The Accenture Consumer Solution

In this new global environment, high-performance consumer packaged goods companies need an enterprise resource planning system that supports multiple business units in mature and emerging markets by implementing common master data and processes to enable effective global operations.

Based on SAP software, the Accenture Consumer Solution can help consumer packaged goods companies attain global operational flexibility and high performance. By speeding the uptake of SAP applications, the solution enables companies to realize the benefits of an enterprise resource planning system more quickly, making SAP applications an even more accessible and affordable approach to achieving growth.

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By using the Accenture Consumer Solution, clients can substantially compress their implementation time frame and effectively realize the benefits of the enterprise resource planning implementation. This compression allows users to reduce the overall costs of an enterprise solution initiative, particularly in the design phase when process modeling requirements can be most time consuming and costly, and the decisions taken drive the cost of the subsequent build and run phases.

The Accenture Consumer Solution makes using SAP applications an accessible and affordable option for all sizes of consumer packaged goods companies.

Small to Medium-size Companies:
By using the preconfigured, industry-specific template, the Accenture Consumer Solution can jumpstart initiatives and reduce the overall investment by up to 40 percent compared to a standard implementation. Accenture's applications management support options provide an attractive alternative to the challenge that many companies face in training and retaining SAP-skilled personnel.

Larger Companies:
Many large companies have complex layers of processes and established enterprise resource planning applications. The Accenture Consumer Solution provides a wide range of benefits in this context:

• The Accenture Consumer Solution can function as a critical design guide that allows business decision makers to devote their energies and scarce investment dollars to what is unique to their business, not to generic processes that are common to nearly all consumer packaged goods companies and provide limited competitive advantage. This design guide capability can shorten the time needed to implement while ensuring that the necessary functionality is covered.
  
  
• In many large organizations, a portion of enterprise processes may already be supported by SAP. In these situations, the Accenture Consumer Solution can serve as the bridge to cover new processes and innovative solutions like customer relationship management, supply chain management, product life cycle management and integrated planning.
  
  
• The Accenture Consumer Solution is a perfect accelerator for companies that need to realize further benefits by accessing SAP upgrades or further consolidating instances. Both the new functionalities and the opportunities for improvement behind the latest SAP functional and technology advances can be identified after using the preconfigured scenarios.
  
  
• Complexity reduction and harmonization benefits provided by simplified landscapes can be easily validated by accessing the Accenture Consumer Solution environment hosted in the Accenture Global Solution Network.

The comprehensive Accenture Consumer Solution reduces the need to reinvent the wheel on SAP applications implementations. It delivers high performance for consumer packaged goods companies that require an accelerated, affordable boost to their enterprise capabilities to achieve growth in a changing global marketplace.

The Accenture Consumer Solution
The Accenture Consumer Solution accelerates the design and implementation of SAP with an innovative, preconfigured solution. It uses the high-performance process model to capture Accenture's vision of the business architecture and underlying process models of high-performance consumer packaged goods companies. This component-based solution uses the standard SAP software for the consumer packaged goods industry combined with proprietary Accenture business solutions to address a wide range of industry needs.

Out-of-the-box functionality available through the Accenture Consumer Solution includes:

• Flexible organizational structure set up to cover multiple operating models and ample geographical reach.
  
  
• Master data definitions for complex, industry-specific products and customer structures, sales force organizations, logistics operators, transport carriers, plants, suppliers and copackers/subcontractors.
  
  
• Complete and flexible pricing structures able to manage the complexity of multiple trade terms, resulting in both on-invoice and off-invoice conditions.
  
  
• Supply chain planning scenarios integrating demand and fulfillment events across the network and enabling collaboration across customers, suppliers, third-party logistics and manufacturing partners.
  
  
• Promotion management scenarios.
  
  
• Order-to-cash scenarios enabling organizations working in single or multiple distribution channels.
  
  
• Customer relationship management scenarios that expand the core SAP solution into the client/consumer experience.
  
  
• Performance management across different business processes.
  
  
• Special regulatory and reporting procedures including eco-tax reporting, traceability, special labeling and EAN128.
  
  
• Specific scenarios to cover vertical sub-segments within food manufacturing, foodservice, wholesaler, tobacco, home and personal care, and alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.

Contact us for more information about the Accenture Consumer Solution and how it can help you become a high performing business.