Retail

Retailers face a multitude of challenges - the volatile economic scenario, data security breaches, complexities and risks in global sourcing and trade, global and local compliance and legal requirements for supply chain and multi-channel operations, and the changing regulatory landscape. Added to this is a growing consumer demand for environmentally sustainable commodities that has compelled retailers to integrate sustainability practices into their core operations.

When risks, audits, and compliance issues are managed in silos, risk alleviation becomes cumbersome. What retailers need is a centralized Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) management solution that will enable them to comply with the ever increasing number of regulatory requirements, ensure that risks are identified and mitigated across the enterprise, and, protect their corporate reputation and brand value. Retailers also need to adopt a proactive approach to quality and audit programs to manage inspections effectively, identify risks across the supply chain and mitigate them, and enforce and monitor suitable social compliance policies.

MetricStream Retail Solutions

MetricStream’s holistic GRC solutions help implement an effective governance, risk and compliance management program that will help retailers to:

• Automate and optimize GRC programs and initiatives within the organization
• Integrate the governance and compliance programs with core retail operations like finance, merchandising, supply chain management, vendor risk management, and environmental management and sourcing
• Streamline audit governance programs for internal and external audits, warehouse and store audits, and environmental audits

Social Compliance: The changing pace of global markets and global sourcing requirements has brought in a number of social compliance policies that need to be maintained at every step of the retail business cycle. These policies are based on laws and regulations, women's rights, wages and benefits for employees, working hours for employees, child labor, discrimination, environmental requirements, communication and record keeping, and, implementation of disciplinary practices. The policies need to be enforced and monitored both within the organization as well as with suppliers spread across the world. MetricStream Social Compliance Management Solution helps organizations create, organize, and review policies, map policies to regulations, and communicate the policies to suppliers and employers. A powerful analytics and reporting capability along with illustrative dashboards give retailers complete visibility into the system to support a culture of governance.

Product Safety and Compliance Management: To protect their brand and consumers, retailers need to integrate product quality, safety, and compliance checks into every stage of their product lifecycle. MetricStream offers a comprehensive solution that unifies and consolidates all suppliers, testing labs, internal QA teams, safety and compliance departments, and sourcing and procurement teams in a single, centralized framework. In doing so, the solution facilitates seamless collaboration, transparency, and accountability within this ecosystem for the purpose of preventing product quality, safety, or compliance issues. The solution also consolidates and streamlines end-to-end quality and compliance management processes - including supplier/ vendor information management, product information management, RSL list management, policy management, risk management, product testing, quality inspections/ audit management, and issue and corrective action management.

Corporate Compliance Management: MetricStream Corporate Compliance Management Solution enables retailers to manage compliance mandates and regulations such as SOX and PCI. It also helps them adhere to compliance requirements set by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (FPLA), Foreign Corrupt and Practices Act (FCPA), Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and Environmental Protection Agency(EPA). Retailers can efficiently comply with Human Resource policies and procedures, training and certification requirements, privacy policies, diversity affairs, legal requirements, risk management, audit management, and IT security mandates.

Supply Chain Governance: MetricStream Supply Chain Governance Solution automates supplier management processes including supplier information management. It also helps retailers manage their supplier quality and audit programs, supplier risk, and compliance and performance programs. Through the automated and streamlined approach of MetricStream Supply Chain Governance Solution, retailers can identify, mitigate, and manage supplier risks efficiently.

Audit Management: Besides managing internal audits, retailers also need to efficiently manage store audits, warehouse audits, supply chain audits, quality audits, compliance audits, environmental audits, etc. MetricStream Audit Management Solution helps retailers automate and manage the entire audit lifecycle including audit planning and scheduling, audit execution , audit reviewing, and audit issue management . Audit plans are tracked, and the results are linked with compliance risks, performance metrics, and scorecards that provide complete visibility into the audit process and risks.

Inspection Management: Retailers need to constantly conduct external and internal inspections -- either scheduled or unscheduled -- to check on various aspects including customer experience, customer-friendliness of stores, the cleanliness and layout of the store, stock presentation, pricing accuracy, employee experience, and safety and health-related aspects both internally as well as at supplier facilities. MetricStream Inspection and Audit Management Solution helps co-ordinate , collaborate , and provide visibility into all inspection and remediation activities. The solution manages all inspections in a centralized and collaborative manner by assigning tasks, tracking statuses, and prompting remediation activities .

MetricStream’s flexible and robust Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) solutions help harmonize all risks, controls, control assessments, processes, policies, regulations, and other GRC elements in centralized libraries. It also delivers a superior user experience through intuitive navigation tools, visualization of GRC data, and simplified information sharing and collaboration capabilities.