Eqos launches solutions to improve profitability of trade promotions for CPG manufacturers
23 March 2002
With approximately 30 percent of all food and Consumer Packaged Goods sales in Europe on promotion at any one time but only an estimated 35 percent of these turning a profit for the manufacturers, Eqos has developed a suite of solutions to improve the effectiveness and profitability of these costly trade events.
CPG Workbench establishes, links and refines internal procedures to drive out inefficiencies, producing dynamic communications and workflow processes between the traditional information silos of marketing, sales, supply chain and finance. Additionally, it builds on the experiences from past promotions to provide 'what if' evaluations of future events, including calculations of Return On Investment (ROI). Using this technology, benefits for a £1 billion CPG company would equate to savings of £11.5 million.
"Research by Accenture confirms our view that on average CPG manufacturers are spending 13 percent of their turnover on trade promotional events with no fact-based insight into how they will perform. To make better business decisions, senior management needs real-time visibility of what is happening so that they can make strategic, tactical, and operational judgments both before and while an event is in progress," comments Mike Quinn, CEO, Eqos.
The CPG Workbench forms a cycle with four applications which can be used together with information integrated to and from existing supply chain planning systems.
Typically businesses hold a number of varied forecasts for forthcoming promotions, so at the outset the pre-event Business Planning module focuses on managing and aligning forecasts of both volume and spend, providing a clear update and sign-off mechanism. It also helps with key aspects of business planning such as year end predictions.
At the next stage, the Pre-Event Evaluation module uses the learning's from past promotions to provide an insight for future promotions, in terms of anticipated returns and 'what if' modeling.
The Event Management module helps streamline the day-to-day promotions management process including in-flight management where live sales data can be compared to the original forecast to produce a reforecast that enables better availability to the customer and reductions in the normal high levels of exit stock. Due to pressure of deadlines and paper-based processes the success of most events is not generally reviewed and archived for future reference.
The Post-Event Evaluation module completes the cycle, capturing annotated performance data and feedback so that subsequent planning and pre-Event evaluations can be based on experience.
Notes to Editors:
Eqos Ltd
Eqos delivers flexible, proven solutions for Partner Relationship Management over the Internet. Eqos helps its customers achieve rapid return on investment from modular, integrated solutions built with change in mind, to significantly advance supply chain effectiveness. Founded in 1997, Eqos is headquartered in the UK with offices in the US. Eqos' Platform technology is recommended worldwide as a Microsoft preferred platform for collaborative working. Eqos' proven technology is based on Microsoft's .NET framework as the delivery platform. More information can be found at www.eqos.com
For further information, please contact:
Linda Laderman or Anne Lomax
Laderman PR
5 Portland Place
London W1B 1PW
Phone +44 (0)20 7436 6676
Fax +44 (0)20 7580 0555
Email annel@ladermanpr.co.uk
