customers like Walgreen's sing the praises of this approach. While the retail giant is using Agentrics in several different areas, it is finding tremendous value in its World Share CPFR services with several key suppliers to improve collaboration on both ends. "Agentrics' World Sync services allow us to maintain item data with about 100 suppliers so far," says Dan Carlson, Walgreen's director of sourcing and collaborative services. "Offering these solutions in one package is a tremendous value to us. Plus, the scale of the Agentrics community offers us significant benefits."
Powering Up Data Sync
Even though CPFR efforts will continue to pick up steam, the real genesis for the merger was to inspire a higher degree of data synchronization. WWRE only had about 19 retailers that were implementing it globally with about nine of them who were actually using it. Since GNX didn't offer data sync, the merger became one of the single largest opportunities for the GNX members. Agentrics now offers retailers three main data sync components to fill the needs of retailers:
- Global Data Pool
- Data Quality/Data Alignment
- Extended attributes
Extended attributes of data is where Agentrics hopes to make its mark. On average, today's retailer might receive about 450 different attributes of data culled from pieces of paper, EDI and faxes. Some of it is very public and standard and some is very specific to the relationship with the supplier. The existing global data sync network only covers a very standardized piece of attributes, Parnaby says Agentrics is better equipped to nab additional attributes from suppliers that are passed on to retailers in a single instance so they aren't burdened with multiple approaches data integration. "It's a win for the supplier because it's a single place for them to do this.The standards and the way that data is exchanged is the foundation for everything. That's why our members take it so seriously. They were worried that data sync as a whole hadn't really embraced their complete needs with these extended data attributes."
Retail giants like Albertson's and Ahold are engaging this platform and more than 200 manufacturers have chosen Agentrics as their main data pool as well but Parnaby is quick to point out that the industry has not reached a "Shangri-La situation" where everyone is using data sync. "Over time, we think it will incrementally add value and reduce the stresses associated with cost-to-serve issues that face most manufacturers."
With a presence in the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific, Chris Sellers says the global Agentrics team is more than up to the task of serving customers within their countries of operation. "We have made considerable headway in our consolidation plans, launched a ground-breaking new point-of-sale data-sharing solution platform, and have a clear roadmap for leveraging our strategic position, as a trusted industry conduit and channel for collaboration".