Roundup: Catalog Fulfillment and Operations

Inside you’ll find: cost-cutting strategies for your fulfillment operations; how to protect your inventory from internal theft; how to assess your catalog systems options; and how to determine your optimal IT spend.

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Successful cost-cutting strategies for your catalog fulfillment operations.
By William J. Spaide

Lackluster operating performance in your catalog’s fulfillment operations can result from a combination of factors: poor productivity, inefficient processes, and unanticipated marketing and merchandise results. Failure to identify early warning signs of trouble and, more importantly, not addressing these problems decisively and effectively, are common characteristics of the operational “also-rans.” It all comes down to a question of focus, process and performance.

Focus

To be effective, fulfillment managers must maintain a laser-like concentration on the key performance indicators of their departments. They follow a simple dictum: Less is more, and sooner is better than later.

Typically, savvy managers generate a dashboard of key indicators every morning, with weekly and monthly summaries. They can differentiate and distill actionable data from the continuous flow of information crossing their desks. The specific metrics depend on the activities being measured, but in general, I’m talking about workload and staffing projections in relation to actual results, labor costs per transaction, transactions per hour, and operating cost as a percentage of net sales.

Managing by the numbers alone, however, may not give you adequate warning of poor performance. Line managers often become adept at manipulating numbers, with operating costs ending up a question of who’s counting what. Also, avoid making “last year’s results this year’s standards” a practice. It dampens both future cost-reduction initiatives and ongoing performance.

Process

Managers in the best-run operations know things can always get better. They believe if it isn’t broken, it’s still broken. For them, process improvement isn’t an initiative; it’s a mind-set.

A word of caution here: Don’t put every operating function under a process re-engineering microscope simultaneously. That said, there are areas that fall at the tail end of the curve. Focus on those activities that would benefit most from a makeover. Furthermore, ongoing improvement programs will send the message to the rest of your organization that you’re serious about continuous improvement.

Not all re-engineering projects need large capital outlays. To minimize risk and one-time capital costs, smart managers look first to introduce improved methods, systems and/or equipment, with an emphasis on increasing productivity while leveraging existing physical layout and application software. For example, many companies avoid the formidable costs and risks associated with the enterprise-wide installation of new technology such as warehouse management systems. Instead, they’ll target projects that enhance specific functions of their existing software applications.

Given that labor invariably is the highest cost in fulfillment operations, the obvious starting point in any cost-reduction strategy is to invest in higher productivity. Following are examples of relatively low-cost, process-improvement initiatives that can produce significant labor savings:

1. Place in-line taping and dunnage stations in your distribution center’s (DC) packing area to reduce the time each packer has to spend on an order.

2. Implement bar-code scanning during the packing process — or better yet, during picking — to verify the accuracy of the items being shipped to eliminate errors and the subsequent costs of returns, service calls, and customer bad will.

3. Pick fast-moving items right from the returns department to minimize putaway labor.

4. Print carrier shipping labels on the original picking ticket instead of printing a separate label at the manifest station, thus lowering your label costs and significantly improving productivity.

5. Establish a quick-pick area for fast-moving items.

6. Set up packing speed lines for shipments with similar packaging characteristics.

7. Offer financial rewards for productivity gains, either in terms of incentive payments to individuals or groups, for production above specific work standards. Or give bonuses to all workers based on the rise in your catalog’s profits.

8. Commit to work standardization using methods deemed the most efficient.

Think outside of the box (excuse the pun), because what’s out of the box this year, may end up as standard practice next year.

For example, look at implementing a consolidation or destination entry transportation program for outbound customer shipments, or outsource all or some fulfillment.

Performance

When it comes to managing performance, there’s no such thing as too fast. Good managers share both a sense of urgency and zero tolerance for poor productivity.

Also avoid analysis paralysis; start your changes early and move quickly. It’s true that such a mentality can result in actions being taken before all possible analysis is completed. But assured managers making good intuitive decisions based on actionable data always will outperform those who insist on more analysis until the time for action has passed.

Here are some cost-reduction ideas that can be implemented relatively quickly and invariably will have a significant positive impact on your catalog’s productivity:

1. Increase the number of orders on each picking cart. This may result in fewer trips around the warehouse and higher employee productivity.

