siliconindia | | December 20208T he FMCG sector has always been in the forefront for early adoption of technology, and is seen as an attractive proposition for IT vendors--be it infrastructure, network, security, application or collaboration software.Gone are the days when market growth in the FMCG sector was a foregone conclusion. Consumers were bound to stick with one brand, due to unavailability of choices. Today with more and more players flooding the market, the level of competition has increased ten-folds. Consumers have a wider variety to choose from. Today's consumer is also extremely quality conscious. Due to these factors and also aided by the sluggish growth of most FMCG corporate, the FMCG sector is looking at information technology to reduce costs in the value chain, integrate business processes across the extended enterprise including suppliers and customers, sense changes in market conditions rapidly and build the agile enterprise to respond quickly.Listed below are some of the major IT initiatives most FMCG organizations have embarked upon in the recent pastERPFMCG sector was an early adopter of ERP packages. Nobody questions the need for an ERP now. Over the years, it has transitioned from an IT initiative requiring top management deliberations and decision, to something that is more essential to run the business. It is as essential for running an organization as basic infrastructure. It is such an integral part of the organization that it gets noticed only when there is a downtime. It has now become an important platform on which various e-initiatives are built.SUPPLY CHAIN INITIATIVESFMCG organizations have since then looked at extending their IT initiatives to touch business partners like suppliers on one hand and the distributors on the other. Extending the IT chain to link the distributors for instance, would be of mutual benefit. This would propel a movement from a `push' based system to a `pull' based system, translating into inventory efficiencies right from the distributor stock point to the CFA and to the manufacturing location. The primary role of the sales force in the FMCG sector By Arup Choudhury, CIO, Eveready Industries IndiaIN MYOPINIONUSE CUTTING EDGE TECHNOLOGY TO STAY AHEAD OF COMPETITION IN THE FMCG INDUSTRYHaving completed his education from Jadavpur University, Arup has earlier worked with Lafarge Cement. Arup Choudhury
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