6 Steps for a Successful DMS Implementation

The announcement of India Budget 2021-22 is right around the corner, and big hopes are riding on the economic and policy announcements from the world’s fastest-growing economy. Perhaps, we could debate the semantics of “fastest-growing economy” in our current, depressed fiscal climate. Fortunately, we are optimists, as you already know, and we do see the economy and the pandemic turning the corner soon.

In our weekly newsletters, we have talked a lot about digital transformation and B2B eCommerce Marketplaces. However, as 2021 starts, we want to go back to the building blocks of digitising your downstream supply chain with a Distributor Management System (DMS).

At Bizom, we take pride in rolling out a fully integrated DMS in less than six to eight weeks for many of our customers. There are milestones to achieve and best practices to follow to meet that schedule. We thought to share it with you hoping that you can share it with somebody who needs to understand the journey.

Phase 1: Week 2 – Week 3

Week 1 & Week 2 >> Masters Clean Up

The first absolute thing to do is to clean up your master data. We’ve observed lots of redundant information built over time in our customers’ legacy data. Often, it’s data on inactive SKUs and parties that are idling in the system. It’s vital to clean up the irrelevant information. As Mary Kondo does, ask yourself, “Does this spark joy?” Mercilessly, declutter your data. It’s a vital step in ensuring good DMS compliance.

Week 3 >> Integration

ERP integration is one of the most important steps in deploying a DMS at your organisation. It’s critical in the deployment process, and yet, most companies want to go live without integrating their ERP with the DMS platform. Your DMS needs to read the following data, and only an ERP integration allows it:

• Primary Sales
• Primary Orders 
• New Party Creation

Phase 2: Week 4 – Week 5

Week 4 >> Schemes Configuration

Configure your primary and secondary schemes into the DMS platform. It will allow you to track and monitor your scheme spending. It will also assist you in claim settlements. 

Week 4 & Week 5 >> Invoice Template

Standardise your invoice template, and it will enable you to better track market changes. You can also track if your distributors are sending system-generated invoices only in the market. 

Phase 3: Week 6 – Week 7

Timely Claim Settlements

Provide incentives to distributors to ensure their use of your new DMS platform. Settle the distributors’ claims promptly through the DMS platform, and it will encourage new digital behaviours and sustain them over time. It also makes the adoption of any of your future technologies easier with this target audience.

Phase 4: Week 8

Rewarding Compliance

Implementing a DMS requires a strategic approach to change management. Incentives are an essential part of this strategy since it will be difficult to drive change among distributors without rewards. Create a plan to reward compliant DMS users and celebrate their successes across the distributor network.