September 2009 Entries
Posted by Tom Tipps
Price “waterfalling” seems a fairly simple process that deals with the tracking of various revenue reductions/deductions as a product travels through distribution to its ultimate destination… the end-user.
The waterfalling process supports the identification of cost-cutting/margin enhancement opportunities…typically in a company’s go-to-market model.
Last weekend I went to a casual sandwich café for lunch with my family. They had these wonderful breads to choose from, delicious salads, gourmet sandwiches & pastries, it was hard to choose! After we settled into our seats, I went to get our drinks and condiments. I grabbed the mustard, mayonnaise then I went to grab the ketchup. I was surprised to see that the ketchup didn’t follow the brand of the rest of the condiments. This got me to thinking, why do operators make the choices that they mak
Posted by Stacy Jackson
Implementing a disciplined, standardized trade promotion management process may seem like a daunting task, but it is essential in today’s business environment. Some of the risks associated with poor contract and trade spend management are:
Lost contracts and documentation
Missed deadlines and opportunities
Compromised operator and distributor relationships
“Maverick” contracts that leave your company open to risk due to unauthorized changes to contractual lan
Posted by Jennifer Grumbling
In an economy where every single dollar counts, it is more important than ever to track your spending. Not only is it important to track spending as an everyday consumer, but also for your business. In the foodservice industry when it comes to rebate and compliance performance management for chain operators, aligning the purchasing habits with purchasing agreements for a multi-chain unit can become a difficult mountain to climb.
So what exactly is involved in
Have you ever wondered how a company like Answers Systems prioritizes software enhancements or major client/corporate initiatives are? Like many other businesses, we employ the Project Management Office (PMO) concept.
At the top of the PMO Governance document, you will find the following quote: “The PMO’s function is not to make people work, but to make it possible for people to work.” This applies in a couple of ways:
Posted by Jennifer Grumbling
Lately I have been addicted to watching the Food Network, particularly Man vs. Food with Adam Richman. There’s something about watching a man battle a 30-inch pizza with over 5 five pounds of meat or watching him devour wings that reach 150,000 on the Scoville Heat Unit, this just amazes me. It’s quite an undertaking for one man.
Now what do my television habits, the Food Network and trade promotion management have in common? I’ll explain. Like Adam Richman,
Posted by John Nicholas
Over the past eight years I have interviewed scores of foodservice manufacturers. At some point in the conversation, I ask them whether their sales and marketing efforts and trade spend dollars are primarily geared toward operators or distributors? Every manufacturer recognizes the value of their distributor partners, and the need to support the distributor’s efforts in getting their products to market. Having said that, most manufacturers feel more than a little quea
posted by Stacy Jackson
Today's post is an overview of the concept of The Seven Critical Steps in Best-Practice trade promotion Management. These steps have been identified and document by Answers Systems based on over 20-years of contract management and claim settlement experience in the foodservice industry.
Posted by Stacy Jackson
While at work this morning, I had one of those random memories pass through my mind. It was of a scene from Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. You may remember this part where Slartibartfast (crazy name, huh?) tells Arthur Dent about a race of super-intelligent, pan-dimensional beings who built Deep Thought, a supercomputer designed to calculate the answer to “the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.” Much to the beings’ dismay, Deep
Posted by Stacy Jackson
Celebrity chefs and shows like Hell’s Kitchen and Top Chef highlight the creative, exciting side of the restaurant business. The contestant developing the exquisite menu item that will keep himself or herself safe from the wrath of Gordon Ramsay makes for great television.
Although they can be a big a part of a restaurant’s success, I don’t think the folks dealing with supplier contract negotiations will ever get their own shows. “America’s Next Top Purchasing Agen
If you Google “change management,” you get about 240 million results. As you can imagine, this is a hot topic and has become quite the buzzword. What is it, and when did this become one of the most integral parts of managing the success of a business?
