WEB SERVICES AS AN INFORMATION ENABLER IN THE
RETAIL INDUSTRY
Sudeep Mallick
E-commerce Research Lab, E&R, INFY (NASDAQ), Electronics City, Hosur Road, Bangalore - 560 100, India
Anuj Sharma
Domain Competency Group, INFY(NASDAQ), Electronics City, Hosur Road, Bangalore - 560 100, India
Keywords: Web services, retail, business intelligence, RFID, POS.
Abstract: Retail organizations works on thin m
argins and hence it is very imperative that they utilize information
technology to achieve optimization on time and space in the entire retail supply chain in order to remain
competitive. Web services is an emerging technology holding tremendous promise as a platform neutral,
easy to implement mechanism to achieve information and business process integration in the extended
enterprise. In this paper, we review how Web services in consonance with other technologies can prove to
be an effective business enabler for the retail business when adopted in a phased manner.
1 INTRODUCTION
The retail industry works on thin margins (Banks,
2003) and competitive advantage lies in being able to
achieve supply of goods at the best possible price
and at the right moment without any interruption up
in the retail supply chain and in being able to deliver
the goods to the end customer ensuring highest
customer satisfaction down the supply chain (Kent &
Mentzer, 2003). Needless to say, this would depend
upon the organization’s ability to mobilize and
disseminate the right information at the right moment
to the decision makers and to those who would
implement those decisions.
In the next section, we look into the basics of the
retail b
usiness and the retail supply chain. In section
3, we analyze the capabilities of Web services
technology and its symbiosis with other emerging
technology in serving as an effective information
enabling mechanism. In section 4, we finally propose
a road map approach to applying the Web services
technology to the information enabling needs of the
retail business, keeping in mind the current maturity
level of this promising new technology.
2 THE RETAIL BUSINESS
A typical retail organization has the business
objective of procuring goods from suppliers and
reselling them to end customers or consumers
(Mason & Burns, 1993). The chief value add
functions provided by the retail organization are in
terms providing a buffer or cushioning effect
between the supply and demand, stimulating the
demand and arranging for adequate supplies to
meet the renewed demand and customer service.
Internet has also given birth to the online retail
model – the online market place like the
Amazon.com, eBay.com, etc.
3 WEB SERVICES AS AN
INFORMATION ENABLER
The term Web services has come to denote a
universally accepted XML standards based
mechanism for exposing business functionality
over the internet (Ogbuji, 2002) and is based on a
service oriented architecture (SOA). Hence, it can
be exploited both for simple information exchange
and execution of full-fledged multi-step business
transactions and workflows. Interoperability and
190
Mallick S. and Sharma A. (2005).
WEB SERVICES AS AN INFORMATION ENABLER IN THE RETAIL INDUSTRY.
In Proceedings of the First International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies, pages 190-193
DOI: 10.5220/0001226901900193
Copyright
c
SciTePress
universally acceptability of the Web services
standards are important issues to ensure effective use
of this technology (Kotok, 2004). This has not been
achieved yet for all the layers (reliability, security,
workflow and transactions, etc.) of the Web services
stack except for the foundational core standards for
service exposure, service usage and service message
exchange format – SOAP, WSDL and UDDI
(Mallick et al. 2004). This means it would not be
incorrect to say that Web services standards in their
current maturity may have limited applicability in the
role of a true business process integrator.
However, due to its tremendous potential as an
information exchange mechanism, it can enhance the
potential of other data collection, data processing and
information dissemination mechanisms and
applications. Being available in two modes –
synchronous (based on the RPC model) (Adams,
2002) and asynchronous it can be utilized in either
real-time mode or otherwise. Business intelligence
(BI) Web services (Business Intelligence Web
services, 2003) could be embedded in operational
applications like ERP, SCM, CRM (Mello, 2002),
etc. Real time data from RFID (Violino, 2003) and
POS systems could be made available for business
activity monitoring (BAM) using synchronous Web
services based information integration. Web services
could be used for information dissemination over
mobile, hand-held devices, etc. (XInternet
technologies). Finally, information items from
diverse applications running on diverse platforms
could be integrated into an Enterprise level
dashboard using the Web services standards for
enterprise portlets – WSRP (OASIS, 2004).
4 ROAD MAP FOR THE
ADOPTION OF WEB SERVICES
IN THE RETAIL BUSINESS
In this section we propose a road map approach to
application of Web services in the retail organization
and the retail supply chain. In stage 1 (Figure 1) we
propose that the retail organization use Web services
for simple information exchange among enterprise
applications in a limited way requiring minimal
security infrastructure and perhaps behind the
firewalls of the organization. This would require use
of the core SOAP and WSDL standards. In stage 2
the organization having gained experience with this
new technology could move ahead for information
exchange across the firewalls and over the internet.
