RCS

An Online Analytical Processing system for FMCG products that can be accessed from all across the world over Internet/Intranet. The system offers many Standard Reports and also has the provision to accept new adhoc queries from users which are delivered in form of on-line report / excel attachment in mails within the agreed time.

pss IT Services, a private limited company based at Kolkata, India has developed the software and maintains databases for clients at their datacenter at Kolkata. The system is developed using three-tier architecture. The database is maintained in Oracle 9i and the user interfaces and middle tier are developed in Microsoft DOT Net. More than one physical database and web server are used for load balancing. High Internet bandwidth has been deployed for high speed data transfer. The software is developed for analysis of sales (volume) of FMCG products from outlets.

Salient features of the system:

Census data on sales are collected from outlets by the Company or agencies appointed by the Company. The data is collected using a uniform form (can be collected both on hardcopy as well using an electronic form). System has the provision to accept data in Microsoft's Excel Sheets. Data is uploaded in the system using an automated utility developed by us. Apart from the automated utility, user interface in the system can also be used for data entry. Data includes (not an exhaustive list):
1. Product item wise sales volume of each outlet
2. Outlet details like :
  1. Name
  2. Addresses
  3. Contact person
  4. Total sales volume including other companies' products
  5. Geographical map identity number
  6. Average footfall
  7. Average age of consumer
  8. Total turnover outlet
  9. FMCG turnover
  10. Number of consumers per day
  11. Cola price
  12. Beer price
  13. % of village sales
  14. Industry volume
  15. Hawker name
  16. Service frequency (number of times sales executive visits the outlet
  17. Throughput
  18. Channel (this indicates the nature of outlets in which the products are sold)
  19. Location (physical attribute of the outlet location, which can be Excellent/Good/Average)
3. There is also provision in the system to capture the following data:
  1. Merchandising category
  2. Merchandising product category
  3. Merchandising nature
  4. Merchandising type (In shop, On shop, In + On shop)
  5. Merchandising size
  6. Fabrication cost
  7. Rental per month
  8. Upto 3 images of the outlet (in JPEG or TIFF format)
4. Following shelving status information is also maintained in the system:
  1. Shelving product category
  2. Shelving company
  3. Shelved brand group
  4. Shelving type
  5. No. of units in shelving

Once the data is loaded, based on the established business rules, system computes certain derived or calculated measures. These calculated measures are stored in the database, which are used for Standard Report and Ad Hoc query. Some of the derived measures are:
- Industry Volume
- Company Volume

Volume Class	Rule (V=Total volume in M/Day)
1	V >=1.51
2	V between .81 and 1.5
3	V between .5 and .8
4	V between .31 and .49
5	V between .1 and .3
6	V < .1

Outlet Profile

Profile Description

High (Product Segment X) >=0.5 OR (Brand Y in Product Segment X + Product Segment X) >=1 OR (Product Segment X /Industry volume) >=.25 OR (Brand Y in Product Segment X + Product Segment X)/ Industry volume >=.50

Medium (Product Segment X) BETWEEN 0.3 AND 0.4999 OR (Brand Y in Product Segment X + Product Segment X) BETWEEN 0.6 AND .9999 OR (Product Segment X / Industry volume) BETWEEN 0.15 AND 0.2499 OR (Brand Y in Product Segment X + Product Segment X)/ Industry volume BETWEEN 0.30 AND 0.4999

Left (Product Segment X) <0.30 OR (Brand Y in Product Segment X + Product Segment X) <0.60 OR (Product Segment X / Industry volume) <0.15 OR (Brand Y in Product Segment X + Product Segment X)/ Industry volume <0.30

Total Outlet Turnover class

Class Description

A Total outlet turnover >= 11000

B Total outlet turnover between 7500 and 10999.99

C Total outlet turnover between 4000 and 7499.99

D Total outlet turnover between 2000 and 3999.99

E Total outlet turnover between 833 and 1999.99

F Total outlet turnover between 665 and 832.99

G Total outlet turnover <= 664.99

TM call target

Target Rule

Y Volume class 1,2 and 3

N Others

Distribution target

Target Rule

Y Top outlets with Industry volume >= 80% and Industry volume > 100

N Others

Traffic profile class

Profile Description

High Profile % of football >= 60

Medium Profile % of football between 30 and 59

Low Profile % of football < 30

Spending power class

HS Cola price >=50 and beer price >=150

MS Cola price between 20 and 49 or beer price between 90 and 149

LS Cola price <20 or Beer Price <90

Village sales class

Profile Description

A % of village sales > =75

B % of village sales between 50 and 74

C % of village sales between 25 and 49

There are other derived valued specifically for Horeca outlets, Secondary Wholesale Dealers.

The system is designed in a simple way to ensure that other classification rules may be incorporated in the system within a very short period of time.

