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| New Delhi gets its First Convenience Store |
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Thursday, September 6, 2007
Indians are welcoming this 24x7 retail culture because traditional shopping culture doesn't fit the needs of the consumers of today. They find it nearly impossible to spare some time to go to the market. Convenience stores, on the other hand, offer them the flexibility to go for shopping the moment they get some free time out of their daily hectic schedules. As per market experts, the range of products and services offered under the same roof is the biggest force why these convenience stores are becoming popular amongst the consumers. Besides processed fresh meat or other edibles, cut veggies or fruits for instant cooking, these convenience stores offer certain other facilities such as courier services, utility bill payment services and so on. People in developed countries are highly dependent on these convenience stores for their day-to-day needs. Convenience stores have been making waves in U.S. for years. In America and Canada, hundreds of convenience stores cater to the requirements of more than six million customers at present. As per a recent research report titled "Asian Convenience Store Industry Analysis (2005-2009)" published by RNCOS, the C-store market has recorded a 14% extra growth as compared to that of the global market growth in 2004. China exhibited an outstanding growth in C-store market as it crossed a figure of 20,000 in 2004. Though southeast isn't a good option to go for while choosing the right location. East -Asia seems to be a better location for the growth of the industry, whereas retail opportunities are tremendous in the South. As per the report, China is the instant opportunity provider for this industry whereas India offers stable market for it. Countries like India & Pakistan seem to be decent locations for the C-stores, as there's less or in fact no competition at present in this parts of the world. On the other hand, the beauty and charm of convenience stores has been completely ruined by severe competition in U.S.A and other countries. Convenience stores are believed to drastically makeover the lifestyle of Indian consumers, as their buying habits are going to see a revolutionary change in the near future. The Indian collaboration with foreign retail & consumer goods companies will help in uplifting the life-style of the people of the country. As the Indian retail industry is altering tremendously, prominent business groups plan to open a series of C-stores in India. To purchase your copy: http://www.rncos.com/Report/CP12.htm For more information please visit www.rncos.com Office Supplies and Client Relation Every office is different and subscribes to different needs under even a single product category. However, it is not always possible for the managers to track and answer all the minute details of the needs of employees in a comparatively bigger office. We admit that it is not an easy task to operate. Say, an office needs some tapes. Is this much information enough to get the job done! There are, Clear Tape, Double Sided, Drafting Tape, Adhesives and Litho Tape, Masking Tape, Packing Tape, Printed Tape, Invisible Tape and many other verities. Now again we ask- 'is this much information enough to get the job done!' These tapes come in various sizes and colours to serve specific needs. Without being to market (i.e. without seeing the product and the new arrivals) how one can decide and define one's specific needs! The problems get more intense while buying computer accessories, inkjet cartridge, toner cartridge and even photo paper, glossy photo paper or photo printer paper. An office comprising of even fifty or less employees faces huge problems regarding on-time office supplies. It is not always possible to find and recruit a person who is the best to understand the specific needs and choices of every individual and buy from market the ideal product at the best price. To add to this, many companies do not want to burden themselves by stuffing a person for this job and instead, they sign agreements with local suppliers. These companies try to ignore the fact that this job demands a specialist's direct and sensitive attachment. To add to it, the company is always running the risk of paying some extra amount for not being updated about ever-changing market prices. Otherwise, some companies just allow the employees to buy products themselves that wastes much valuable time of the person and the company. A great number of companies are turning to online stationery supplier to solve these problems. However, many online suppliers cannot afford to employ client specific account management executives for personalized assistance. Many of them just ignore (if they have really thought about that) this point partially to increase the profit margin in their stationery supply business. It all depends on the owner's business ideology and business propositions. It is high time for online office stationery suppliers to act in this issue; otherwise, the clients will remain deprived of services that they really deserve. Still, there are people who invest on building a long-lasting relationship, perhaps for the reason that they believe: A good relationship always pays. Wish all the best for them. Graham Coleman is an investigative freelance writer. He has years of experience in online office supplies and owns http://www.everythingoffice.co.uk/ and http://www.officeshopping.co.uk/ - UK's leading Independent Office Stationery Company, showcases ranges of office supply, office equipment, office furniture supply on the most advanced and easy to use E-procurement site within the office products industry. Also offers computer toner and cartidges, promotional business gift and corporate interior office design. Making the business case for Corporate Performance Management Making the business case for Corporate Performance Management Anyone involved in high value capital sales, such as enterprise software, will