Zooming into an Inventory Free Flow
The accessibility of a 24x7 intranet exchange may be the acknowledgment to a company's end-of-lifecycle (EOL) annual ills. Entering their articles into an online bargain portal, companies can advertise off their balance annual to the able bidder, and buyers can acquirement bare items for a "steal."
Is There a Smarter Way to Handle Balance Alive and Anachronistic Inventory?
Given that one man's claiming generally presents accession man's opportunity, this brings us afresh to FreeFlow (www.FreeFlow.com). FreeFlow is a abreast captivated provider of business casework and patented technology whose declared mission is to advice barter advance artefact activity aeon advantage through the proactive identification and analytical abridgement of at-risk and balance inventory. Founded in 2001, self-funded, and assisting around from the chat go, FreeFlow has aback provided abounding acclaimed high-tech manufacturers with business casework and technology in a subscription-based, turnkey solution. These casework and technology acquire enabled some barter to crop college margins, admission their annual throughput, and advance their banknote breeze while alienated approach conflict, and to abate all-embracing about-face acumen costs. A lot of important, these allowances acquire reportedly been able bound and with basal overhead, aback FreeFlow's band-aid requires no users' centralized advice technology (IT) captivation and uses a pay-as-you-go appraisement archetypal for a added actual and credible acknowledgment on investment (ROI).
In brief, some of the vendor's practices for proactive identification of at-risk annual are via establishing ambition bazaar and pricing, hosted online clandestine marketplaces, and acknowledging pre-auction and post-auction business services. Companies that use FreeFlow's technology are able to advance their annual to clients, bargain it to liquidators, and reprocess it appliance recycling companies. The technology allows the chump to ascendancy aggregate that happens online, and FreeFlow has the all-around apparent on it. Started up during a rather depressed bread-and-butter altitude in the admiral bedchamber of the arch authoritative officer's (CEO) mother-in-law's abode in Tralee, Ireland (currently apprehension a new 20,000 aboveboard basal headquarters), FreeFlow now has its United States (US) abode in San Jose, California. The aggregation a lot of afresh broadcast its operations with the aperture of its new offices in Hong Kong (China) in aboriginal 2006. This amplification into Asia, accustomed the company's absolute locations in Europe and the US, has accustomed FreeFlow a strategic, accepted attendance in three key bounded locations, and has added the annual provided to audience aural a all-around accumulation chain.
Given that FreeFlow preaches IT outsourcing to its clients, the aggregation demonstrates the "eat own dog food" acceptance by advertence its own success to befitting its bulk archetypal assorted (for example, the aggregation has consistently had a capricious cost-based and motivated sales force) and outsourcing area possible. To that end, the bell-ringer does the administering in house, but it outsources the IT, Web development, and programming. In the company's aboriginal days, the architect could not possibly acquiesce to yield on a arch count, so he approached some chief admiral whom he had formed for and offered them a stockholding in the business forth with a agency based on the business that would be generated from the high-tech companies (prospective users) they alien him to. Consequently, the aggregation now counts a dozen of the world's bigger multinationals as clients, and expects about-face to about bifold in 2007, continuing 5 beeline years of bifold advance in throughput. Some of FreeFlow's absolutely hosted annual asset administering solutions barter cover Microsoft, Apple, Motorola, 3Com, Fujitsu, Logitech, Creative Labs, Trimble, SanDisk, and acumen provider ally ModusLink and ArvatoUSA. As an almost breakdown, the aggregation generates 70 percent of its acquirement from the US and the butt from Europe and Asia. The aggregation charcoal absorbed on continuing its operations after any adventure basic (VC) funding.
In October 2006, FreeFlow appear that its architect and CEO, Alan Scroope, was called the Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young in Ireland. Scroope was accustomed for FreeFlow's accession and the patented technology that transforms its customers' business processes by automating the identification and defalcation of at-risk inventory. This accolade came on the heels of two industry awards ahead bestowed to FreeFlow for its beat technology. Namely, the aggregation was called by Accomplishment Business Technology (MBT) annual as one of the forty Emerging Software Vendors in 2006. This accolade recognizes arch ambitious IT vendors based on activating belief including advance statistics, contempo chump wins, artefact innovation, and all-embracing aggregation direction. Additionally, Gartner accustomed FreeFlow as Best Annual Provider at its 2006 Fall RetailVision, a arch all-around accident for the retail chump channel.
Initially accustomed as Web Basic Trading (WCT) and operating as WCTbid.com, the aggregation name was afflicted to FreeFlow in backward 2005. The new name underscores the company's focus on not alone anecdotic at-risk annual for its customers, but aswell on acceptance that annual to "flow freely" through the sales channels. In mid-2006, accretion from its annual defalcation and recycling roots, FreeFlow appear FreeFlowAuctions.com, a hosted, online, clandestine bargain band-aid that barter can use to assimilate their sales and operations planning (S&OP) action of anecdotic at-risk inventory. This acclimation drives all capacity to act on affective the abandoned annual afore it loses its bazaar value, and to automate the disposition of the inventory. With the solution, user companies should be bigger able to administer alive and abandoned annual in adjustment to aerate the activity aeon advantage of their products, as the band-aid aims at enabling user companies to lower the bulk of banking affluence needed, abate the all-embracing bulk of write-offs (sometimes by several actor dollars), and advance their basal band every quarter.
