What challenge(s) do our clients face?
Providing high quality and reliable service throughout the Order-To-Cash process is a pre-requisite to compete in today’s market, and with ever more demanding consumers, can become a platform for differentiation
Service level is a broad term which can reference many attributes – product quality, On Time In Full (OTIF) delivery, order tracking, flexibility – and understanding how to get it right starts with understanding the needs of your customers. Order-To-Cash is becoming an increasingly relevant strategic pillar, as digital transformation and changing preferences have reshaped the consumer journey to put Supply Chain closer to the end user, and Customer Services center stage.
Realizing an Order-To-Cash strategy is a challenging journey. By nature, the process is complex, due to the high volume of transactions, interdependencies with multiple functions and direct customer impact. We have often seen organizations across different industries struggle to:
- Truly understand the needs of their consumers, and translate these to Supply Chain requirements throughout the Order-To-Cash process
- Design and implement the operation and/or network to deliver on these needs
- Embed flexibility to enable fast reaction to market changes, failures or shocks within the system
- Build a continuous improvement mindset, listening to customers throughout the order cycle
How do we help?
We support our clients to design and implement an effective Order-To-Cash strategy, putting the customer at the center
We work together with you and your team to incorporate controls throughout the Order-To-Cash process to increase revenues and margins, reduce risk in cash conversion cycles and improve operational efficiency. Our methodology helps you to:
What are the benefits?
Implementing a comprehensive but streamlined Order-To-Cash approach benefits both you and your customers:
- Increase service level: improve performance in key attributes to drive customer satisfaction
- Improve visibility: closer tracking of each step in the OTC process, for you and the customer, to identify bottlenecks and support continuous improvement
- Free time of your senior team: guarantee clarity over roles and responsibilities and minimize time in meetings through an efficient governance, giving seniors more time to focus on core business issues
- Measure competitiveness: monitor performance against Cost-to-Serve targets
- Increase productivity, reduce headcount: reduce time spent on non-value-adding tasks and issue resolution, and increase efficiency of activities
- Reduce costs: reduce quote and order errors
- Protect cash flow: ensure credit policies and commercial conditions are being adhered to, and shorten the cash conversion cycle
How does it work?
A tailor-made and hands-on approach, to achieve both short and long-term results
Every business is different, and no one knows your business better than you do. The strongest solutions come from a combination of your insight and our technical expertise, leveraging cross-industry best practices to develop a best-in-class approach suited to your needs.
Involving professionals across the organization throughout the process is critical – not only to incorporate their functional inputs, but to guarantee from the beginning that the team understand the need for change and have all the skills and tools to implement it.
Our methodology is structured in five steps:
SUCCESS STORIES
CHALLENGE
To strengthen its portfolio, a multinational client in the field of seed production and technology development acquired a global competitor. Supply chain maturity was a key target in the Strategic Plan, and formed the basis of the integrated business’ competitive advantage.
The organization asked for Integration’s support to integrate the core supply chain processes, leveraging best practices to capture opportunities to improve quality, effectively manage capacity, and provide better service to customers.
APPROACH
We focused the project on planning and delivery processes, assessing the end-to-end steps to identify pain points and set priorities.
In delivery, we redesigned core processes to eliminate bottlenecks and meet service level targets, while in planning we clarified roles and responsibilities within the team, and implemented a new governance to improve day-to-day tracking and decision making.
Where necessary we adjusted the organization structure and systems to enable the new ways of working, and supported the team on the ground throughout the implementation.
RESULT
The structural, governance and process changes were successfully embedded in the day-to-day, resulting in improved performance in critical indicators:
- 35% increase in On-Time
- 60% increase planning accuracy of the planning, leading to lower write-off
CHALLENGE
Our client, an FMCG organization with revenues over $4bn USD, had attempted to implement three major changes simultaneously – a new GTM model, a new 3PL partner, and a new system. Issues in the transformation had severe knock-on impacts on the Order-To-Cash process, which was on the brink of collapse. The organization sought help from Integration to turnaround the Order-To-Cash process and minimize customer impact.
APPROACH
We undertook an in-depth assessment of service level failures, considering industry benchmarks, to isolate the source of each issue. In each case, we redesigned or adjusted the relevant process to correct the gap, and worked with internal teams to implement the new ways of working.
RESULT
The leading Service Level KPI increased by 12 percentage points, surpassing the pre-crisis level. Additionally, as a result of the redesigned processes and solutions in place, the client received a Top Vendor Service Level award from one of their main Key Accounts.
CHALLENGE
Our client, an Agribusiness and fertilizer business with revenue over $7 bn USD, had recently redesigned its GTM with the intention of increasing market share. The new strategy put increased pressure on the supply chain, which was already suffering from several critical gaps.
In implementing the new GTM, the organization experienced a drop in availability on time (essential for a harvest-driven supply chain) and the sales team quickly became overloaded, spending a significant portion of their time on Order-To-Cash activities which would normally fall under the remit of a customer services team.
APPROACH
We focused on the Brazilian operation, and started by redesigning the S&OP process to guarantee availability without overstocking to protect margins. Following this, we worked across functions to redesign Order-To-Cash, integrating the sales force with production to reduce total order time and improve productivity, supporting the team through the implementation.
RESULT
Increased product availability and 30% decrease in sales team time dedicated to OTC activities.
CHALLENGE
Our client, a Chemical business with revenue over $16 bn USD, wanted to revolutionize its service level following a currency devaluation to defend its market-share from foreign competitors.