This could include data exchange across the supply
chain with the trading partners of information not
requiring stringent security aspects like that for
financial transactions. In this stage, the information
could be collected from XInternet technologies
like RFID and POS systems and made available to
the plethora of mobile and hand-held devices over
the internet / intranet on a selective basis. But
before they could do so some form of agreement
on the data standards among the supply chain
partners would need to be worked out. In stage 2,
the retail organization having a well developed
common information model (CIM) in place and
also having gained some experience with tackling
security aspects across the firewalls, the
organization could move ahead towards a scenario
where data having stringent security requirements
like customer profile, financial information, etc.
could be exchanged over the internet. This would
be stage 3. By this stage, the retail organization
would have gained experience with simple, single-
step and secure information exchange across
applications and devices within and across the
firewalls using Web services, paving the way for
more complex scenarios. In stage 4, the Web
services standards for transactions and workflow
and reliable message exchange could be utilized
for accomplishing complex, security critical, multi-
step business transactions and workflow within
and across the firewall (Little et al., 2003).
Stage 1
Stores / Delivery channel
Stores applications – diverse POS systems
(Tarpley, 2001) could be integrated.
Shelf management – RFID data on product
uptake and customer purchase behavior inside
the store can be shared online with the stores
managers on their mobile devices.
Retailer back office
Data from operational applications could be
made available to line managers through
mobile devices, enterprise portals, etc.
Inputs on historical data from data warehouses
as well as RFID data could be integrated into
Enterprise dashboards/portals for analysis and
planning.
Stage 2
Stores / Delivery channel
Real time POS and RFID data on sales, could
be sent back to retail office line managers,
field sales agents on their mobile devices,
terminals.
Latest information on new product release and
price catalogs could be made available to field
WEB SERVICES AS AN INFORMATION ENABLER IN THE RETAIL INDUSTRY
191
Figure 1: Suggested stages for adoption of Web services in the retail business.
sales personnel, store managers on their mobile
devices.
Retailer back office
Line managers could execute lightweight
queries on BI applications from their mobile and
hand-held devices.
Inventory level information from DCs and
warehouses could be accessed real-time (using
RFID technology) for merchandise planning.
Supplier
Can update their product catalog, product
availability information maintained at the
retailer’s vendor portal at real-time.
CPFR (Ashcroft, 2005) on a selective basis –
POS and RFID data from the stores, DCs could
be made available to the supplier – for certain
critical, fast moving products or LOBs.
Stage 3
Stores / Delivery channel
Customer could update their profile and view
targeted sales information on their mobile
devices and over the internet.
Stores could be sent advance shipping notes
(ASN) by the retailer to enable proactive
planning.
Retailer
Retail head office could receive data on stores
performance (top sellers), price deviations by
stores by receiving updates on sales and product
price from diverse stores applications. This
information could be fed into the merchandise
planning systems for BPM and for making
stores supply, commission, discount related
decisions.
Multi-channel delivery – coordination of
product delivery and dissemination of
promotion related information across multiple
delivery channels could be achieved by
accessing real time information about
customer behavior, DC and stores inventory
and channel performance.
Supplier
CPFR on a wider scale – real time sales and
inventory information could be accessed on
critical products like the fast moving items,
new product releases to fine tune their
replenishment and supply activities.
Stage 4
Stores / Delivery channel
Mobile checkout could be enabled for the
customer at the stores, kiosks.
Stores personnel management applications
(time & attendance, salary, commission, etc.)
on diverse platforms could be integrated with
the HR and Financial applications of the
retailer head office.
Retailer
Real time events such as falling inventory
levels at the stores, kiosks, DCs could be
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viewed by the managers for merchandise
planning. Integrating this real time information
from the stores, kiosks and DCs with the
merchandise planning system using Web
services could enable automated triggers for
undertaking replenishment activities paving the
way for BPM.
Auto PO acknowledgement when retailer places
an order, notification of the beginning of the
fulfillment process, notification of the pick,
ASN (advance ship notice) from the supplier,
notification to the supplier about rejection of
goods delivered due to faulty documents could
be enabled using RFID and Web services based
workflow.
Supplier
Automated replenishment, order placement,
fulfillment and settlement could be achieved by
Web services based integration of the vendors’
and retailer’s merchandise management system,
financial management system.
Changes in the vendors’ policies, contractual
agreements, compliance issues could be worked
out in a workflow by integrating the B2B
systems of the retailer and the vendor.
5 CONCLUSION
In this paper we analyzed that adoption of Web
services in the retail industry. Web services in
consonance with other enabling technologies like BI,
mobile and hand held devices, enterprise portals and
operation applications can serve as an application,
data and business process integrator. However, due
to lack of maturity of standards in the entire Web
services protocol stack it could be used with certain
limitations. It is recommended in this paper that Web
services be adopted first as an information integrator
in the retail supply chain.
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