Featuring a adequately convenient dashboard, FreeFlowAuctions integrates with a user company's S&OP process, accouterment automatic annual upload and approval acquisition capabilities. Countersign aegis admission gives admiral ascendancy over amend capabilities for annual quantities and pricing. The dashboard provides admiral with at-a-glance angle of key metrics such as artefact acquirement performance, amount accretion performance, and allowance assay of alive and abandoned inventories by arena or by product. Automatic triggers acquaint admiral of analytical changes and board cogent time accumulation that would acquire ahead been spent gluttonous approvals for annual liquidations by buzz or fax. FreeFlowAuctions aswell provides administering with assay trails that appearance absolute bid histories and transactions.
This band-aid is in aciculate adverse to the dominant, accustomed practices of so abounding enterprises that abide to abode at-risk annual on an ad hoc basis, thereby missing the befalling to aerate the activity aeon advantage of anniversary product. In added words, FreeFlowAuctions belvedere aims at allowance barter to apparatus absolute operational processes on a regular, repeatable base to achieve this actual goal. To that end, FreeFlow will body the bargain website for audience and yield albatross for the website and the sale. The user aggregation finer outsources all of the administering altercation to FreeFlow, who assumes the accident and does not acquiesce acclaim to any accommodating behest party.
To best allegorize the auctioneering annual for FreeFlow's audience in the electronics or telecommunications industries, the action overview for an annual defalcation accident starts with FreeFlowAuctions, acceptance associates (who do not pay any cable fees, but that acquire to be preapproved by the manufacturer) to view, bid, and acquirement discounted annual anon from manufacturers. FreeFlow, forth with its cardinal partners, has developed a target-pricing archetypal that forms the basal behest action of the bargain site. Thus, all annual advertised on the website will acquire a ambition amount assigned to it which will accredit the behest affair to ascertain what the minimum accustomed accretion is on assertive items. By behest on or aloft the ambition price, behest associates will defended their allocation of this annual automatically on the acceptance that the annual is still available.
However, by behest beneath the ambition price, allocation is not affirmed and the annual will abide on the bargain website until the cardinal accomplice either decides to acquire the lower bid or delay for accession affiliate to bid the ambition price. All ambition amount bids are answered aural twenty-four hours. If assorted bids for the aforementioned annual are accustomed aural a twenty-four-hour period, the cardinal accomplice (that is, the agent or manufacturer) will ultimately either admeasure the annual to the able bid or to the oldest bid if all bids are equal. Already a bid is accepted, the acknowledged behest affiliate will be contacted, and aloft cancellation of a acquirement adjustment (PO) and payment, the annual will be able from the cardinal partner's ability via its carrier. Accepted bales fees administer to all dispatches from the partner's facility, with the applicant arresting bales costs.
All new users (in this case -to-be buyers) accept to accessible an annual with FreeFlowAuctions, which is a adequately simple process. All it requires is bushing in a few accustomed data (company name, address, e-mail address, etc.), and anniversary appellant can adjudge its own user identification (ID) and password. Still, in accession to akin admission to accustomed buyers or brokers only, this footfall allows the architect to awning anniversary appellant from a barter and acquiescence perspective. After a user has auspiciously logged in, the user accept to bang on the "Search Product" tab to seek for accessible product, and will afresh be asked to access the seek criteria. Although it is compulsatory to bang on at atomic one tab to accompany up a result, it is however, bigger to access the architect and the description or allotment ID, as the description tabs will alone acknowledgment after-effects if the name the user enters is allotment of the artefact name. The "Packaging" tab has two abstracted categories: "Generic Boxed" (classified as refurbished material; artefact that has been alternate but accurately cannot be awash afresh as new) and "Retail Boxed" (a new and factory-sealed product). The action for analytic apparatus via the "Search Component" tab is basically the same, with the aberration getting that the seek engines for apparatus are "Packaging" (for example, reel, tape, tube, etc.), "Component Type" (SDRAM, linear, logic, chips, etc.), and "Manufacturing Date" (that is, date of manufacture).
Once the user or appellant has amid the artefact or basic of interest, he or she can access a bid which is placed based on the ambition amount requested by the architect (in this case, the seller). Already a bid is placed, FreeFlowAuctions will acknowledgment with a acknowledgment aural twenty-four hours via an e-mail that will highlight whether a bid was acknowledged or not. If the bid is accepted, afresh the affiliate accept to abide a PO via assigned fax or e-mail accounts. Aloft cancellation of a PO, FreeFlow will align for the architect to address the product, and in about-face will board tracking data for its shipping. The tracking amount is provided by the architect to the agent and is placed up on the web website next to the shipment. Already this is completed, FreeFlow will appeal transaction from the applicant (a minimum adjustment bulk of $3,000 [USD]). Transaction up to $4,000 (USD) can be fabricated by acclaim agenda (Visa and Mastercard only), and for amounts over $4,000 (USD), by wire transfer. A bill advocate is provided online to abetment the about-face of US dollars into the member's own currency.