know life can be a roller coaster. One day everyone is on a high as a major deal is secured. Another day everyone is distraught when after many months of work, it comes to nothing. Losing out to another vendor is an accepted part of the game. More annoying is the situation where you have been told you are the preferred supplier - and after all the euphoria, nothing happens. Typically any enquiry reveals that the proposal is "still with the board", or "has been put back until next quarter". The reality is that it's a dodo; kicked out because the project team failed to build a compelling business case for the investment and the resources have been allocated elsewhere. The vendor team only have themselves to blame. They should have identified that funding for the project had not been authorized and helped the project team develop the business case. In the 90's organizations invested heavily in enterprise resource planning (ERP), and customer relationship management (CRM) systems. In the current decade, the focus of much IT spending is predicted to switch to corporate performance management (CPM) suites; integrating previously stand-alone application areas such as budgeting, scorecards and costing to provide better insight into current and future financial performance. But a lot has happened in the last decade. Many organizations invested heavily in ERP and are still not convinced of the benefits. Global IT analysts, the Meta Group, recently did a study looking at the total cost of ownership (TCO) of ERP over the first two years. Among the 63 companies surveyed-including small, medium and large companies in a range of industries - the average TCO was $15 million. But there was a payback. After 31 months, Meta found median annual savings of $1.6 million. On that basis, it would take nearly a decade to reach break even! Such experiences, together with the downturn in most western economies, have depressed IT spending in recent years and boards are right to be skeptical about further spending. This puts the onus on project teams seeking to secure funding for Corporate Performance Management initiatives to develop a credible and compelling business case with a break even that comes sooner rather than later. Step one is to identify the total cost of ownership year by year over a suitable period of time. Beside including the obvious cost of software, hardware, professional services and training, it is important to include the cost of internal staff. Step two is to quantify the benefits. For instance, most of the quantifiable benefit of implementing a new budgeting application is likely to come from a reduction in resources in the finance function. If budgeting was previously done using spreadsheets, it is likely that there was an inordinate amount of work involved in preparing schedules, chasing submissions and re-keying data. Implementing a new system will remove much of this work and these savings should be costed and included in the business case. The cost saving of one part qualified management accountant over a five-year period will get you well on the way to break even. At the same time, implementing a new budgeting system is likely to reduce the amount of time it takes line managers to prepare and review their budgets. The opportunity cost of saving three working days a year for two hundred cost center managers with an average benefits package of $75, 000 is sizeable. I calculate this to be an annual saving of $210,000 - over $1,050,000 over a five-year period. Once the annual costs and benefits have been identified, they can be discounted at an appropriate cost of capital to give a net present value (NPV) and break even. Your vendor can put you in contact with other organizations that have undertaken similar implementations and they will be able to provide you with some idea of the savings that can be made. Alternatively, if your organization subscribes to an analyst group, they will have a specialist in Corporate Performance Management who will be able to provide guidelines on likely benefits. The results can be impressive with break even being reached in a matter of months rather than years, even when some of the more questionable cost savings are excluded. But be transparent with your assessments, presenting a range of scenarios showing a good outcome, a poor outcome and the most likely result. It will help your credibility, especially if your most pessimistic scenario is still positive. Having clearly demonstrated a cost benefit, all the other less quantifiable reasons for implementing a new budgeting application are likely to win the day and help secure the funding. For instance, implementing a budgeting system that allows the organization to re-forecast more frequently is likely to result in more accurate forecasts. It is also likely to enable the organization to become much more agile with managers able to rapidly realign resources with changing patterns of trading. Being able to demonstrate to the board exactly how implementing monthly rolling re-forecasts will enable line managers to manage their capacity better may be more compelling than simply showing a positive NPV. Once an implementation is deployed, the costs and benefits should be fully reviewed to check that the projected savings are achieved. Providing this feedback to the board and senior managers will reassure them that they made the right investment decision and make it easier to secure funding next time around. Again don't forget to include a review of other benefits such as how the organization can now re-forecast every month, chasing down instances of how this has directly benefited individual managers. In my experience once cost savings have been identified, the other benefits suddenly become much more important. About Richard Barrett: "Richard Barrett oversees ALG Software's marketing worldwide. As an expert in corporate performance management, Richard has had a diverse career spanning more than two decades across multiple industries, including financial services." |
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