2. Pick directly into the box, which will shrink or possibly even eliminate your packing department.

3. Implement full-carton bulk picking of high-volume items, bypassing the conventional pick process.

4. Dynamically manage your contact center staffing on a near-real-time basis vis-à-vis the day’s call volume, expanding or reducing individual customer service representatives’ (CSR) hours. Reassign CSRs to non-phone activities as needed. Develop and implement escalated staffing plans to handle call surges.

5. Transition full-time workers to permanent flex-time by hiring people willing to work four- to six-hour shifts, three to five days a week.

6. Try to maintain near-zero backlogs, which, besides improving workflow, can increase productivity by as much as 40 percent.

7. Hire a freight auditor. Outbound shipping costs often can be reduced by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Auditors charge 30 percent to 50 percent of your savings the first year, but they’re still an excellent deal in the long-term. (FYI: Auditors are available for all cost areas, including your company’s phone bills.)

8. Hire a traffic management specialist to actively oversee shippers based on specific costs by zone, weight, carrier, etc. A specialist should be able to pay for himself or herself with the savings realized.

Conclusion

A focus on productivity and cost efficiency doesn’t automatically degrade your catalog’s customer service performance. Good fulfillment almost always costs less than bad fulfillment. A well-engineered, streamlined process that’s essential for fast turnaround also will result in lower labor costs, reduced incidence of non-order customer contacts and increased responsiveness of satisfied customers.

William J. Spaide is a partner in the management consulting firm of Spaide, Kuipers & Co., which offers operations management and information technology consulting services. Contact him at (610) 668-8296 or via e-mail: spaide@spaidekuipers.com.

Just 1 Question

We asked: What cost-cutting or productivity-enhancing tactics have you tried recently in your distribution center, and what were the results?

Gerry Walsh, director, distribution center, Norm Thompson, Kearneysville, WV

“We implemented a new warehouse management package, which did in fact yield some vast productivity improvements. Foremost was the introduction of a paperless, system-directed storage environment within our receiving, QC, product prep and material movement functions. We realized a 35 percent increase in throughput as a result.

“A revamped order-processing (pick/pack) process, including single full-case processing, quick pick, and system-generated containerization selection to increase packer efficiencies resulted in a 20 percent increase in order volume throughput.”

Dave DeWees, manager, order fulfillment, Hershey’s Direct, Hershey, PA

“We’ve been experiencing double-digit growth in sales volume for the last eight years, so we’re continually re-engineering our fulfillment for greater efficiency.

“But we did one thing in particular recently that has saved us time and expense. We switched from using brown reinforced tape to bind together cartons, to using a self-sealing tape similar to the kind you find on commercial carriers’ standard shipping cartons. And we’ve been able to source that from a Pennsylvania supplier, which saves us money in shipping to our Hershey, PA, plant.

“We saved about $26,000 in fall 2003 labor costs. And these savings will continue into this year.

“Plus, it’s hard to put a price tag on the aesthetic ‘wow’ factor from the new packaging.”

Mitch Siegler, president and CEO, Siegler & Co.’s Sovietski Collection and Treasures From a Bygone Era, San Diego, CA

“Last summer, we reorganized the physical layout of our warehouse, eliminating the need for seasonal/overflow inventory at an off-site location, and dramatically improved our order-picking productivity during our busy holiday season.

“Among the more creative and unusual programs we developed were two ‘games’ that provide financial incentives to our warehouse personnel to demonstrate meaningful reductions in the number of picking errors and damaged packages. As a result of these games, our warehouse team has earned thousands of dollars of incentives during the past 18 months, and we’ve seen many reductions in controllable errors, saving our company substantial money and improving the shopping experience for our customers.”

Werner Duswald, distribution manager, Reiman Publications’ catalog division, Greendale, WI

“I’ve been here about a year, and in that time we’ve taken a hard look at our costs. We wanted to see if we could consolidate vendors. We reviewed a number of the products and services we use to see if we still need them or if there are less-expensive substitutes.

“We put some products and services up for bid. For example, we consolidated our traffic and managed to reduce our LTL shipments by 36 percent and our TL shipments by 11 percent annually.

“We also looked at our corrugated supplies, and were able to reduce our costs for those by 28 percent annually.

“Some of these savings we were able to get from our current vendors and some from bidding out those products and services.”

Internal loss easily can eat away your profit margins. Here’s how to Safeguard Your Inventory
By Donna Loyle

The scam in the cataloger’s distribution center (DC) had been going on for years.