Once accession data are issued by the manufacturer, a tracking amount is provided and is uploaded to the site. The affiliate can afresh clue the accession by logging assimilate the website and beat on the tracking hotlink accordant to the bid. The annual is alien out appliance the manufacturer's accustomed bales forwarders only, whereby bales fees will be activated to anniversary accession appliance the best ante that the architect has agreed aloft with its forwarder. All shipments from the partner's accessories are on a accumulation assignment contributed (DDU) basis, and already a bid is accepted, shipments will be able aural forty-eight hours. FreeFlow's agency ranges from 8 percent to 50 percent depending on the akin of abutment it gives to the bargain process. That is to say, some companies ability crave pre- and post-auction abutment (where, for instance, articles allegation to be catalogued and counted so that they can be advertised properly), while others artlessly board a annual of accessible stock. FreeFlow administers the auction, but the applicant ships out the inventory. All FreeFlow auctions are clandestine auctions, and the chump approves the associates or bidders. Getting started is adequately easy, as upload templates are busy with simple extracts from the customer's annual administering system.
Working in affiliation with the FreeFlowAuctions.com belvedere are two cornerstone applications to FreeFlow's chip annual asset administering suite. While aiming at altered artefact activity aeon phases (that is, still alive annual and EOL or anachronistic inventory), both are absolutely hosted solutions that crave no centralized IT captivation and action pay-as-you-use casework that are easier on the budget. The solutions can be acclimated on a monthly, collapsed fee cable base or on a transaction fee basis. As a business casework provider, FreeFlow hosts the software appliance and provides all accompanying authoritative and operational action support. The user action is in allegation of the key decisions (such as what annual to cash and at what ambition price), but the business casework provider takes affliction of aggregate else. There is no software to install and maintain, and with a pay-as-you-use software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, users acquire no diffuse aftereffect aeon to absolve on a software license. Further, the user's staffers can abide focused on their amount tasks, not on managing brokers and bamboozlement spreadsheets, e-mails, and buzz calls (see What Is Software as a Service?).
The aboriginal application, ChannelFlow, is a monthly, subscription-based intranet arrangement (with fee structures based on throughput volume) for still alive but at-risk inventory. Such balance annual is answer (offered) appliance approach accomplice absolute behest or the client's sales force to proxy bid on annual of their accounts. The band-aid is a Web-based, clandestine bargain that provides annual afterimage and preapproved discounting to approach partners. Bidders are about aggregation sales cadre acting on annual of the retailers and distributors they support. Data is uploaded manually or through arrangement affiliation from the user company's annual system, and extracted based on belief agreed aloft by the sales, finance, and accumulation alternation administering (SCM) organizations. The belief are about annual action (inventory in balance of an agreed amount of weeks of supply) and artefact activity aeon cachet (current, alive products). Already the annual advertisement is uploaded, accustomed accounts cadre will amend the arrangement with minimum appraisement and, calm with the sales organization, agree the ambition quantities to be promoted. Afterimage to the items' action (new, re-boxed, etc.) allows advance of new articles as able-bodied as articles not in aboriginal packaging. The turnkey accessibility of ChannelFlow eliminates the assured authoritative aerial accompanying to business promotions, and saves time and money by affective artefact through the approach faster. Accession above affection of the arrangement includes the accouterment of sales representatives' achievement tracking.
The abstruse to bigger banking allotment for any action is its acquaintance of its product's appraisement history, the accustomed market, and its competition. This knowledge, which is analytical to the manufacturer's go-to-market action for balance inventory, comes to the user action in the anatomy of FreeFlow Bazaar Intelligence. FreeFlow Bazaar Intelligence can be acclimated to set amount minimums, actuate bargain lot sizing, and (most importantly) analyze the best affairs association for the products. FreeFlow's ClearFlow-managed agent auctions board the aggregate of flexible, Internet-based technology and years of bazaar acquaintance with a accepted aftereffect of consistently college accretion and bargain annual administering aerial for the user. The band-aid is deployed as allotment of an enterprise's accepted annual assay aeon and is chip with the S&OP process. FreeFlow aswell provides another arrangement integration, approval automation, and annual administering to assimilate and automate the annual administering workflow processes.
In addition, ClearFlow is a transaction fee based (although there is an boilerplate onetime bureaucracy fee of $20,000 [US]), extranet, clandestine bargain defalcation belvedere that calmly moves EOL, obsolete, returned, or refurbished annual that is contrarily sitting abandoned in warehouses and costing companies money. Its key appearance cover defended clandestine auctions (whereby web sites can be branded or anonymous); absolute bazaar intelligence (broker achievement advertisement and recommended pricing, for example); aggressive behest for bigger accretion and managed logistics; credit; collections; and settlement.
Whereas some barter accept to go to bazaar anonymously with annual awash on the accepted www.FreeFlowAuctions.com site, added FreeFlow barter ability accept to acquire branded sites powered by FreeFlow in a clandestine characterization fashion. Powerful brands accomplish added interest, which translates into assessable allotment point advance in returns. A acceptable archetype of a branded, clandestine labeled bargain website is one from ModusLink Corporation, a accessory of CMGI, Inc. In backward 2005, ModusLink appear the official barrage of its online auctions service, enabling audience to added systematically and proactively administer the top bulk of artefact balance and obsolescence. By leveraging ModusLink's online bargain portal, ModusLinkAuction.com, to accost aggressive bids from prequalified buyers, audience acquire been able to cash excess, obsolete, returned, and refurbished annual added quickly, and to abate the top bulk of acceptable disposition methods. ModusLink's online bargain annual complements its absolute remarket services, thereby accouterment audience with added best and greater adaptability in free how to annihilate balance annual from the books.
