Janet Zlokovich

Where have all the recycling bins gone? Collaboration on Trade Promotion for Going Green

Answers Systems — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:06:41 GMT

As we wrap up the 2009 year, I want to leave you one thought as you have discussions with your supply chain partners on trade promotion . . . .

Collaboration on data exchange should be a key factor when you establish the core objectives for your trade program model. A requirement of the model must include the submission of electronic billback reporting to the manufacturer for claim settlement. It is simply the only way vendor partners will have the proper insight into their business so they can better meet the needs of their customers, distributors and operators.

Answers Systems Eclaim^SMhas been our technology solution in production since 2006. All our clients benefit from this service. The ongoing advancements to enhance Eclaim capabilities for managing data continue with each new release. This month we introduced another new feature for loading electronic claim data. We also have dedicated IT resources staffed to retrieve and monitor the file transmissions, standardize the data load, and apply automation for a seamless flow into our ContractPro® solution for claim settlement and Athena^SM reporting.

Some manufacturers who are leading the foodservice industry with this initiative have already implemented this framework to target their company’s objectives. Others are beginning to ask me more questions to better understand how they can incorporate this component into their trade program negotiations. There are already foodservice industry standards in place by GS1 US for the preferred method of reporting billback transactions so the model doesn’t need to be invented, just implemented. I have worked with several distributors who needed guidance or have questions on this document. Others are looking for an interim solution for this format that will be an acceptable alternative.

Overall, I am seeing more companies becoming trading partners rather than partners in business to eliminate paper and drive waste from the supply chain. There can be a tremendous savings for all when the supply chain is synchronized and embraces collaboration to reduce costs.

Technorati tags: GS1 US, contract collaboration, supply chain synchronization, contract collaboration, trade promotion management, claim settlement

Contract Collaboration: Automation for Electronic Contract Supply Chain Efficiencies

Answers Systems — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:03:38 GMT

Posted by Janet Zlokovich

Trade Spend Management collaboration means calibrating terms for contract negotiations.

One of my “Best Practice” recommendations for foodservice is to Promote trading partner collaboration for maximizing efficiencies by improving the claim processing timeframe and driving waste from the supply chain by eliminating paper. The way to achieve this objective is with technology such as Answers Systems Eclaim^SM; calibration occurs when the claimant submits all billbacks in an electronic format. To learn more about what the industry is doing to support this initiative: Foodservice GS1 US Standards Initiatives

Every foodservice Manufacturer, Distributor and Operator wants to know they are a valuable asset to their trading partners. All parties need to be able to understand their business and make decisions on how to implement the most comprehensive terms for embracing and growing supply chain partnerships. Understandably, every company has their own strategies and core objectives but when the approving hierarchy is ready to sign off on the contract, they need to know they can achieve measurable ROI results.

Trade Spend for Distributor Earned Income, Deviated Pricing, Fixed Rate Allowances and Operator Headquarter Rebates are an effective way for manufacturers to incent their Distributor and Operator customers on purchase compliance. It opens the door for Manufacturers to have discussions with their customer and review expectations on their spend attainment and tracking volume milestones for new and future negotiations. An important consideration for these negotiations is to incorporate language to ensure the billback reporting is in an electronic format. It eliminates paper from the supply chain and allows Eclaim to automate the file load.

Distributors and Operators want to be able to sit down with their suppliers to understand the expectations for earning the incentive. Remember, not everything can be accomplished the first year. Begin with benchmarks that can be measured based on your current business while setting expectations to incent future milestones. This will lead the way toward new collaboration.

ContractPro® is the Trade Spend technology used by Answers Systems clients who choose claim settlement and reconciliation as a service – it is an important tool and provides visibility for the entire supply chain. Claim settlement and reconciliation is most effective when the billback reimbursement request is provided in an electronic format and provides all the required supporting information down to the unit level. This will yield the maximum benefit for everyone because there is visibility to the entire supply chain business.

When I think about the basics for trade spend contract management negotiations, I apply some valuable knowledge I received years ago during management training about how to develop SMART goals. It sounds easy and makes sense but it takes considerable time to be realistic and know you will be able to execute the terms of the contract. The reality is if you don’t negotiate correctly prior to signing the contract, you might not be able to make the Contractee accountable to your terms. Always be sure to validate that it is truly electronic reporting according to the specifications below. For example a PDF sent via email is not valid for electronic reporting.

Specifications for Electronic Reporting:

I. File Type

A flat file is the minimum requirement for sending reporting in an electronic format. This would include 1 header row for column labels.

a) EDI 867-Billback

b) Text file formats (delimited-character)

c) Excel

II. File Content

a) Detailed sales transaction records for every invoice

b) Location level summary that qualifies for a pricing, allowance, or rebate incentive

III. File Transmission Delivery

a) File Transfer Protocol (FTP) used to exchange files

b) Email

Here are some tips on how you can apply SMART goal criteria:

Specific: Goals must be clear and unambiguous.

All billback claims should be submitted in an electronic format – the standard method for Billback claim settlement.

Measurable: You need to be able to measure your goal.