A supervisor and two subordinates were over-labeling the small parcel delivery shipments to redirect them to themselves and others. There was no general pattern to the diverted shipments, and the parcel delivery company couldn’t be sure if the losses were caused by its own employees or the cataloger’s.

All the cataloger knew was that products weren’t being delivered, and customers were unhappy. The cataloger brought in a security consulting firm, which asked to see the number of claims for undelivered products.

“Based on their sales rates, the claims number was unusually high,” recounts Barry Brandman, president of Danbee Investigations, the security firm hired by the catalog company. “We saw a gradual pattern in the claims; they were increasing every year. Eventually, they reached $1 million annually. We realized that this cataloger had a diversion ring operating in its DC.”

Such inside scams are, unfortunately, more common than most catalog DC managers would like to believe, says Brandman. “Most catalogers suffer from a ‘not me’ syndrome,” he notes. “They think employee theft can’t happen to them, but that’s a dangerous illusion to live under. In most of the cases we’ve looked at, there were red flags all over the place, which should have alerted managers that they had problems brewing.”

Instead, said Brandman, catalogers tend to think that product loss is caused, for example, by cycle-counting or computer-related problems. “They’ll say to us: ‘There’s no way I’m going to lose $180,000 in product without me seeing it go out the door.’”

But here’s the thing: Most internal theft looks exactly like your regular business operations, says Brandman. The trick, then, is to pay closer attention to those operations. Following are some strategies that can help.

Security Equipment Can Do Only So Much

Security equipment such as cameras and alarm systems are a good start — as long as they’re well designed and properly used.

“Many times we’ll ask a cataloger for its security tapes, only to discover that no one has rotated the tapes in the video system in more than a year,” says Brandman. “Or the digital systems they’re using are set at incorrect recording speeds or not archiving enough activity.”

The problem, he continues, is that most DC managers are more concerned with break-ins from outside thieves than with internal theft. Because theft often looks exactly like your standard operating procedure, security equipment — even if it’s properly maintained and monitored — still may be unable to demonstrably show crimes going on right in front of the cameras.

That said, however, good security equipment can help deter theft and even may be used to nail suspects in some cases. But what equipment should you buy? Vendors of such high-tech gear can help you decide, but like all major purchases, it’s buyer beware.

It may be better to look for consultants who don’t sell equipment and can be completely objective in assessing what you really need. They can audit your facility, look at the layout of your DC, determine the specifications and placement of equipment, factor in your budget, and make targeted, unbiased recommendations accordingly. Moreover, they can provide expert advice regarding necessary loss-prevention controls, procedures and policies.

The Limitations of Background Checks

Performing background checks on DC applicants always is a good idea, says Brandman. “But don’t get overly excited about the results,” he cautions. “Just because someone clears the background check doesn’t mean he or she is not a security risk.”

Contrary to the belief of many employers, there’s no such thing as a national criminal search, says Brandman. Usually, people’s records can be checked only regionally. “Someone who clears a security check in Connecticut may not come up clean if checked in New York or Massachusetts,” he notes.

By all means, don’t stop doing background checks, he advises, because you will flush out some of the worst offenders in your region. Moreover, if there’s a problem later on and you can demonstrate that you did perform some due diligence, you may provide your company some legal protection, Brandman notes.

Get Undercover Investigators

If you suspect that you have inside theft or collusion going on in your DC, it may be worthwhile to hire an agency that will drop undercover investigators into your operation. Brandman says it’s important to hire a firm that will provide trained personnel for this work, and not just to put to the task a uniformed security guard out of uniform. It’s a question of training, he explains.

“Undercover security work generally is more intellectually demanding that uniformed security,” Brandman says. “I’m not putting down uniformed guards, but undercover work requires specialized training in being able to spot the signs of employee theft and collusion; blending in and gaining acceptance by employees; and in the legal ramifications of investigative work.”

Moreover, Brandman cautions, undercover work often takes many months, or even years, to yield substantive results. “It’s not like on TV shows in which the operative asks some questions and solves the case in 60 minutes. It takes a lot of work. We recently used undercover investigators to break up a theft ring that was taking out $250,000 a year.”

Set Up Employee Tiplines

Establishing a hotline in which honest employees can anonymously report criminal activity in your DC also can be a good way to prevent internal loss, says Brandman.