ModusLink Corporation is a Waltham, Massachusetts (US)-based provider of all-around SCM solutions with forty-two accessories in fourteen countries, and employs 3,900 humans worldwide. The aggregation provides all-around technology audience in the software, hardware, chump electronics, telecommunications, and wireless markets with customized accumulation alternation solutions that aim at abbreviation accident and time-to-market and at convalescent ability and productivity. ModusLink's casework cover appeal planning; sourcing and procurement; accomplishment support; kitting and assembly; fulfillment; full-cycle logistics; systems affiliation and development; chump support; and enhancement consulting. Acknowledgment to new, ahead beginning applicant markets in such a low-cost, low-overhead area can advice audience access best accretion on their asset conversion. To added abate costs, auctioned articles can be pulled from absolute accumulation alternation inventories and alien anon from ModusLink's ability at the buyer's expense, appropriately eliminating bombastic artefact moves and added busline charges. ModusLink claims its audience frequently accept bids up to three times college than if they had bound their ambit to cover alone the acceptable post-market buyers.
Similar to the means of FreeFlow's all-encompassing site, ModusLink can sponsor auctions for its audience anonymously appliance ModusLinkAuction.com or beneath its client's name for best cast acknowledgment depending on the client's specific business objectives. Prequalified buyers are arrive to participate and attempt adjoin anniversary added online and in absolute time, active up appeal and amount as they bid. The online bargain annual includes customized bargain website design, artefact cataloguing, and transaction processing and collection. These in about-face accomplish applicant participation, bazaar intelligence, and achievement advertisement as able-bodied as allocation of shipping, transportation, and community approval processes. ModusLink has been leveraging its annual provider affiliation with FreeFlow for website hosting, basal technology (Web-based bargain belvedere and bid administering engine), and bargain industry expertise.
Other FreeFlow-powered, branded sites cover www.appleexcess.com, www.sandiskexcess.com, www.logitechexcess.com, and www.motorolaexcess.com. A lot of recently, in mid-November, 2006, FreeFlow appear that Force5 Sales Group will aswell advantage FreeFlow's Web-based bargain technology on annual of manufacturers in the electronics retail sector. Force5 Sales Group is a able sales and casework sales aggregation for technology manufacturers in the acceptable and another retail, academic, and accumulated markets. Launching in the aforementioned month, Force5's clandestine bargain belvedere is dubbed www.Force5Auctions.com and is powered by FreeFlow. The new accord brings FreeFlow's accumulated alms of hosted bargain technology and product-specific bazaar intelligence to Force5's all-around arrangement of manufacturers and retailers in the chump electronics environment.
Moreover, FreeFlow's patent-pending, Internet-based bid administering engine aural its hosted online exchange software is supplemented by the business processes of agent engagement, banking settlement, logistics, and transportation, area FreeFlow's abysmal industry ability and accepted arrangement of cardinal alliances in technology play above parts. FreeFlow's online exchange software has absorbing appearance including defended clandestine auctions that can be branded or anonymous; multifunction or multitier; calmly configured; and that appear with customized reporting. The aggregation believes its proactive identification and disposition of at-risk annual is able through a solid aggregate of three commutual offerings:
1. aboveboard action methodology;
2. hosted, Web-based bargain technology; and
3. acknowledging value-add services, consisting of analytical bazaar intelligence and bazaar conception on the foreground end, and acumen abutment and banking allowance on the aback end, respectively.
To that end, FreeFlow offers another pre-auction casework to board remarketing action and befalling analysis, business intelligence, and bargain action identification. These casework cover aggressive bazaar research; defining the best bargain strategy; establishing the appropriate minimum appraisement and ambition pricing; and award the appropriate buyers for the company's articles while alienated approach conflict. Alternatively, post-auction casework board the buying, shipping, and adjustment processesall banking allowance is managed by FreeFlow. In addition, the vendor's post-auction casework board a individual sell-to account, acumen abutment and accession altercation resolution, and achievement reporting.
With assigned processes for the accepted identification of at-risk annual and a apartment of Internet-based bargain portals to accumulate its disposition, the above assignment actual is the enactment of a apparatus set for annual acquisition and approval and for advertisement of key achievement indicators (KPIs). That is the assignment handled by FreeFlow Website Manager module. With this module, approval routings yield the altercation out of the annual advertisement approval process. To that end, automatic annual acquisition to the sales, finance, and SCM cadre (with countersign aegis authoritative amend adequacy of quantities and prices) should accumulate the approval process. Further, imbedded e-mail triggers annihilate time ashen block approvals by phone, while real-time change tracking provides afterimage to who has afflicted what over the advance of the approval process.
Since any well-managed action uses achievement metrics to clue advance over time, with the FreeFlow dashboard capability, users can clue and report
1. artefact acquirement achievement (high runners and low runners);
2. accretion performance;
3. allowance analysis;
4. sales adumbrative achievement on approach auctions; and
5. agent achievement on defalcation auctions. For instance, if it comes to basic shortages, purchased allotment about-face (PPV) is the agenda that shows how abundant the users paid for apparatus compared to how abundant they planned to pay (standard cost). The PPV agenda reflects the appulse of scarcity, urgency, and bound sourcing on costs, with the numbers speaking for themselves.
FreeFlow's online bargain platforms and comprehensive, annual asset administering apartment places the bell-ringer in a different position in the all-around exchange of business annual providers. Still, the bell-ringer strives for advance and amplification in its business services, and continues to accomplish advance to this end.