The existing order cycle was highly immature, with a large amount of manual intervention causing delays and impacting client satisfaction. Integration was asked to support the business in lifting the bar in Order-To-Cash.
APPROACH
We conducted a full assessment and gap analysis of the end-to-end Order-To-Cash process, and worked with an internal team to redesign the activities and flow, as well as the enabling Customer Service structure.
We prepared a clear long term roadmap for the organization to implement all changes on a feasible timeline, prioritizing low-hanging fruits to deliver fast results and reinforce buy-in from the team.
RESULT
Within 6 months, the business had significantly reduced its cash conversion cycle, freeing more than USD 10 MM per year on working capital, resulting in a 100% self-funded Customer Service Transformation
OUR INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE
We have extensive experience in Customer Services and Order-To-Cash improvement projects, developed over the past 20 years in industries including such as Foods & Beverages, Agribusiness, Consumer Goods, Electronics, Chemicals and Petrochemicals.
From delivery at different levels in countries all around the world, we have built a robust methodology to form the foundation and starting structure for projects of this type – however every business is different, and just as critical to success is leveraging your team’s knowledge of your market and ways of working. By bringing together cross-industry best practices and a deep understanding of your needs and pain points, we develop solutions which truly fit your reality and enable you to hit your objectives.
TALK TO US
Agustín de Trápaga
Agustín de Trápaga is a senior manager at Integration and has been working since 2019 in the Argentinean office in the Supply Chain Practice. His project expertise is the design of strategic distribution networks and last-mile delivery, the design of conventional and automated distribution centers, and re-engineering of logistics processes in sectors such as beverages, [...]
Alessandra Reganati
Alessandra Reganati is a director and has been working in our Supply Chain practice since 2014, helping our clients to overcome challenges related to logistics, planning and efficiency. She has worked with clients in industries as diverse as Consumer Goods, Petrochemicals, Healthcare, Retail, and others with projects such as S&OP redesign, Order-to-Cash process improvement, Inventory [...]
Augusto Ribeiro
Augusto Ribeiro is a partner at Integration and has been working since 2003 in the Marketing & Sales practice. Augusto built a solid international experience, leading and implementing strategic Marketing & Sales projects in industries ranging from Consumer Goods through Construction & Property Development to the Financial Industry, especially in the Private Equity sector.
Carlos Lima
Carlos Lima is the president of Integration and a founding partner. Carlos has worked with leading international companies across the globe as a consultant for the last 30 years and has developed a particular specialization in Marketing and Sales. He is considered an expert in the Consumer Goods sector and on the topics of Commercial [...]
Francisco Pereira Leite
Francisco Pereira Leite is a partner and has been working within Integration since 1999. An all-rounder, Francisco has moved across our practices, working for the first eight years with focus in Supply Chain and then increasing his scope to the Finance & Management and Implementation areas. His experience over more than 150 projects includes Implementation [...]
Gerard Schoor
Gerard Schoor is a partner at Integration based in Paris, France. He led the Mexico City office from 2008 until 2020. He is currently in charge of Integration’s business development in Europe where we work from offices in Munich and London. His main areas of expertise revolve around supply chain, manufacturing, circular economy, strategic roadmaps, [...]
Gilberto Sarian
Gilberto Sarian is a founding partner at Integration. Over the course of more than 25 years he has led the development of Integration`s award-winning Supply Chain practice, advising international clients across Latin America, Europe and USA. With a background in Engineering, he frequently participates in events and lectures across the world, to discuss latest trends [...]
Hugo Ribeiro
Hugo Ribeiro is a founding partner at Integration and can count on more than 30 years of experience in consulting. Hugo, who holds a post-graduate degree in Business Administration from Harvard University, is a senior specialist in the area of Finance & Management and frequently leads projects in Organizational Structure, Strategic Planning, M&A, Improvement of [...]
João Barros
João Barros is a partner at Integration and has been working since 2006 in our Supply Chain practice. During this period, he been instrumental to the practice's development in Integration's 7 offices around the world, contributing directly to its numerous awards in Brazil. He has led, and continues to lead on numerous projects in Planning, [...]
Jorge Gomes
Jorge Gomes is a senior director and a highly experienced professional in our Finance & Management practice having joined Integration in 2008. Jorge has travelled to countries around the world in support of our clients, leading projects related to revenue management, strategic planning, M&A and more. He has a well-rounded experience having completed multiple projects [...]
Julian Lempp
Julian Lempp is a senior director at Integration's Munich Office. He has experience both within consulting and industry, having previously worked for a leading German consultancy and as a business development manager within an industrial goods manufacturer. While he has experience across many project types, his specialization lies in supply chain, having undertaken numerous consulting [...]
Lucas Castilho
Lucas Castilho is a senior manager on the Supply Chain team at Integration and has been with the company since January 2023. His experience includes planning, supply chain, S&OP and WMS implementations.
Roger Saltiel
Roger Saltiel is a partner at Integration and has been working since 2002 in the Marketing & Sales practice. Considered an authority in the Indirect Channel and Partner Relationship Management (PRM), he is a member of the Associação Brasileira de Atacadistas e Distribuidores (ABAD) [Brazilian Association of Wholesalers and Distributors], working in the leadership of [...]
Wanderley Scatolin
Wanderley Scatolin is a senior manager within Integration’s Implementation Practice. He has extensive consulting experience with Integration in Supply Chain and Implementation projects and within industry, having worked as an Executive Planning Manager at Biolab Farmacêutica. His experience includes managing the entire integrated planning flow, from coordinating the flow of new product launches (NPDI), to [...]