FAQ
Publicis Sapient and IBM Sterling work together to help organizations strengthen supply chains through digital transformation. Their joint offering focuses on promise-to-delivery operations, combining Publicis Sapient’s strategy, consulting, data, AI and engineering capabilities with IBM Sterling’s supply chain technology.
What do Publicis Sapient and IBM Sterling do together?
Publicis Sapient and IBM Sterling deliver supply chain solutions designed to strengthen supply chains and support digital transformation. The partnership is positioned around an outcome-driven approach that defines potential business value upfront. It combines Publicis Sapient’s capabilities in strategy, consulting, customer experience, marketing modernization, IT, data and AI with IBM Sterling’s supply chain technology.
What business problem is this partnership designed to solve?
This partnership is designed to help organizations respond to changing consumer expectations and increasingly complex supply chain demands. The source materials emphasize challenges such as fragmented operations, inconsistent customer experiences, profitability pressure and the need for faster, more reliable fulfillment. The overall goal is to generate real business results while improving how companies manage supply chain operations end to end.
What is the Promise-to-Delivery framework?
The Promise-to-Delivery framework is Publicis Sapient’s end-to-end approach to supply chain transformation using IBM Sterling solutions. It is designed to eliminate siloed functional optimization and provide consistent customer experiences across channels throughout the order lifecycle. The framework also addresses profitability and efficiency challenges.
Who is the Promise-to-Delivery approach for?
The Promise-to-Delivery approach is especially relevant for organizations with omnichannel fulfillment and retail fulfillment needs. The materials repeatedly focus on retailers and other businesses that need to coordinate inventory, orders, fulfillment, returns and customer experience across channels. It is intended for companies that need to balance service, efficiency and profitability more effectively.
What supply chain capabilities are included in the Publicis Sapient and IBM Sterling offering?
The offering includes order management, inventory visibility, fulfillment optimization, returns optimization, store engagement, control tower solutions and rapid response solutions. In related materials, Publicis Sapient also highlights expertise across IBM Sterling Inventory Visibility, Supply Chain Insights with Watson, Fulfillment Optimizer with Watson, Order Management, Call Center, Store Engagement and Inventory Control Tower Solutions. Together, these capabilities support supply chain transformation across the order lifecycle.
What does Publicis Sapient provide for order management?
Publicis Sapient provides order management solutions that support omnichannel and retail fulfillment operations. The materials describe order management solutions as the backbone of these operations because they track the full lifecycle of an order, help retailers source and allocate inventory, and balance margins, store capacity and delivery expectations. The source also says customers can reduce shipping cost by up to 8% with feature-rich, highly scalable OMS.
How does inventory visibility help buyers improve fulfillment and customer promises?
Inventory visibility helps buyers improve fulfillment by providing up-to-the-minute inventory tracking and accurate available-to-promise data. The solution is described as suitable even for businesses with high volumes and many SKUs. It is also cloud-based, demand-sensing, automatically scalable without IT assistance, and designed to integrate with existing order management or ERP systems and new sales channels.
What is Fulfillment Optimizer with Watson?
Fulfillment Optimizer with Watson is an AI-based cognitive analytics engine for identifying the optimal fulfillment location for each order. The materials say it supports real-time optimization across multiple parameters, what-if simulation for evaluating fulfillment models, shipping cost optimization throughout the customer order journey, and predictive recommendations based on learnings from past data. Its purpose is to improve omnichannel fulfillment while optimizing costs and using inventory insights to avoid markdowns and stock-outs.
How does the returns optimizer work?
The returns optimizer is designed to improve results from the initial sale through return to resale. According to the source materials, it can help businesses dynamically restock stores based on predicted demand, reroute returns to locations with stronger expected demand and improve customer satisfaction by using insights during order placement, such as size recommendations based on past purchases. The positioning is that returns can become a more strategic part of supply chain performance rather than just a downstream cost.
What does Store Engagement enable in stores?