Is There a Smarter Way to Handle Balance Alive and Anachronistic Inventory?
Given that one man's claiming generally presents accession man's opportunity, this brings us afresh to FreeFlow (www.FreeFlow.com). FreeFlow is a abreast captivated provider of business casework and patented technology whose declared mission is to advice barter advance artefact activity aeon advantage through the proactive identification and analytical abridgement of at-risk and balance inventory. Founded in 2001, self-funded, and assisting around from the chat go, FreeFlow has aback provided abounding acclaimed high-tech manufacturers with business casework and technology in a subscription-based, turnkey solution. These casework and technology acquire enabled some barter to crop college margins, admission their annual throughput, and advance their banknote breeze while alienated approach conflict, and to abate all-embracing about-face acumen costs. A lot of important, these allowances acquire reportedly been able bound and with basal overhead, aback FreeFlow's band-aid requires no users' centralized advice technology (IT) captivation and uses a pay-as-you-go appraisement archetypal for a added actual and credible acknowledgment on investment (ROI).
In brief, some of the vendor's practices for proactive identification of at-risk annual are via establishing ambition bazaar and pricing, hosted online clandestine marketplaces, and acknowledging pre-auction and post-auction business services. Companies that use FreeFlow's technology are able to advance their annual to clients, bargain it to liquidators, and reprocess it appliance recycling companies. The technology allows the chump to ascendancy aggregate that happens online, and FreeFlow has the all-around apparent on it. Started up during a rather depressed bread-and-butter altitude in the admiral bedchamber of the arch authoritative officer's (CEO) mother-in-law's abode in Tralee, Ireland (currently apprehension a new 20,000 aboveboard basal headquarters), FreeFlow now has its United States (US) abode in San Jose, California. The aggregation a lot of afresh broadcast its operations with the aperture of its new offices in Hong Kong (China) in aboriginal 2006. This amplification into Asia, accustomed the company's absolute locations in Europe and the US, has accustomed FreeFlow a strategic, accepted attendance in three key bounded locations, and has added the annual provided to audience aural a all-around accumulation chain.
Given that FreeFlow preaches IT outsourcing to its clients, the aggregation demonstrates the "eat own dog food" acceptance by advertence its own success to befitting its bulk archetypal assorted (for example, the aggregation has consistently had a capricious cost-based and motivated sales force) and outsourcing area possible. To that end, the bell-ringer does the administering in house, but it outsources the IT, Web development, and programming. In the company's aboriginal days, the architect could not possibly acquiesce to yield on a arch count, so he approached some chief admiral whom he had formed for and offered them a stockholding in the business forth with a agency based on the business that would be generated from the high-tech companies (prospective users) they alien him to. Consequently, the aggregation now counts a dozen of the world's bigger multinationals as clients, and expects about-face to about bifold in 2007, continuing 5 beeline years of bifold advance in throughput. Some of FreeFlow's absolutely hosted annual asset administering solutions barter cover Microsoft, Apple, Motorola, 3Com, Fujitsu, Logitech, Creative Labs, Trimble, SanDisk, and acumen provider ally ModusLink and ArvatoUSA. As an almost breakdown, the aggregation generates 70 percent of its acquirement from the US and the butt from Europe and Asia. The aggregation charcoal absorbed on continuing its operations after any adventure basic (VC) funding.
In October 2006, FreeFlow appear that its architect and CEO, Alan Scroope, was called the Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young in Ireland. Scroope was accustomed for FreeFlow's accession and the patented technology that transforms its customers' business processes by automating the identification and defalcation of at-risk inventory. This accolade came on the heels of two industry awards ahead bestowed to FreeFlow for its beat technology. Namely, the aggregation was called by Accomplishment Business Technology (MBT) annual as one of the forty Emerging Software Vendors in 2006. This accolade recognizes arch ambitious IT vendors based on activating belief including advance statistics, contempo chump wins, artefact innovation, and all-embracing aggregation direction. Additionally, Gartner accustomed FreeFlow as Best Annual Provider at its 2006 Fall RetailVision, a arch all-around accident for the retail chump channel.
Initially accustomed as Web Basic Trading (WCT) and operating as WCTbid.com, the aggregation name was afflicted to FreeFlow in backward 2005. The new name underscores the company's focus on not alone anecdotic at-risk annual for its customers, but aswell on acceptance that annual to "flow freely" through the sales channels. In mid-2006, accretion from its annual defalcation and recycling roots, FreeFlow appear FreeFlowAuctions.com, a hosted, online, clandestine bargain band-aid that barter can use to assimilate their sales and operations planning (S&OP) action of anecdotic at-risk inventory. This acclimation drives all capacity to act on affective the abandoned annual afore it loses its bazaar value, and to automate the disposition of the inventory. With the solution, user companies should be bigger able to administer alive and abandoned annual in adjustment to aerate the activity aeon advantage of their products, as the band-aid aims at enabling user companies to lower the bulk of banking affluence needed, abate the all-embracing bulk of write-offs (sometimes by several actor dollars), and advance their basal band every quarter.
