Services Provided


Sales Support & Positioning for Supply Chain Service Providers

Supply chain service providers face extaordinary challenges in today's global marketplace. Our 7-step process delivers high impact results for supply chain service providers such as contract manufacturers (CMs), electronics manufacturing services (EMS), kitting and fulfillment firms, 3PLs, 4PLs, LLPs, warehousing services, distributors (raw & finished good) and transportation firms.
Following is a description of Avicon Partners 7-step process for promoting supply chain services. Please contact Bruce Arntzen or call 978-793-1411 for more information.
1. Proprietary Financial Benchmarking of Company Operations
    We help Service Providers get their customer's attention by using two proprietary tools for automated financial benchmarking and to identify specific strengths and weaknesses in a company's operations:
    1. Tiger Table - On-demand comparison a company to its closest competitors on key metrics: Revenue Growth, Net Income, SG&A percentages, COGS percentages, inventory days of supply (IDS), days sales outstanding (DSO) and days payable outstanding (DPO).
    2. PICOmeter™ - Real-time comparison a company to its entire industry by quartiles on key metrics: Revenue Growth, Margins, SG&A percentages, COGS percentages, inventory days of supply (IDS), days sales outstanding (DSO) and days payable outstanding (DPO). In addition, this advanced tool provides powerful "what-if" analysis and reporting capability to model the improvement opportunities impact on the company's financials.
2. Innovative PICO™ Methodology for Business Transformation
    We cast the customers need for improvements in terms of a Supply Chain Innovation Life Cycle. The process uses the PICO™ Methodology to determine the best configuration of the Supply Chain DNA to optimize the three corners of the Board Room Triangle. The PICO™ Methodology includes:
    1. Process: Physical flows of material and business proceses
    2. Information: Business partner integration, supply chain process, planning
    3. Cash Flow: Costs, inventory asset performance and working capital
    4. Organization: Structure, alignment, performance, rewards, development
3. Display Thought Leadership: Supply Chain DNA of Leading Companies
    We help the Service Provider project an image of supply chain thought leadership. Avicon has chartered the Supply Chain DNA of leading companies in the areas of Process, Information, Cash and Organization. This work was published in a sentinel article in Supply Chain Management Review
4. Service Provider's Best Practices: A Short-Cut to Excellence
    We help the customer see that the Service Provider has already embraced supply chain best practices by mapping their capabilities on the supply chain DNA.
    We help the Service Provider make the point that the customer can take the fast road to supply chain excellence by leveraging the Service Provider's supply chain DNA.
5. Comprehensive Framework for Outsourced Operations Management
    We provide a comprehensive framework for the management of complex supply chains including significant outsourcing of operations. We provide a thorough Job Description for a Senior VP of Operations including the overall framework of functions, relationships, systems and operations that must be created and managed.
    This helps the customer appreciate the breadth and complexity of their job and the role that Service Providers can play to deliver some of these capabilities.
6. Service Provider's Offerings Mapped onto the Framework
    We map the service providers offerings onto the same framework as above to show the customer how you already have an integrated solution for many of their needs.
    This one-stop-shopping alternative can simplify their job and provide a fast track to supply chain excellence.
7. Next Steps - Getting Started
    We work with the Service Provider's Sales team to select a specific sales situation to use for a proof of concept.
    We work side by side with your sales team to prepare the materials and make the pitch to the customer.
    We validate this this methodology one customer at a time.

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