Following Standard reports are available in the system:
- Outlet by Class/Profile/Location
- Outlet by Class/Profile/Location/Channel
- Company/Industry by Class/Profile
- Serviced Outlets by Class/Profile
- Serviced Outlets by Class/Channel
- Volume/Turnover by Channel
- Volume by Segment/Channel
- Availability by Channel/Class
- Retail throughput
- Merchandising by Class/Profile
- Product category by Intersection
- Product category Intersection - Company/Brand
- Many product based availability norm reports are available in the system, for example list of outlets selling more than [value] of brand X and brand Y. In these listings users has the choice to select the fields that they want in the report.
The reports can be drilled down to the outlet level. Graph/Charts can be taken from the system.

Apart from these classification rules, there are provisions for complex calculations which involve multi step pre computation of aggregates/sorting of data. One of such complex calculation is 'Target flag for Distribution'. This calculates cumulative volume of outlets in a selected geography and then identifies the outlets which contributes to the 80% volume and also sells more than 10 packs.

The system also offers facility of adhoc query by users. This facility is used when users want information which is not readily available in the system through standard reports. The modus operandi is as under:

Users enter the adhoc queries from the highly flexible and user friendly interface. Once the query is saved it can be viewed online. Users can choose from operators (<, >, >=,<=,=) including logical operators (and , or) and exclude, include functions to define the query. Because users can write the query by selecting, there is absolutely no scope of ambiguity and this makes the facility very flexible and usable. System prompts with clear messages if users make incorrect selection and therefore the learning curve is also very simple. The query is saved with user id and date/time stamp.
We at our datacenter have designated staff for generating output for the new adhoc queries. The system is updated with the output in the night and the users can see the new report within a maximum turnaround time of 24 hours. System displays the delivery date/time. On request, we send the output in Microsoft Excel format as an attachment with the mail.

All the reports including the adhoc queries are downloadable in Excel format.

The data is available on the basis of geographical distribution like Region, Branch, State, Trendbelt, Market etc. All reports can be filtered on the basis of population group. Provision for taking reports at a summary level is also there in the system.

Users can at any point of time view the outlet details on screen.

Original data is retained in the system as history. For example if an outlet changes its Whole Sale dealer, system will maintain the old details as history. Therefore users can view old data at any point of time.

System has the provision of maintaining total Company sales, Competitor sales.

There is provision for storing images of outlets in the system. This gives the management an idea of the display of items in the outlet and whether they are as per the requirement.

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Security and Confidentiality

We have non disclosure agreement with clients to ensure data confidentiality. All our staffs have to sign a similar non disclosure agreement with us.

Latest version of checkpoint firewall is being used for data protection. Antivirus software is automatically updated.

A written, tested Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is in place which includes basic requirements and plan for onsite and offsite back ups.

Logical and physical access controls have been implemented in the datacenter to protect the installation from both logical and physical abuse.

Application level access controls are as under:

Users access the system on the basis of privileges. Privileges will be role based and each RCS user will fall under one such Role.

Each user will have a user id and a password. Password will be maintained in encrypted form in the system. The main login screen to RCS will require a user id and a password. The password will be encrypted and then sent for server verification. System will verify the encrypted password. On successful verification, system will check the role attached to the user. User will thus get the privileges attached to the role. For example all branch managers (roEastern Region in the system, relevant branch of the Eastern Region will be selected and system will automatically pick up the mapped circles and sections. Similarly an Area Executive (role) will get access to sections only and while adding a user with Area Executive role, the relevant sections le) get access to branch, circle and section. Therefore for adding a branch manager of will be selected.

A user with Administrator role, will have access to the entire system. New users can be created by Administrator only.

A user id can be deactivated in the system by an Administrator. Such a user will not be able to access the system. Again an administrator can activate the status.

Roles & Privileges
Privileges for roles are based on :

Geography (District, Branch, Circle and Section)
Application (masters, standard reports, adhoc query, user creation)
Privileges (view/create/modify)

Password Rule

When a new user will be created, default password will be allotted to the user by the administrator
Password length should be a maximum of 14 alphanumeric field
Password should be a minimum of 8 alphanumeric field
Same Password cannot be used for a maximum period of 5 times
Password expiry period should be parameterized with a provision to allow users to change password before expiry.

Logs - Every activity in the system will have a log with user id, date and time stamp and the activity.

Support:

Toll free number available for users to call for assistance from 9.30 am to 7.30 pm from Monday through Saturday

Interactive user interface from which users can send SMS to escalate unresolved issues, if any. This is available on 24 X 7 basis.

Email facility.

State of the art Data centre facilities with provisions for adequate power supply, latest telecommunication infrastructure like high speed Internet bandwidth, broad band communication link. The services are taken from more than one ISP to ensure redundancy and availability.

We have Database Administrator and Network Administrator on whole time basis.

Management

The datacenter is managed by qualified professionals like Oracle Certified Database Administrator, CISCO Certified Network Administrator (CCNA), qualified programmers, Certified Information Systems Auditors (CISA) and Certified Information Security Manager (CISM). The help desk is managed by trained operators who speak English and local languages with equal élan.

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