Combined solutions allow consumer goods organizations to determine impact of trade promotions, new product introductions
Waltham, MA, and Washington — September 1, 2004 — Demantra, a provider of trade promotion management, marketing analytics and supply chain planning solutions, today announced a strategic partnership with Vision Chain Inc., a provider of demand data software that collects, cleanses, organizes and publishes retailer point-of-sale (POS) and inventory information for evaluation and analysis throughout the enterprise.
Vision Chain said its data adaptors will enable Demantra's clients to access POS data from retailers in order to monitor sales performance and develop more accurate baseline and promotional forecasts down to the single stock-keeping unit (SKU) level.
"There was a time when being able to digest and understand syndicated data was a powerful competitive advantage. Today, however, the market requires a more real-time ability to understand in-store conditions, retail demand and inventory positions," according to Dale Hagemeyer, research director, Gartner Intelligence. "Having visibility within a 24 to 48 hour timeframe is a huge step forward. POS data analysis in near-real-time is the next competitive advantage."
Demantra Trade Promotion Management (TPM) suite, which is built on an advanced planning and analytics platform, is an integrated, closed-loop, Web-based system for managing all aspects of trade promotion activity. Demantra said the solution, fed by Vision Chain's demand signal data, is designed to allow manufacturing organizations to gain near real-time insight into their products' performance in the marketplace and into the business of their most important customers.
Vision Chain's capabilities integrate with the Demantra Spectrum Suite, thus enabling manufacturers to proactively respond to the volatility of demand that results from trade promotion and merchandising activities. According to the companies, manufacturers can then develop more effective trade promotion and category management strategies, improve the impact of trade spend, manage new product introductions and retirements, reduce out-of-stocks, and measure the effectiveness and ROI of trade or channel promotions to improve customer service levels.
"Revenue is made and lost at the retail shelf," remarked Bill Seibel, president and CEO, Demantra. "Our customers realize that to be the best possible supplier, they must know more about how to keep product on the shelf than the retailer both on- and off-promotion. To achieve this level of precision, they must have immediate and continuous visibility to product and category performance at the store-level."
