What we do / Cross-cutting enablers / Process digitalization

Process digitalization

For owners, chief executives and general managers, both of restaurant and retail networks and of food manufacturing companies.

Qualified people spending the month
connecting systems that do not connect.

The issue is not the technology available, but the time the current processes consume and the information that arrives after the decision.

The work starts from the flows that cost the most hours and returns the time freed up as the first measurable result.

The situations the engagement starts from

Reconciliations are done by hand

POS, warehouse, purchasing, payroll and accounting produce numbers that do not add up, and squaring them absorbs every month the people who should be analyzing them.

The information arrives once the decision has already been taken

The data exists, and the path it has to travel to reach the people who decide is longer than the window in which it matters.

The processes grew by accretion

Every step was added to solve a problem of the moment, and nobody has rebuilt the full sequence since.

Every new request generates work from scratch

A different view requested by the board or by a lender means an extraction done by hand instead of a selection.

The questions AC Retail Advisory answers
How many hours they costthe recurring reconciliations
Where the flow breaksbetween the people who produce the data and the people who decide
What can be integratedwith the systems already in use
Who maintains the new setuponce the engagement ends

What the work covers

01

The map of processes and information flows

Who produces which data, at what frequency, toward whom, and where the flow breaks.

02

Removing the reconciliations

The recurring reconciliations done by hand are turned into rules, starting from the ones that cost the most hours.

03

Integration of the sources

The systems already in use are put in a position to exchange data, before the introduction of new tools is assessed.

04

Automation of the repetitive steps

The steps with low value and high frequency are automated, with the count of the time freed up.

05

Documentation of the revised processes

The new setup is described in a form that can be consulted and updated, so that it survives changes of people.

06

Training the people who will use the system

The company’s own people are put in a position to maintain it without depending on whoever built it.

What the client is left with

  • The map of the company’s processes and information flows
  • The rules that replace the recurring reconciliations done by hand
  • The integration between the systems already in use, where technically possible
  • The documentation of the new setup, consultable and updatable
  • The company’s own people trained to maintain it

Who works on the engagement

The engagement is directed by Andrea Calistri, founder of AC Retail Advisory. Execution is assigned to the practitioner chosen for the scope, introduced to the client before work begins.

Andrea Calistri’s profile →

Frequently asked questions

The first step is to check what the systems in use already produce. Replacement is assessed when the constraint sits in the tool and not in the process.
It includes the selection criteria and the economics of the comparison. The selection stays a decision of the company.
The first measurable effect is the time freed from reconciliations, and it reads in the month after the first flow is addressed.

Let’s talk about your company →