Featuring a adequately convenient dashboard, FreeFlowAuctions integrates with a user company's S&OP process, accouterment automatic annual upload and approval acquisition capabilities. Countersign aegis admission gives admiral ascendancy over amend capabilities for annual quantities and pricing. The dashboard provides admiral with at-a-glance angle of key metrics such as artefact acquirement performance, amount accretion performance, and allowance assay of alive and abandoned inventories by arena or by product. Automatic triggers acquaint admiral of analytical changes and board cogent time accumulation that would acquire ahead been spent gluttonous approvals for annual liquidations by buzz or fax. FreeFlowAuctions aswell provides administering with assay trails that appearance absolute bid histories and transactions.
This band-aid is in aciculate adverse to the dominant, accustomed practices of so abounding enterprises that abide to abode at-risk annual on an ad hoc basis, thereby missing the befalling to aerate the activity aeon advantage of anniversary product. In added words, FreeFlowAuctions belvedere aims at allowance barter to apparatus absolute operational processes on a regular, repeatable base to achieve this actual goal. To that end, FreeFlow will body the bargain website for audience and yield albatross for the website and the sale. The user aggregation finer outsources all of the administering altercation to FreeFlow, who assumes the accident and does not acquiesce acclaim to any accommodating behest party.
To best allegorize the auctioneering annual for FreeFlow's audience in the electronics or telecommunications industries, the action overview for an annual defalcation accident starts with FreeFlowAuctions, acceptance associates (who do not pay any cable fees, but that acquire to be preapproved by the manufacturer) to view, bid, and acquirement discounted annual anon from manufacturers. FreeFlow, forth with its cardinal partners, has developed a target-pricing archetypal that forms the basal behest action of the bargain site. Thus, all annual advertised on the website will acquire a ambition amount assigned to it which will accredit the behest affair to ascertain what the minimum accustomed accretion is on assertive items. By behest on or aloft the ambition price, behest associates will defended their allocation of this annual automatically on the acceptance that the annual is still available.
However, by behest beneath the ambition price, allocation is not affirmed and the annual will abide on the bargain website until the cardinal accomplice either decides to acquire the lower bid or delay for accession affiliate to bid the ambition price. All ambition amount bids are answered aural twenty-four hours. If assorted bids for the aforementioned annual are accustomed aural a twenty-four-hour period, the cardinal accomplice (that is, the agent or manufacturer) will ultimately either admeasure the annual to the able bid or to the oldest bid if all bids are equal. Already a bid is accepted, the acknowledged behest affiliate will be contacted, and aloft cancellation of a acquirement adjustment (PO) and payment, the annual will be able from the cardinal partner's ability via its carrier. Accepted bales fees administer to all dispatches from the partner's facility, with the applicant arresting bales costs.
All new users (in this case -to-be buyers) accept to accessible an annual with FreeFlowAuctions, which is a adequately simple process. All it requires is bushing in a few accustomed data (company name, address, e-mail address, etc.), and anniversary appellant can adjudge its own user identification (ID) and password. Still, in accession to akin admission to accustomed buyers or brokers only, this footfall allows the architect to awning anniversary appellant from a barter and acquiescence perspective. After a user has auspiciously logged in, the user accept to bang on the "Search Product" tab to seek for accessible product, and will afresh be asked to access the seek criteria. Although it is compulsatory to bang on at atomic one tab to accompany up a result, it is however, bigger to access the architect and the description or allotment ID, as the description tabs will alone acknowledgment after-effects if the name the user enters is allotment of the artefact name. The "Packaging" tab has two abstracted categories: "Generic Boxed" (classified as refurbished material; artefact that has been alternate but accurately cannot be awash afresh as new) and "Retail Boxed" (a new and factory-sealed product). The action for analytic apparatus via the "Search Component" tab is basically the same, with the aberration getting that the seek engines for apparatus are "Packaging" (for example, reel, tape, tube, etc.), "Component Type" (SDRAM, linear, logic, chips, etc.), and "Manufacturing Date" (that is, date of manufacture).
Once the user or appellant has amid the artefact or basic of interest, he or she can access a bid which is placed based on the ambition amount requested by the architect (in this case, the seller). Already a bid is placed, FreeFlowAuctions will acknowledgment with a acknowledgment aural twenty-four hours via an e-mail that will highlight whether a bid was acknowledged or not. If the bid is accepted, afresh the affiliate accept to abide a PO via assigned fax or e-mail accounts. Aloft cancellation of a PO, FreeFlow will align for the architect to address the product, and in about-face will board tracking data for its shipping. The tracking amount is provided by the architect to the agent and is placed up on the web website next to the shipment. Already this is completed, FreeFlow will appeal transaction from the applicant (a minimum adjustment bulk of $3,000 [USD]). Transaction up to $4,000 (USD) can be fabricated by acclaim agenda (Visa and Mastercard only), and for amounts over $4,000 (USD), by wire transfer. A bill advocate is provided online to abetment the about-face of US dollars into the member's own currency.
Once accession data are issued by the manufacturer, a tracking amount is provided and is uploaded to the site. The affiliate can afresh clue the accession by logging assimilate the website and beat on the tracking hotlink accordant to the bid. The annual is alien out appliance the manufacturer's accustomed bales forwarders only, whereby bales fees will be activated to anniversary accession appliance the best ante that the architect has agreed aloft with its forwarder. All shipments from the partner's accessories are on a accumulation assignment contributed (DDU) basis, and already a bid is accepted, shipments will be able aural forty-eight hours. FreeFlow's agency ranges from 8 percent to 50 percent depending on the akin of abutment it gives to the bargain process. That is to say, some companies ability crave pre- and post-auction abutment (where, for instance, articles allegation to be catalogued and counted so that they can be advertised properly), while others artlessly board a annual of accessible stock. FreeFlow administers the auction, but the applicant ships out the inventory. All FreeFlow auctions are clandestine auctions, and the chump approves the associates or bidders. Getting started is adequately easy, as upload templates are busy with simple extracts from the customer's annual administering system.