According to Wikipedia, Change Management is “the structured approach to transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state.” Also, common sense (and Einstein) says that doing the same thing over
Posted by Sue Sanford
As the Training Manager for the ContractPro solution at Answers Systems, I have seen many contracts created by a Sales Rep/Broker that cannot be used to pay on the claims submitted for that contract. The creator (Sales Rep/Broker) logs into the ContractPro application and finds a pending or learns that their customer has not been paid. What do they do now? Some will go to the pending claim and enter a comment to use the contract they created while others will investigate
I was struck recently by a Wall Street Journal article about Starbucks. It highlighted Scott Heydon, “vice president of lean thinking,” and a student of Toyota’s efficiency manufacturing processes. Mr. Heydon’s job is to find money by re-engineering various business models. One of his recent onsite studies reduced drive-through transactions by two seconds. Another streamlined customer service by an hour-and-a-half per week. Mr Heydon’s strategies include the use of a stopwatch and a Mr. Potato H
I am, by no means, what you would call a gamer. Yes, I grew up during the height of “Pac-Man Fever,” went to the arcade frequently, played Atari at home, followed by Nintendo in the later teen years, but I pretty much left the video games behind after college. Left them behind until I fell in love with the Nintendo Wii. I now even have a GameFly subscription.
I have rented everything from Resident Evil to The Dog Island, which I did conquer by the way. I have Silent Hill, Spore, Raving Rabbid
Imagine this…
Every month you get your credit card bill (not very hard to imagine!), you hop online, and pay your bill. The only difference is that your credit card company only provides you with a total amount due. There isn’t a line item statement included detailing the charges to your card. Would you just pay your bill and trust that they’re not charging you an inflated interest rate or billing you for charges you didn’t authorize? Probably not. You could potentially be throwing away mone
As Data Acquisition Liaison, I work with foodservice distributors to set up electronic data transmissions for trade spend contract management. In today’s competitive economic environment, electronic data and automated file transmissions are key to maximizing trade spend billbacks that occur on the end-of-the-supply-chain. Answers Systems has both manufacturer and operator clients so there are many opportunities to streamline data interchange for all 3 sides of the foodservice triangle.
My
The easy answer is “both strategies, all the time”, and most manufacturers will say that they do this religiously. However, if you peel back the onion one will find that certain times are more favorable for choosing one or the other as a primary 80/20 strategy and putting appropriate resources behind it.
There really are only a few tactical applications that fit each of these strategies. Gaining new customers is sometimes the most costly way to expand business. The manufacturer must allocate
The ContractPro® Community is a dynamic, collaborative group consisting of foodservice manufacturers, brokers, distributors, operators, and the Answers Systems team. All of these entities work together within the Community to achieve a common goal that benefits each party: best-practice trade promotion and contract management.
Like all environments, the ContractPro Community evolves and grows based on the changing demands and opportunities presented by clients, constituents, and clients’ cu
There have been many discussions lately about what to do when a distributor or operator claims an incorrect amount on a billback or request. There are several options, and I wanted to point out what they are and which ones are better than others.
Disciplinarian Approach (a.k.a. “this is going to hurt me more than it does you”)
The first option is the Disciplinarian Approach: don’t pay the wrong amount – only pay the correct, allowed amount. Either the claimants will accept that “correction
Post by Stacy Jackson
Earlier this week I was reading the website of one of our ValuTrak® clients. This client, part of the hotel segment, prominently features information about one of their brand’s award-winning menus featured throughout the units of that property. They pride themselves on providing hot, cooked-to-order morning meals to their guests.
It is a source of pride to Answers Systems that this client is part of the ValuTrak Community. They have negotiated special rebates and pr
Posted by Greg Hilton
Are you one of those folks who, when prompted to participate in a problem-solving meeting or discussion, cannot help but get involved in the dialogue? Are you the type that likes to hang back and see how the discussion progresses and then give your two cents? I was reminded of a third type of person (just last evening) that has a tendency to want to lead the dialogue, quite certain that they understand enough of the facts to give great insight to those around me… um, him
Trade Promotion Management (TPM) is a term inherited from the retail/CPG side of the business.
The retail guys developed the processes/controls and channel relationships supporting the actual management of their huge trade budgets. Note here that “manage” is a verb that hints of action, which, in the context of trade promotion management is dependent on knowledge.
In the Foodservice sector, “management” of trade promotions has been elusive for decades. We were the “stepchild” in most comp