Robinsons Supermarket needed to infuse strong collaboration into its supplier management system. The merchandizing team was looking for a powerful application with advanced collaborative capabilities. Manthan System's ARC Supplier Portal and Analytics with its powerful supplier collaboration platform and analytical capabilities proved to be the perfect fit in this business context.

1. Success Story - ARC Supplier Portal & Analytics
Multiple format retail conglomerate
327 Stores | 8 Retail Formats | 6,000 Employees
Philippines
Headquartered in Manila with 49 branches and 327 stores in eight retail formats across the Philippines, Robinsons Supermarket Corporation
is one of the largest supermarket chains in the country. The company belongs to the Robinsons Retail group along with Robinsons
Department Store, Handyman Do It Best Center, Robinsons Appliances, Top Shop, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, Toys R Us, and True Value.
Challenges faced
Robinsons Supermarket was facing the
following challenges in managing its supplier
universe:
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Ineffective communication with suppliers:
The legacy application in use at
Robinsons did not allow a two-way
communication with all its suppliers.
Information distribution was one-sided
making it impossible for suppliers to take
active part in the process of product
procurement as well as complicating the
process for the merchandising team
without the clear picture of suppliers‟
response/feedback.
Insufficient collaboration capabilities:
Robinsons Supermarket was facing
problems conducting negotiations with
suppliers, developing periodic promotions,
schemes and offers on products, and
managing a huge number of vendors.
Lack of collaboration was affecting
timelines as well as effectiveness of such
efforts.
Limited visibility in supply chain:
Robinsons Supermarket was
experiencing limited visibility in every
aspect of its supply chain including
merchandise procurement, supplier
performance, inventory management and
effectiveness of delivery.
High cost of supplier collaboration:
The legacy application included an
additional fee for every new supplier
license procured. With the number of
suppliers increasing every day, this
system was proving to be expensive as
well as ineffective.
Difficulty in meeting customer demands:
Robinsons found it cumbersome to
compare purchase orders to inventory
levels on a near real-time basis. It was
difficult to compare these to sales order
data, and thus Robinsons could not
optimize inventory levels which resulted in
inadequate supply to meet customer
demand.
Business context
The merchandising team at Robinsons Supermarket is responsible for sourcing products sold in all its
stores. Selecting and sourcing high quality products at reasonable prices, and on time, to offer a wider
assortment of safe, innovative and nutritious products to its customers is of paramount importance to the
company. This requires a great deal of group effort on part of hundreds of suppliers and stores spread
across the country. Collaboration with suppliers‟ network was the link in the chain that Robinsons was
looking to strengthen.
Manthan Systems‟ Solution
Robinsons Supermarket needed to infuse strong collaboration into its supplier management system. The
merchandizing team was looking for a powerful application with advanced collaborative capabilities.
Manthan System‟s ARC Supplier Portal and Analytics, with its powerful supplier collaboration platform and
analytical capabilities, proved to be the perfect fit in this business context. SPA is a comprehensive,
web-based collaboration platform for retailers, suppliers, vendors and other touch-points in the retail
chain. ARC SPA also provides analytical information and guided analytics with key metrics for informed
decision making.
SPA has provided Robinsons a single interactive platform with a comprehensive view of the entire supplier
portfolio by integrating the key supplier reliability data with financial viability metrics.
Availability and exchange of information
Easy access, support for two-way communication and user-friendly nature of the portal interface helps
Robinsons to exchange information about sales, inventory, purchase orders, goods receipts and
payments along with relevant KPIs to outright and concessionaire business model suppliers.
Using Manthan System‟s SPA, Robinsons Supermarkets‟ suppliers can now propose new products to be
introduced to customers. Merchandizing team can approve the proposals using tiered approval approach
based on SPA‟s analytical data. SPA‟s web-based new product introduction form along with SPA‟s ability
to track requests and their status helps the managers plan new products quickly and more efficiently.
Other important areas of information sharing have been product details amendment, price cost changes
amendment, out of stock advisory, obsolete stock advisory, stock availability advisory, SKU allocation by
suppliers for vendor managed inventory and consignment vendors. New store delivery calendar in SPA
gives both parties a clear visibility into the timelines and delivery patterns of new stores.
Roles and functionalities
Through its configurable workflows, SPA has addressed Robinson Supermarket‟s major pain points in the
„procure to pay‟ (P2P) cycle: the request to address the person in the right role at the suppliers‟ end.