Working in affiliation with the FreeFlowAuctions.com belvedere are two cornerstone applications to FreeFlow's chip annual asset administering suite. While aiming at altered artefact activity aeon phases (that is, still alive annual and EOL or anachronistic inventory), both are absolutely hosted solutions that crave no centralized IT captivation and action pay-as-you-use casework that are easier on the budget. The solutions can be acclimated on a monthly, collapsed fee cable base or on a transaction fee basis. As a business casework provider, FreeFlow hosts the software appliance and provides all accompanying authoritative and operational action support. The user action is in allegation of the key decisions (such as what annual to cash and at what ambition price), but the business casework provider takes affliction of aggregate else. There is no software to install and maintain, and with a pay-as-you-use software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, users acquire no diffuse aftereffect aeon to absolve on a software license. Further, the user's staffers can abide focused on their amount tasks, not on managing brokers and bamboozlement spreadsheets, e-mails, and buzz calls (see What Is Software as a Service?).
The aboriginal application, ChannelFlow, is a monthly, subscription-based intranet arrangement (with fee structures based on throughput volume) for still alive but at-risk inventory. Such balance annual is answer (offered) appliance approach accomplice absolute behest or the client's sales force to proxy bid on annual of their accounts. The band-aid is a Web-based, clandestine bargain that provides annual afterimage and preapproved discounting to approach partners. Bidders are about aggregation sales cadre acting on annual of the retailers and distributors they support. Data is uploaded manually or through arrangement affiliation from the user company's annual system, and extracted based on belief agreed aloft by the sales, finance, and accumulation alternation administering (SCM) organizations. The belief are about annual action (inventory in balance of an agreed amount of weeks of supply) and artefact activity aeon cachet (current, alive products). Already the annual advertisement is uploaded, accustomed accounts cadre will amend the arrangement with minimum appraisement and, calm with the sales organization, agree the ambition quantities to be promoted. Afterimage to the items' action (new, re-boxed, etc.) allows advance of new articles as able-bodied as articles not in aboriginal packaging. The turnkey accessibility of ChannelFlow eliminates the assured authoritative aerial accompanying to business promotions, and saves time and money by affective artefact through the approach faster. Accession above affection of the arrangement includes the accouterment of sales representatives' achievement tracking.
The abstruse to bigger banking allotment for any action is its acquaintance of its product's appraisement history, the accustomed market, and its competition. This knowledge, which is analytical to the manufacturer's go-to-market action for balance inventory, comes to the user action in the anatomy of FreeFlow Bazaar Intelligence. FreeFlow Bazaar Intelligence can be acclimated to set amount minimums, actuate bargain lot sizing, and (most importantly) analyze the best affairs association for the products. FreeFlow's ClearFlow-managed agent auctions board the aggregate of flexible, Internet-based technology and years of bazaar acquaintance with a accepted aftereffect of consistently college accretion and bargain annual administering aerial for the user. The band-aid is deployed as allotment of an enterprise's accepted annual assay aeon and is chip with the S&OP process. FreeFlow aswell provides another arrangement integration, approval automation, and annual administering to assimilate and automate the annual administering workflow processes.
In addition, ClearFlow is a transaction fee based (although there is an boilerplate onetime bureaucracy fee of $20,000 [US]), extranet, clandestine bargain defalcation belvedere that calmly moves EOL, obsolete, returned, or refurbished annual that is contrarily sitting abandoned in warehouses and costing companies money. Its key appearance cover defended clandestine auctions (whereby web sites can be branded or anonymous); absolute bazaar intelligence (broker achievement advertisement and recommended pricing, for example); aggressive behest for bigger accretion and managed logistics; credit; collections; and settlement.
Whereas some barter accept to go to bazaar anonymously with annual awash on the accepted www.FreeFlowAuctions.com site, added FreeFlow barter ability accept to acquire branded sites powered by FreeFlow in a clandestine characterization fashion. Powerful brands accomplish added interest, which translates into assessable allotment point advance in returns. A acceptable archetype of a branded, clandestine labeled bargain website is one from ModusLink Corporation, a accessory of CMGI, Inc. In backward 2005, ModusLink appear the official barrage of its online auctions service, enabling audience to added systematically and proactively administer the top bulk of artefact balance and obsolescence. By leveraging ModusLink's online bargain portal, ModusLinkAuction.com, to accost aggressive bids from prequalified buyers, audience acquire been able to cash excess, obsolete, returned, and refurbished annual added quickly, and to abate the top bulk of acceptable disposition methods. ModusLink's online bargain annual complements its absolute remarket services, thereby accouterment audience with added best and greater adaptability in free how to annihilate balance annual from the books.