Such a hotline can be set up in your HR department, he notes; however, employees have proven to be much more likely to call hotlines that are set up outside of a company where they don’t run the risk of their voice being recognized. “Honest employees often are afraid their identity may be leaked and don’t want retribution from the criminals.”

Moreover, he says, it’s comforting for employees to deal with call-takers who field these types of concerns for a living. “Such call-takers often are empathetic, ask all the right questions — so you get a complete picture, rather than pieces of information — and know how to properly respond,” Brandman notes.

Being victimized by theft and collusion can be painfully expensive. As many catalogers have learned, says Brandman, it’s far better to prevent these types of losses rather than respond to them after the fact.

For More Info.: Danbee Investigations Midland Park, NJ, (201) 652-5500. Visit www.danbeeinv.com and take a security survey/quiz to help determine your company’s risk for inventory loss.

How to Assess Your Catalog Systems Options
By Ernie Schell

Not long ago, a cataloger could take a rather complacent attitude about the type of computer system used to manage his or her business. It would be a “catalog management system” designed for order processing, customer service, inventory management, fulfillment, customer database management and reporting.

About the only significant decision to make was whether you wanted an accounting module bundled with the system, or if you preferred a separate accounting package.

Those days are over.

Today’s multichannel marketer faces a virtual smorgasbord of options. Let’s take a look at some of them to see how they shape up.

Going Modular

Let’s be clear: It’s still relatively common for a cataloger to run an entire business on a single, comprehensive catalog management system. For managing Internet sales, many of the three dozen or so vendors of catalog systems have incorporated e-commerce modules into their offerings, either as a third-party add-on or as a component developed by the vendor itself.

Such modules range in utility from ultra-simplistic to quite sophisticated, although the most demanding e-commerce managers probably will want a specialized e-commerce application to satisfy their requirements.

Companies with high-volume fulfillment, complex products or multiple warehouses may choose to supplement their catalog order management applications with “warehouse management systems” (WMS).

And though there’s usually a point-of-sale (POS) module for counter sales in a catalog management system, companies with large-scale retailing divisions will need a separate retail or POS system to manage that end of the business.

All of that said, the aggressive merchant who wants to perform sophisticated customer database analysis won’t be satisfied with the reporting tools that come with virtually all of today’s catalog management systems. While systems vendors have spruced up their reporting platforms (and in fact, often have picked this as the area to put their best foot forward with a slick user interface), the reporting options offered are a far cry from the data warehousing, data mart and database analysis tools required by the knowledgeable database marketer.

The same can be said for content management tools. If you’re trying to coordinate text and images for your printed catalog, call center, Web site and multiple promotions, you won’t be able to do this on an order processing system or even a desktop publishing system. Rather, you’ll need a stand-alone content management application of some kind (often confusingly called a “catalog management” system, as well).

Some vendors have taken a modular approach probably best exemplified by CommercialWare (www.commercialware.com), one of the industry’s veterans, whose CWDirect system is now complemented by CWStore, CWData, CWCollaborate (for supply chain management) and CWIntegrate for bringing all of the components together.

A similar integration tool, synaro Integrator, is available with synaro Advantage, the direct order management package from Island Pacific (www.islandpacific.com). The company also offers the following modules: WebStore, Forecasting, SmartStore for database analysis, ERM for e-mail management and MCM for campaign management. And synaro Select is ideal for smaller companies.

ASP (Hosted) Solutions

But there’s another way to skin this cat. Instead of purchasing and managing an application in-house, you can use a system managed remotely (via a Web browser interface and a broadband connection) at an Application Service Provider (ASP). An example is I3C from Web Ideals (www.web-ideals.com), which is fully functional on all counts for direct commerce order management, including inventory and fulfillment.

Less robust on the warehouse management side is OrderMotion (www.ordermotion.com), which is now part of the CommercialWare family of products (see above). If you outsource fulfillment, or you handle so few products that you don’t need true warehouse management functions (e.g., bulk and primary locations, cart picking), Order-Motion may fit your needs nicely.

With ASP systems, you pay as you go, that is, on a per-order or other transaction basis. So there’s no initial investment, annual support or licensing fees. This isn’t a viable option for everyone, but it can be more than cost-effective under the right circumstances.

Two other systems are worth mentioning in this category. NetSuite comes close to meeting Order-Motion in terms of functionality, while Nexternal simply prints single order picking slips and offers UPS integration as its fulfillment offering.

