Transforming the way clients manage their market & retail requirements

Managing markets and in-store assets on a global – or even a national – scale is no mean feat. Combine an already difficult task with tighter budgets, fewer staff and reduced timelines and the process can quickly become overwhelming. The old fully forward-planned ordering and management methodologies were beginning to fail, with clients finding themselves dealing with a high amount of stock and stock leftovers, the unavailability of important items and the inability to meet changing demands.

On top of the increased financial risk of this system, clients were also discovering they lacked basic vital information such as which units and resources were located where, and how many they had in operation at any given time. All this led to higher costs, reduced efficiency and a lot of stress for our clients, so we decided there had to be a better way.

Our solution is Symfonia – a flexible, scalable and powerful online platform that allows you to manage every single stage of the process in a continuous, efficient and constantly improving way. It allows you to centralise all project information, easily process, approve and collect orders and then track and control all your assets out in the market. Going beyond ordering and the initial installation, you can then use Symfonia to plan and schedule maintenance, generate reports on existing assets, make comments and even upload photographs to help you manage long-term servicing requirements across all locations and markets. The whole system is designed on the principle of a ‘continuous process’, directly addressing the traditional issues and obstacles faced in the old way of doing things.

We’re constantly learning and evolving the system based on real user feedback. As a result, Symfonia has grown into a full suite of genuinely useful, interconnected and powerful tools. You can configure shop in shops or displays per location, respond to changing demands at a moment’s notice, order a single replacement with a few clicks, manage maintenance or raise a support request directly with Alrec – all within the same system. We’ve even brought communication and documentation within the ecosystem too – dramatically reducing your email load, and helping you (and us) access every key document and revision in one place.

Here’s an overview of the tools included:

• Planning
• Product catalogue
• Forecasting
• Order tool
• Configure displays
• 3D SIS planner
• Logistic overview
• Installations
• Manual instructions
• Maintenance
• Spare parts ordering
• Location database
• Helpdesk

So whichever part of the process you need to control, we’ve got it covered.

The response to Symfonia has been overwhelmingly positive. Users have reported an average 20% saving on their direct and indirect time costs when using Symfonia to manage their stores and orders, and a 25% reduction in the costs and lead-time spent negotiating, organising and selling material to their own customers.

“Symfonia provides Samsonite with a client service platform that is both user friendly and highly efficient. In total we have 74 users within the company creating orders for no less than 52 European countries. In 2016 Samsonite created 374 personalized orders with the possibility to select from 105 different units and 40 different accessories.”

– Tessa Foubert, Samsonite