Purchase order (PO) approver being out of office was one of the concerns of Robinsons‟ suppliers before
deploying SPA. This was affecting the suppliers especially in cases when the receipt of purchase orders
was closer to cancel date. SPA provides functionality to automatically assign POs to alternate approvers
when original approvers are out of office and revert to the original approver after his/her return. This helps
Robinsons to approve the purchase orders in time and the suppliers have lead time to process purchase
orders.

2. Collaborative efforts and business reviews
Why ARC?
“Manthan System‟s ARC has brought
into our enterprise an extensive
collaboration with suppliers and a
clear visibility into various aspects of
merchandising. ARC‟s well-thoughtout design and effective application
are its biggest strengths.”
With SPA, Robinsons Supermarkets‟ suppliers are able to be proactive and contribute to a joint business
goal. They are able to propose product promotions, store promotions, volume discounts and also book
campaigns. Now suppliers can view the list of gondola available for hire in various Robinsons stores and
propose to hire gondola in selected set of stores.
The portal facilitates the supplier to create and upload planograms and planogram data for a review. The
workflow allows modifications to be made to the planograms and approve/reject the same. Approved
planograms can be sent to the selected Robinsons Supermarket stores for a review.
Robinsons Supermarket has involved its suppliers in setting of business goals and periodic business
reviews using ARC analytics.
- Thelma G. Roxas,
Vice-President and
Chief Information Officer,
Robinsons Supermarket
Corporation
Role-based analytics
SPA allows Robinsons Supermarket to analyze data across the enterprise, suppliers, vendors and its
trading partners. SPA‟s role-based dashboard view and analytics provides various staff members on
suppliers‟ end as well as at Robinsons a clear visibility, actionable data and insight required for every
specific role. Supply chain executives at Robinsons are able to take quick and informed actions, evaluate
space productivity, conduct better negotiation, manage vendors effectively, and approve/reject various
proposals from suppliers.
Alerts and announcements
SPA supports aligning the delivery schedule of the suppliers to new stores to ensure that the stores open
with full stock. This is made possible by providing visibility of fill rates. SPA supports email-based alerts,
reminders and escalations that are automatically sent to appropriate roles on the suppliers‟ side regarding
NSO fill rates, fill rate discrepancies and other incongruent data/information and delays.
Why Manthan
Systems
Speaking about why Robinsons
Supermarket chose Manthan System‟s
solution, Thelma G. Roxas, VicePresident & CIO said, “Among several
characteristics of the ARC, we found its
data model driven retail-centricity to be
a key differentiator and of significant
value to our retail businesses. ARC‟s
scalability and its ability to be deployed
rapidly have proved to be major
advantages that align with our IT
strategy goals.”
Benefits discovered
Improved performance: Complete visibility into purchase order tracking by supplier and buyer has
improved the in-stock percentage at the stores by 2%.
SPA has helped the procurement staff to obtain exact knowledge about the quality of produce
available. This has resulted in an increase in the sales of fresh produce at many stores.
The visibility has helped store operations, replenishment department, buyers and suppliers in planning
and has improved the vendor fill rates by over 5%.
Efficient promotion planning: Intense collaboration and two-way communication between the
company and its suppliers has led to efficient promotion planning, thereby reducing the gap between
projected and actual sales significantly.
Clearer product visibility: Streamlining New Product introduction process has resulted in timely
introduction with visibility to all stakeholders.
Reduced transactional costs: Robinsons has successfully reduced its transaction costs due to
extensive use of a Distributed Portal-Based Platform. Easy access to information has reduced the
cost of sourcing, warehousing and transporting merchandise.
Cost savings and speedy financial return: The SPA license pricing is not based on usage and can be
rolled out to any number of suppliers and users without incremental costs, adding to the cost benefit
of the solution. The subscription-based investment model with key suppliers brought supplier
subscription revenues and helped Robinsons achieve an extremely fast ROI.
Increased customer loyalty: The analytical capabilities of SPA have helped Robinsons achieve an
accurate SKU rationalization analysis. It also provides a better picture of destination items. This
knowledge has improved the company‟s customer loyalty index.
Clearer identification of areas for enhancement: Complete transparency in all interactions between
supplier and retailer has helped Robinsons identify areas to reduce cost, reduce risk, and also find
new opportunities to improve its operations.
About Manthan Systems
Manthan Systems produces cutting edge analytic solutions for global retail and CPG organizations.
Manthan's award winning products, under the brand name ARC, span a wide range of retail segments
and formats, transforming decision making for some of the biggest names in global retail.
For more information, visit www.manthansystems.com.