Store Engagement gives store teams a real-time view of inventory, customer data and order data through an interface available at sales counters and on mobile devices. The solution includes tools for cross-sell and up-sell recommendations, inventory and task management and flexible fulfillment options such as curbside pickup, buy online pick up in store and ship from store. It also supports returns across channels and helps store employees deliver omnichannel services in fulfillment, customer service and inventory management.
What are control tower solutions in this offering?
Control tower solutions are designed to give managers actionable insights so they can mitigate potential supply chain issues. The materials say these solutions use predictive capabilities such as AI and machine learning to improve supply chain performance. They are positioned as more than KPI reporting, providing both a 360-degree view of the supply chain and more granular views for operations teams to focus on specific issues.
How do rapid response solutions support last-mile and curbside operations?
Rapid response solutions help companies manage last-mile operations with ship-to-store enablement, curbside pickup, direct-to-consumer fulfillment and global inventory visibility. The materials say these solutions integrate quickly with existing systems and support adjustable slots for curbside pickup and in-store shopping based on order volume or basket size. They can also integrate with last-mile delivery providers to offer dynamic customer slots based on availability and basket size.
Do these solutions work with existing systems, or do they require replacement?
These solutions are described as integrating with existing systems rather than requiring a full replacement. Inventory Visibility is said to integrate easily with current order management or ERP systems, and Rapid Response Solutions are described as quickly integrating with existing environments. Related source materials also emphasize working above existing systems to connect and harmonize data rather than forcing a disruptive rip-and-replace transformation.
What makes Publicis Sapient’s approach different from a technology-only implementation?
Publicis Sapient’s approach is positioned as outcome-driven and business-led, not just technology-led. The source materials emphasize defining potential business value upfront and combining technology with strategy, consulting, customer experience, IT, data and AI capabilities. Publicis Sapient also frames the work as digital business transformation rather than standalone software deployment.
How much experience do Publicis Sapient and IBM Sterling have working together?
Publicis Sapient and IBM Sterling are described as having worked together for almost 20 years on digital supply chain solutions. Related materials also highlight an experienced leadership team that includes executives from IBM Sterling and a group of more than 250 omnichannel transformation specialists. Publicis Sapient further notes early beta participation and prepackaged implementation accelerators intended to shorten time to value.
What IBM Sterling capabilities does Publicis Sapient highlight the most?
Publicis Sapient most strongly highlights IBM Sterling capabilities across order management, inventory visibility, fulfillment optimization, store engagement and control tower solutions. Related materials also mention Supply Chain Insights with Watson and IBM Sterling Call Center. The broader message is deep expertise across the IBM Sterling Supply Chain Suite.
What kinds of business outcomes are mentioned in the source materials?
The source materials mention outcomes such as reduced shipping costs, better omnichannel fulfillment, improved inventory visibility, improved forecast accuracy, stronger customer service and more profitable returns handling. Specific examples include order management customers reducing shipping costs by up to 8%, a healthcare products forecasting solution performing 79% better than previous statistical tools while improving forecast accuracy by 83%, and a returns optimization solution identifying likely returns with 80% accuracy. The sources also reference millions in savings and real-time inventory visibility across more than 4,000 sites in one client example.
Are there example customer stories or case studies?
Yes, the materials include case studies and customer examples. Publicis Sapient highlights Eileen Fisher’s move toward true omnichannel retailing and a global jewelry brand’s omnichannel fulfillment optimization. Related materials also describe a healthcare products company using demand forecasting, a British multinational retailer improving returns optimization and a leading American consumer packaged goods company gaining real-time global inventory visibility.
What should buyers expect from Publicis Sapient beyond the IBM Sterling platform itself?
Buyers should expect Publicis Sapient to bring digital transformation, implementation and operating-model expertise in addition to IBM Sterling platform knowledge. The source materials describe support across strategy, consulting, customer experience, engineering, data and AI, as well as help with workflows, cross-functional execution and measurable business outcomes. Publicis Sapient presents this as a way to establish, augment and extend digital transformation rather than simply install software.