Their transformation began in 2020 with a comprehensive audit of their digital maturity. This two-month deep dive into every facet of their business revealed over 70 recommendations to help them achieve their optimal digital maturity. With a two-year strategic roadmap in hand, we took the reins, embarking on a multi-pronged approach to modernization that included a continuous change management program, a tailored B2B e-Commerce solution and a fundamental data overhaul, to name a few.
Continuous change management to enhance organizational agility and resilience
One cornerstone of this transformation was a continuous change management program. Recognizing that the two-year journey ahead would require their employees to adapt to constant change, we tailored a program to prepare them for this evolution. The data gathered from the workshops was consolidated to create a structured, ongoing change management program for them, which has since become the established corporate standard for all their projects. Through Change Readiness workshops, employees and leaders alike were equipped with the tools they need to prepare them to lead change and create the mindset necessary to embrace change, fostering a culture of growth and innovation.
What are some the benefits of a continuous change management program?
Open and transparent communication channels are established to create an overall positive attitude, creating a culture where employees feel valued and heard, consequently reducing resistance to change.
Ensuring employees receive training to seamlessly adapt to new tools, systems, and methodologies, equipping teams with essential skills while nurturing a sense of confidence and competence.
Cultivating a learning culture where employees are encouraged to have a growth mindset, seek opportunities for upskilling, and explore innovative ways that empower them to thrive in the face of change.
Laying the foundation for a total data transformation
Any digital transformation is only as strong as its data foundation. The most critical first step to a successful transformation was to ensure that their data was accurate, clean, and complete for decision-making. We set about building a data repository capable of supporting AI applications.
AI to solve complex business problems
With a data foundation in place, we turned our attention to solving some of their biggest challenges, using the power of AI. Partially funded by Scale AI global innovation cluster, a collaborative initiative between the Province of Québec, the Government of Canada and Canadian business members dedicated to revolutionizing the supply chain through AI technologies, four state-of-the-art AI models were developed to address inventory management issues caused by manual and inaccurate forecasting, as well as to provide visibility into end customer purchasing patterns.
AI for customer segmentation and cross-sell/up-sell
To create visibility to end customer purchasing behaviours, AI was harnessed to segment customers and facilitate cross-selling and upselling. We created a python AI model that scraped data from unstructured external sales documents and merged it with direct sales data into a Finance Data Mart. The cleansed data was used to create two AI models; Customer Segmentation and Cross-sell/Upsell.
The Customer Segmentation model identified patterns in customer purchasing behaviour and organized customers into segments. Previously they used gut feel and their 30+ years of experience in the industry to segment customers.
The Cross-sell/upsell model made product recommendations based on the customer segments identified by the Customer Segmentation model. This helped their sales, marketing and e-commerce teams gain valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences, enabling more targeted sales and marketing strategies. The result, as expected a boost in overall sales.
AI for accurate demand forecasting and planning
Another critical area addressed was demand forecasting and planning. With their current Warehouse Management System (WMS), they were still lacking certain data and features in the out of the box forecasting solution. Their inventory management process led to overstock and out-of-stock situations that impacted sales.
A complex and error-prone process, largely reliant on gut feel, was replaced with a robust AI forecasting module and was developed through:
- Addressing data outliers to enhance the precision and dependability of forecasts
- Evaluating various models and choosing the most precise one
- Offering detailed analysis at the levels of warehouses, products, and customer segments
- Enhancing performance to ensure efficient and timely outcomes
This model not only improved the accuracy of forecasts but also provided granular analysis at multiple levels, ensuring timely and evidence-based decisions without the need for manual intervention. Read the use case AI for accurate demand forecasting and planning.
AI for inventory optimization
This model is currently still in progress, but is designed to leverage multiple different parameters, such as lead time and order intervals, to optimize inventory levels.
Reporting, analytics and visualizations for informed decision-making
Our team collaborated closely with their team to deliver a suite of reporting, analytics, and dashboards. The initial focus was on sales reports, tailored to the complexity of their retail (pharmacies) and institutional (hospitals) divisions. Crucial for understanding their sales trends and making informed decisions, required details included visibility on actual sales versus contract commitments. These reports empowered decision-makers with the insights needed to navigate this complex business landscape. Many of the visualizations were then built as a result of the outputs of AI modeling, which helped the team interpret the insights from the AI models.
We used data visualization, fueled by the centralized data repository our team built, which enabled self-service reporting for all user levels and trained their IT team promoting autonomy and scalability within the organization.
Integrated Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) tools to streamline planning, budgeting and forecasting
The transformation continues…The KPI Digital team implemented data visualization tools with AI to replace Excel-based budgeting and forecasting, shortening planning cycles, improving forecast accuracy and make more informed business decisions.
Since datasets, such as actuals and budget, are pulled from the same database, this integrated planning solution created a single source of truth for their financial planning, eliminating the versioning and formula errors that often plague Excel-based processes. This solution proved more efficient than their previous processes. On top of the features of the tool itself, EPM is often referred to as “Excel on Steroids”, making the finance team extremely comfortable with the user interface.
B2B e-Commerce website
The digital transformation extended to the need for them to modernize their digital presence. Understanding that customer experience is one of their top priorities, we implemented a leading B2B e-Commerce website platform. It was the only eCommerce platform that checked off all the boxes; a flexible all-in-one solution that doesn’t rely heavily on developers, can easily be managed by their internal teams and which provides a level of business agility and scalability previously unavailable to them.
In addition to their tailor-made B2B eCommerce solution, we built a custom middleware that seamlessly integrates the website with their ERP/OMS solution. Live customer-specific pricing, efficient product variant management, and an enhanced customer journey led to a 35% reduction in manual orders and a projected 80% adoption rate for non-EDI customers, with a projected 7% increase in total revenue forecasted over the next two years.