What kind of POS is that? April 30, 2008
Posted by Randal Stocker in Analytics and Business Intelligence.Tags: AHMA, data synchronization, GS1, PIM, Point of Sale, POS, Primary Operating System
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What kind of POS is that?
P.O.S. is an interesting acronym. If you are a healthcare provider it can mean “Physician Office Services” for the codes they enter on your chart or “Point Of Service” to mean the plan type where you use a primary physician of your choice . A teenager texting their friends may type POS for “Parent Over Shoulder” to let them know to be discrete. If you are in data center operations or architecture you know it as “Primary Operating System”. I believe many of us are aware of the most widely used form, usually to describe a *&%$/”^ malfunctioning appliance or car. In the retail world it stands for “Point of Sale.”
I recently attended the AHMA Hardlines Technology forum in Memphis. There were the usual discussions of PIM, GS1 and Data Synch but one of the more interesting sessions for me was the untapped uses for POS data. Retailers collect POS data from their registers and shopping cart checkout software and usually analyze it for average weekly sales, replenishment levels, promotion success and sometimes provided it to key suppliers for their planning purposes.
POS data can be intimidating. First it’s huge; there can be gigabytes of data to sort through. Next, it needs to be cleansed to eliminate the “noise” so you can find what is really hiding in there. Extremes such as one-time huge sales, returns and non-sale events need to be removed plus the data needs to be normalized for analysis across territories and suppliers. Many organization have tried to push the data through Business Intelligence tools or put it into Data Warehouse cubes with marginal success. Many argue that POS data aged beyond a week is of little value.
POS data can provide great insight into your customers and their demand but you have to know what to look for. Beyond replenishment and category management POS can provide geographic/store analysis of items, “Out of balance” store transfer opportunities, shipment rates/velocities tracking, real-time out-of stock alerts, rate of sales, benchmark for on-hand balance thresholds, sales velocity tracking, and input assortment planning. If the POS data is supplemented with other data such as supplier inventory levels and en-route shipping information you have real supply chain visibility. Look for me to invest time into real-time POS solutions for our customers. Let me know what you are using POS data for and what you would like to use it for.
Randy