But here’s the rub: Both of these systems primarily are designed for e-commerce companies with elementary fulfillment requirements, or retailers, manufacturers or service providers that want to manage a commerce-oriented Web site. While they can be adapted for the traditional direct marketing/catalog environment, it’s not what they were designed to handle. First see if OrderMotion or Web Ideals is better suited to your needs.

Open Source

If you’re inclined to take a hands-on approach to your company’s system, there’s another intriguing alternative worth considering. The Open For Business Project (OFB; www.ofbiz.org) provides a full set of modules for direct-commerce order management, including warehouse management and fulfillment, on an open-source basis. Like Linux, the source code is free. You pay for consulting services on how to implement it or for developing or customizing new modules.

OFB is managed by David Jones and Andy Zeneski who do all the programming at the moment, although in theory, anyone can contribute code. And certainly many independent contractors provide consulting services on implementing OFB source code. Hundreds of companies around the world are using some or all of the OFB source code today in systems they manage for all kinds of e-commerce and direct commerce activities.

Understand, this isn’t for the faint of heart. In fact, it’s fraught with risks. But if you want to develop your own system in-house, it’s a viable alternative that allows you to join with a community of like-minded peers available to help one another achieve similar goals.

Put it Together

Truth be told, all these systems have a ways to go before realizing their full potential. In addition, technologies such as eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and Web services that promise to make cross-platform data interchange easier and more transparent still are in their infancy, comparatively speaking.

I think it’ll be another five to 10 years (if not more) before the promise of today’s high-tech initiatives is fully realized and standardized business tools are available. Until then, it’s a question of intelligently assessing your business needs, risk tolerance, budget and resources — with projections on the likely return on investment of each alternative you examine.

Ernie Schell is author of “The Guide to Catalog Management Software” and president of Marketing Systems Analysis, Southampton, PA, which helps catalog companies specify and select order processing software. Contact him at (215) 396-0660 or by e-mail at ernie@schell.com.

Determine Your IT Spend
By Curt Barry

When it comes to information technology, what are catalog companies spending and why? This article describes what we discovered after undertaking an IT ShareGroup study of 22 catalog companies.

On average, IT costs typically represent 1.8 to 2.2 percent of net sales for catalogs. These data provide a good base against which to measure your IT expenses in terms of efficiency, application development and technology. For example, they can help you answer the following questions:

1. Where do you need to go systems-wise, with what intensity and at what cost?

2. Are you meeting or exceeding your company’s IT expectations? That is, do top managers at your catalog, including the CEO and CFO, know if they’re getting their money’s worth for IT investments?

3. What’s your mode of operation? Are you interested in maintaining the status quo in your operations, or are you in an aggressive-growth mode and looking for IT improvements?

Answering these questions can give you an idea of where to focus your next IT investment.

In looking more closely at the 22 catalog companies that participated in the study, we found the following annual figures: They had combined sales of $5.4 billion; total orders of 47 million; and IT expenses of $97 million. We compared the expenses on a blind basis between companies for major expense categories, including management, labor, hardware/software, services, telecom and facilities, among others.

In the chart you’ll find the overall results of this benchmarking study. Please note that the figures don’t include Internet IT expenses, which can vary widely depending on if a catalog includes Web marketing as well as other Internet IT costs in the total. In this study, Internet IT costs ranged from 0.1 percent to 0.88 percent of net sales, and were excluded from the IT totals for ease of comparison. We also excluded telephone systems depreciation costs if they were included in the IT budget.

In looking at IT cost averages, be careful how you view comparisons to net sales. Smaller catalogers tended to have a higher fixed cost in proportion to comparable functions. For example, a smaller cataloger’s IT expenses as a percentage of net sales may be, say, 2 or 3 percent, while a larger cataloger may actually spend more money, but register a lower percentage.

In fact, the largest IT budget belonged to a $1.4 billion catalog that reports spending close to $30 million (1.99 percent of its net sales). Interestingly, the most aggressive IT spending budgets in terms of percentage of sales were reported by companies of various sizes — not just the biggest catalogers.

Also, the smaller catalogers ($50 million in sales or less) in the group had the greatest discrepancies in overall IT spending levels — a range from less than 1 percent to almost 5 percent. This may demonstrate that some smaller catalogers are (on a percentage-basis) spending more because they’re ramping up their IT departments, while other smaller catalogers may be investing only marginally in IT systems.

Where is Your Money Going?