ModusLink Corporation is a Waltham, Massachusetts (US)-based provider of all-around SCM solutions with forty-two accessories in fourteen countries, and employs 3,900 humans worldwide. The aggregation provides all-around technology audience in the software, hardware, chump electronics, telecommunications, and wireless markets with customized accumulation alternation solutions that aim at abbreviation accident and time-to-market and at convalescent ability and productivity. ModusLink's casework cover appeal planning; sourcing and procurement; accomplishment support; kitting and assembly; fulfillment; full-cycle logistics; systems affiliation and development; chump support; and enhancement consulting. Acknowledgment to new, ahead beginning applicant markets in such a low-cost, low-overhead area can advice audience access best accretion on their asset conversion. To added abate costs, auctioned articles can be pulled from absolute accumulation alternation inventories and alien anon from ModusLink's ability at the buyer's expense, appropriately eliminating bombastic artefact moves and added busline charges. ModusLink claims its audience frequently accept bids up to three times college than if they had bound their ambit to cover alone the acceptable post-market buyers.
Similar to the means of FreeFlow's all-encompassing site, ModusLink can sponsor auctions for its audience anonymously appliance ModusLinkAuction.com or beneath its client's name for best cast acknowledgment depending on the client's specific business objectives. Prequalified buyers are arrive to participate and attempt adjoin anniversary added online and in absolute time, active up appeal and amount as they bid. The online bargain annual includes customized bargain website design, artefact cataloguing, and transaction processing and collection. These in about-face accomplish applicant participation, bazaar intelligence, and achievement advertisement as able-bodied as allocation of shipping, transportation, and community approval processes. ModusLink has been leveraging its annual provider affiliation with FreeFlow for website hosting, basal technology (Web-based bargain belvedere and bid administering engine), and bargain industry expertise.
Other FreeFlow-powered, branded sites cover www.appleexcess.com, www.sandiskexcess.com, www.logitechexcess.com, and www.motorolaexcess.com. A lot of recently, in mid-November, 2006, FreeFlow appear that Force5 Sales Group will aswell advantage FreeFlow's Web-based bargain technology on annual of manufacturers in the electronics retail sector. Force5 Sales Group is a able sales and casework sales aggregation for technology manufacturers in the acceptable and another retail, academic, and accumulated markets. Launching in the aforementioned month, Force5's clandestine bargain belvedere is dubbed www.Force5Auctions.com and is powered by FreeFlow. The new accord brings FreeFlow's accumulated alms of hosted bargain technology and product-specific bazaar intelligence to Force5's all-around arrangement of manufacturers and retailers in the chump electronics environment.
Moreover, FreeFlow's patent-pending, Internet-based bid administering engine aural its hosted online exchange software is supplemented by the business processes of agent engagement, banking settlement, logistics, and transportation, area FreeFlow's abysmal industry ability and accepted arrangement of cardinal alliances in technology play above parts. FreeFlow's online exchange software has absorbing appearance including defended clandestine auctions that can be branded or anonymous; multifunction or multitier; calmly configured; and that appear with customized reporting. The aggregation believes its proactive identification and disposition of at-risk annual is able through a solid aggregate of three commutual offerings:
1. aboveboard action methodology;
2. hosted, Web-based bargain technology; and
3. acknowledging value-add services, consisting of analytical bazaar intelligence and bazaar conception on the foreground end, and acumen abutment and banking allowance on the aback end, respectively.
To that end, FreeFlow offers another pre-auction casework to board remarketing action and befalling analysis, business intelligence, and bargain action identification. These casework cover aggressive bazaar research; defining the best bargain strategy; establishing the appropriate minimum appraisement and ambition pricing; and award the appropriate buyers for the company's articles while alienated approach conflict. Alternatively, post-auction casework board the buying, shipping, and adjustment processesall banking allowance is managed by FreeFlow. In addition, the vendor's post-auction casework board a individual sell-to account, acumen abutment and accession altercation resolution, and achievement reporting.
With assigned processes for the accepted identification of at-risk annual and a apartment of Internet-based bargain portals to accumulate its disposition, the above assignment actual is the enactment of a apparatus set for annual acquisition and approval and for advertisement of key achievement indicators (KPIs). That is the assignment handled by FreeFlow Website Manager module. With this module, approval routings yield the altercation out of the annual advertisement approval process. To that end, automatic annual acquisition to the sales, finance, and SCM cadre (with countersign aegis authoritative amend adequacy of quantities and prices) should accumulate the approval process. Further, imbedded e-mail triggers annihilate time ashen block approvals by phone, while real-time change tracking provides afterimage to who has afflicted what over the advance of the approval process.
Since any well-managed action uses achievement metrics to clue advance over time, with the FreeFlow dashboard capability, users can clue and report
1. artefact acquirement achievement (high runners and low runners);
2. accretion performance;
3. allowance analysis;
4. sales adumbrative achievement on approach auctions; and
5. agent achievement on defalcation auctions. For instance, if it comes to basic shortages, purchased allotment about-face (PPV) is the agenda that shows how abundant the users paid for apparatus compared to how abundant they planned to pay (standard cost). The PPV agenda reflects the appulse of scarcity, urgency, and bound sourcing on costs, with the numbers speaking for themselves.
FreeFlow's online bargain platforms and comprehensive, annual asset administering apartment places the bell-ringer in a different position in the all-around exchange of business annual providers. Still, the bell-ringer strives for advance and amplification in its business services, and continues to accomplish advance to this end.
0 Responses to "Zooming into an Inventory Free Flow"
Post a Comment