Back-office

This is the foreword to Automation Pays! by Corley Phillips President, Telephone Response Technologies, Roseville, CA: Computers are becoming an integral part of our everyday lives. This is especially true in businesses, where computers have gone from being a luxury to a necessity. Companies, such as Wal-Mart, have shown retailers how sophisticated inventory management through automation can give a company the competitive edge it needs to become a leader. It was this distinct advantage of automation that led my company to choose its mission statement: "Helping Growing Businesses Operate More Effectively."; Automated businesses truly are more effective. Those who do not automate find themselves at a particular competitive disadvantage. Their automated competitors always seem to have the popular items in stock, while those with manual systems have "dust collectors" soaking up carrying costs and profits. Competitors conduct rifle-shot marketing campaigns based upon current customer data, while those without customer information are still scattering their marketing dollars in shotgun fashion. Their competitors respond instantly to new trends based on up-to-date information, while the ones with manual systems find themselves guessing - often wrong. So, where do you turn for information on automation? In an industry as young as the PC software industry, it's unusual to find a guy like Chuck Atkinson who can provide a decade and a half of automation experience. His deep-seated conviction that automation is not only a necessity but a very profitable investment comes from years of experience in developing products for retailers and seeing the resulting benefits. This book will clearly demonstrate the advantages of automation in very practical terms.

"We feature Automation Pays! in our point-of-sale training video. An excellent resource."; Larry Jackson, Business Technology Association.

A big thank you to the authors for providing a clear analysis of this horrible and destructive activity. For all of us that have been scapegoated, we now understand why, and know how to work through our issues of guilt and low self-esteem. A wonderful book!

As a (non-IT) executive of an established brick & mortar retailer which is about to start selling online, I wanted to get a god practical understanding of the many issues related to e-commerce logistics. I threw away this book after wasting on it 2 hours, when I realized I still had not learned a single new thing.
The author's hands-on experience with the subject is clearly limited, and the writing style is that of a consultant: if you take away all the buzzwords and the high-level and over-used strategical concepts, hardly any content is left.
This book is probably a compilation of marketing information found on the top 100 websites that come up in Google if you search for "e-commerce logistics". You may find the book useful only if you work in IT and need an overview of what various software vendors have to offer in this area.

Logistics And Fulfillment For e-Business: A Practical Guide To Mastering Back Office Functions For Online Commerce is a straightforward instructional manual to the basic logistics of designing, managing, and running an efficient model for profitable e-commerce regardless of the product or service being offered. From outsourcing technology; to dealing profitably with shipping costs (including the pros and cons of USPS versus other package shippers); to handling customer relations in e-Business; and much, much more, Logistics And Fulfillment For e-Business is a handy, user friendly, "how-to" reference with invaluable, practical advice for any merchant or entrepreneur setting up an e-storefront to supplement (or replace) a traditional brick-and-mortar based commercial operation.

I bought another one of the author's book a few days ago and felt she had hit that technology right on the head so I decided to try her logistics and fulfillment book. I wasn't disappointed. I had basically given up trying to find a good book on logistics and fulfillment -- no one seemed to really understand the complexities of the multi-channel world.

This book not only deals with Internet based companies, it gives the reader the information necessary to integrate an online business with traditional channels. It provides complete knowledge of how goods flow from the initial source all the way to the customer's premise. The author explains how to reach the ultimate goal of a state-of-the-art logistics and fulfillment operation. The book details how to determine in real time the sales data, warehouse inventory, production plans, and shipment schedules as an order traverses the value chain. There is even a detailed explanation of the tools need to crunch the necessary numbers into some form of reliable forecasting.

The author really understands that the success in the world of multi-channel requires a well-defined business model and the tight integration between legacy and online applications and systems, specifically in the areas of product category, customer, order, distribution, fulfillment, data, and operational management. While the book does point out that logistics and fulfillment is no easy task, it also explains that optimal logistics and fulfillment is achievable and the end result will make all the effort and money spent worthwhile.

As highlighted in the FAST COMPANY (Oct. 1999 issue), the compny talk show is getting more and more important, either for your career or help the company to compete. Take a look at it.

If you are a Treasury Back Office professional...don't buy this book. It is a broad and very high-level overview.
Be aware that you can have precisely the same book, from the same author with a different name: Back Office & Beyond.

Not many book titles exist in the area of back officeprocedures and settlements, so after seeing the title of this new book and its review ... , I decided to order it.....now I wish I had spent my [$] another way. The subject referred to in the title covers less than half the book's text. The other half of the book regurgitates the same old "risk management best practices", well known examples of risk oversight failures and Basle recommendations issued with respect to the regulation of market risk (issued in 1996, which came into effect in 1998). There are far better books written on the subject of risk management and the author should have stuck to describing what the title of the book suggest: back office procedures and settlements. In this area, the he book would have benefitted from some updating to reflect "state of the art" technologies. The "best practices" for managing operational rsk in the area of foreign exchange settlements are far better described in a paper on this subject by the NY Foreign Exchange Dealers Association (1996)and can be downloaded for free from (for example) the JP Morgan website.

If you're interested in obtaining a high-level overview of the subject, this is an excellent book.