A careful review of your own IT expenses against this study of catalog industry IT benchmarks gives you a chance to get behind the numbers. By first defining your own company’s IT expenses and then comparing notes (below), you can see how you stack up against similar catalogers:

IT Cost Breakdown by Category (percentage of total IT costs — weighted average)

Labor (includes benefits) - 50.37%
- programming (28.35%)
- ops/tech support (17.17%)
- other (4.85%)
Hardware - 13.22%
Software - 10.10%
Services - 4.90%
Telecom - 3.90%
Facilities - 2.76%
Supplies - 2.42%
Training - 1.07%
Archived Storage - 0.69%
Travel - 0.69%
Other Costs - 19.33%

In all, 50 percent of IT costs comprise labor (e.g., programming, operations, tech support). Of course, committing to IT as part of your competitive strategy requires your staff to back up that ideal. Small- to mid-sized catalogs (sales in the $5 million to $50 million range) averaged only five full-time IT employees (or the equivalent thereof). But the larger companies ($150 million to more than $1 billion in sales) had the equivalent of between 21 and 200-plus full-time IT employees working in internal IT departments.

A related issue to examine closely: in-house vs. outside systems development. More companies (17 of the 22 catalogs) are developing some of their own IT systems in-house, according to our study. And of the remaining five, two have their own programmers.

Whether it makes sense for your company to develop its own software and systems depends on the complexity of your operations and what you need IT to accomplish. Most often, catalogers use a combination of commercial systems and proprietary, custom-developed applications. For catalogers that are non-developers, a key question to ask is: Are commercial software vendors providing the needed functionality at a competitive price?

Conclusion

Regardless of whether you want to tweak your current warehouse management system or do an overhaul of your entire order management system, get actively engaged in IT planning. Requirements for a successful plan include assessing what you currently have, what other industry leaders and competitors have, what you need now and your desires for the future. (For more on this, see “How to Assess Your Catalog Systems Options,” pg. 24.) Only after a careful evaluation can you effectively plan and budget for the development of in-house systems or select and implement the appropriate commercial systems.

Sidebar: ‘Big Bang’ Applications

Editor’s Note: This list has been expanded exclusively for the Catalog Success Web Site.

If you’re in an aggressive-growth mode and ready to add some top-notch applications to your IT capabilities, here are some areas to put your money:

Internet

• Web order to business systems integration;

• improved search engine optimization;

• improved Web-based visibility across channels;

• electronic gift certificates;

• self service comparable to customer service;

• Web-based systems; and/or

• predictive selling.

Customer Contact Center

• promotion upselling to increase average order size;

• predictive selling software in the contact center;

• enhanced product data systems to decrease order time;

• computer telephony integration;

• Java, GUI and browser-based functions;

• skill-based routing; and/or

• customer relationship management

Fulfillment/Supply Chain Management

In your warehouse, technology improvements can streamline business processes and improve accuracy and speed of order fulfillment. Look for:

• PDA or Tablet PCs to be used in quality assurance and receiving;

• Web-based drop shipping;

• best way, carrier rate shopping, new manifesting systems;

• warehouse management systems to increase accuracy of inventory and reduce labor; and/or

• UPC, which eliminates distribution ticketing and price change ticketing.

Merchandising/Inventory Management

Ideally, you want systems for pre-season planning, in-season forecasting and post-season analysis to improve fill rates, increase turnover and reduce backorders. Specific functions should include:

• integrated systems for marketing and merchandising; and/or

• a reporting mechanism that allows you to see the age of your overstock inventory.

Marketing/Creative

In your database, there’s likely a wealth of actionable information about your customers. The key is having the right systems to unleash those data. Look for systems that can help with the following tasks:

• data mining to find upsell/cross-sell relationships;

• in-house list processing;

• electronic building of square inch analysis;

• elimination of duplicate names;

• e-mail marketing and affiliate marketing;

• synergistic operations between channels; and/or

• content management of your digital assets.

Finance

The latest analytical processing tools can offer your catalog managers the most up-to-date information about operations. Look for:

• OLAP tools; and/or

• systems that can forecast cash flow and centralize budgeting.

Curt Barry is president of F. Curtis Barry & Co., a Richmond, VA-based firm that specializes in operations and fulfillment consulting for catalog and e-commerce companies. Contact him at (804) 740-8743; e-mail him at cbarry@fcbco.com; or visit www.fcbco.com.