Order 4471: please confirm delivery date
Agents for the product that needs to be in the range by tomorrow.
Monday morning in buying. A supplier has sent their new collection as an Excel file with 400 rows, and it will be a week before the products are in the merchandise management system with images and attributes. Meanwhile, someone in customer service is opening the 60th return of the day, although most returns could be decided by the same rules. And in accounts, a supplier invoice that is two per cent off the agreed terms is going through. In retail, speed is what counts: how quickly a product is in the range and how quickly a return is dealt with. We want that speed to stop depending on how many people happen to be keying in data.
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Where your time goes today
It takes days for a new product's master data, images and attributes to get from the supplier's list into our merchandise management system.
We check every return individually, even though I know for a fact that eighty per cent of them could be decided by fixed rules.
Supplier invoices depart from the agreed terms, and nobody notices until we've paid.
Six processes an agent can take on here
Each one sets out what comes in, what the agent checks, what goes out and when a person has the final say. Your own process will have its quirks, and that is the one we want to hear about.
Set up products from supplier data
IntakeA supplier list as an Excel file, PDF or catalogue extract, with products, prices and attributes in the supplier's own structure.
DecisionThe agent maps the attributes to your own schema and checks for duplicates, GTINs and mandatory fields. It then suggests a product category and a price.
ResultPre-filled product master records in the ERP and an error report you can send back to the supplier.
Assess and decide a return
IntakeA return request from your web shop or a marketplace, with the order, the reason and a few photos.
DecisionThe agent checks the return period, the condition of the item, the customer's history and your returns policy, and decides the standard cases itself.
ResultFor standard cases, a returns label or a credit note. Otherwise, a recommendation to customer service.
Check a supplier invoice against agreed terms
IntakeAn invoice with line items, discounts and a reference to the delivery note.
DecisionThe agent sets the line items against the purchase order, the goods receipt and the terms agreement, and calculates any differences.
ResultAn audit record with a posting proposal, or a draft query to the supplier.
Answer a trade customer enquiry
IntakeA restaurant owner, a trade business or a reseller emails asking about prices and availability for a list of products.
DecisionThe agent identifies the products and checks stock, volume pricing and the customer's terms. It recognises which items need a quotation from the sales team.
ResultA draft quotation with prices, availability and delivery time, set up as a record in the ERP.
Review a store's replenishment order
IntakeOrder suggestions from the stores, sometimes straight from the merchandise system, sometimes as a list in an email. Plus special requests for promotions.
DecisionThe agent checks quantities against stock, sales and minimum order quantities. It picks out outliers and items running short in the central warehouse.
ResultA cleaned-up order for each store, with a note on every change, ready to hand over to replenishment planning.
Match an advance shipping notice to the goods receipt
IntakeAn advance shipping notice from the supplier by email or EDI, followed the next day by the goods receipt from the warehouse with counted quantities.
DecisionThe agent compares the notified, ordered and delivered quantities and picks up part deliveries and wrong deliveries. It also checks whether any open customer orders depend on them.
ResultA posted goods receipt in the ERP or a draft discrepancy report to the supplier, plus the customer orders that will now have to wait.
Your process is not on the list?
Then it is probably the more interesting one. Use our Process Check to describe what piles up every week in three sentences, and we will tell you honestly whether an agent could take it on.
Assess and decide a return
We usually start with returns. The rules are already in your returns policy, and the volume is high. You see the effect every day in turnaround times, and in how much calmer customer service becomes.
Our target60%of standard returns should be decided without a manual check. Your customer service team only sees the cases where there is a real decision to make.
Agentreads
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What the agent needs
The agent needs products, purchase orders, goods receipts and terms from the ERP, customer data from the CRM, orders from your web shop and marketplaces, and the buying and customer service inboxes. We connect these sources in Microsoft Fabric and OneLake. Through Direct Lake, Power BI and the agent see the same figures, so nobody is left puzzling over reports that don't agree. If there is no proper ERP behind your shop yet, we implement Business Central at the same time, as we did for Cure Concept.
Typical systems in your industry
SAP S/4HANA RetailMicrosoft Dynamics 365ShopwareSalesforce Commerce CloudAkeneo PIMDATEV
Questions retailers ask us
We sell through several marketplaces. Can the agent handle all of them?
Yes, through the marketplaces' interfaces or their export formats. The rules stay in one place, in a single agent. If you add a channel next year, we connect it without rewriting the rules.
How do we stop the agent being too generous?
You set the limits: on the value of the goods, on goodwill and on the customer's history. Anything beyond them goes to a person. Every decision is logged, so you can see in Power BI exactly how generous the agent has been.
Our master data isn't clean. Is that a problem?
It's more a reason to start with the foundation, and you're not alone in that. Fabric shows up duplicates and gaps. The agent then works from cleaned data and flags new errors as soon as they come in.
How long does it take to get to live operation?
How quickly the first process goes live depends on how your systems are connected. After that, the agent runs in live operation, either in-house or with us as Managed Agent Ops.
What challenge is your business facing?
Your challenge is what interests us most. Send us a few lines about it. We will look at it free of charge, based on the systems you use today, and tell you honestly whether an agent is worth it.