Include specific language that outlines the terms and conditions to qualify.

Don’t negotiate terms that cannot be executed and measured. Make sure your Trade Spend technology solution such as ContractPro can accommodate the terms you negotiate with your trading partner.

Attainable: Implement tier components for your distributor Earned Income and Operator Headquarter contracts. Allow multiple qualifying components for eligibility but remember to validate that the Contractee’s compliance to a certain tier before entering the contract into your Trade Spend software.

Relevant: Apply enough flexibility to the goal in case your Distributor or Operator has system limitations. This will give distributors and operators that require technology improvements the motivation to enhance their current capabilities while rewarding those that have already made the investment to support supply chain efficiencies.

Time-bound: There is no time like the present. Electronic reporting must be in place before agreeing to the terms of a contract. Answers Systems clients will use ContractPro.

Tax Returns and Trade Spend

Answers Systems — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:39:42 GMT

Post by Janet Zlokovich

Everyone who sends a tax return to the IRS (business or personal) wonders, "How do I know the IRS received it?” Most taxpayers and tax preparers in 2009 used IRS e-file to file their taxes. During this process, they did not have to send a single scrap of paper to the Internal Revenue Service. In January of this year, the IRS was predicting the the total number of individual tax returns, both electronic and paper, to reach about 140 million in 2009. And it expects e-file returns to exceed last year’s record of nearly 90 million taxpayers.

Answers Systems has the similar expectations for claims we receive for Trade Spend Management on behalf of our manufacturer clients. Currently 75% of the billback claims we receive from distributors are loaded as “electronic data” using Eclaim^SM. Even better, we expect this ratio to exceed 80% in 2010. As further evidence of Answers Systems superior technology capabilities, Eclaim has become the pipeline to load electronic files for our claim processing and data acquisition services. Through our Eclaim technology, Answers Systems is supporting efforts to drive waste out of the foodservice supply chain. Eclaim provides savings in time and resources (paper, labor), and it increases claim accuracy to help prevent claim/rebate calculation errors.

One way to gain acceptance of the electronic data in the foodservice industry, is to explain how easy converting from paper to electronic can be for the contract claimant. Distributors especially, are sometimes hesitant about changing their current claim layout and developing alternative reporting file types and formats. They feel every manufacturer or trading partner will have different requirements and customizations. My answer to this concern is to use the GS1 EDI 867 standard document for Contract & Rebate Management.

In 2006, the GS1 Foodservice Committee finalized these documents for billback and sales reporting so they are ready for implementation. This committee was a collaboration initiative with manufacturers, distributors and operators. As a participant on this multi-year effort, I saw firsthand how important it is to have a common language for all sides of the foodservice triangle.

I’ve found the distributors that use the EDI 867 for communicating their billbacks have been very satisfied with the specifications. By using this standard spec you will be able to:

Document performance against a contract
Know which transaction sets t should be included in your document
Interpret standards for contract terminology
Understand guidelines for implementation

Since I work with the distributors to make sure we have interpreted and translated every field attribute before doing parallel testing with production data, I can testify to the accuracy. Distributors have all been able to accommodate their trading partner’s requirements by combining both the Header invoice and Detail transaction data in the same file. Some distributors that populate back-end systems with GS1Global Trade Item Numbers have been able to make significant advancements to communicate this data as the UK GTIN 14-digit Data Structure in their 867-billback. If we can match this number with the contract item during claim settlement, it’s a win for all parties to the contract.

As a side note, if a distributor wants their first create a format that requires less EDI expertise in their first attempt, a Text-Delimited format can work well for an alternative in the interim. I’ve seen every possible file type in my role as Data Acquisition Liaison. Answers Systems has a complete staff of Business Intelligence experts who perform the set up and administer ongoing data load for electronic billback files that require this service so we have many options available to assist foodservice with Trade Spend Management.

Electronic Data for Foodservice Trade Spend Contract Management

Answers Systems — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:49:50 GMT

Posted by Janet Zlokovich

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 role in data acquisition includes manufacturer billbacks for distributor deviations, distributor earned income, and operator HQ rebates. On the operator side of the channel we receive sales reporting for our ValuTrak service and order guide price verification. During the 28 years I’ve been in foodservice, 17 were spent in contract management so I’ve seen it all and found it just gets more interesting!

For this Blog, I am going to talk about manufacturer billbacks because of their significant revenue impact to the bottom line. Reduced paper administration, elimination of manual data entry, enhanced working capital, and increased visibility to the entire contract management lifecycle is critical for channel partners to gain a better insight to their business. It’s all about more for less.

Answers Systems has been in production with loading electronic distributor billback claim files to our proprietary application, Eclaim^SM, since 2006. Most of the Top 50 Broadline Distributors have already been implemented. Operator claimants have become our latest target for data acquisition. There are currently 60 operators submitting claims electronically that are set up to be loaded into Eclaim^SM. Over 75 operators are expected to be converted to electronic processing by Dec ’09. We know this will increase data quality at Answers Systems.

Just to give you a glimpse of our definition of “electronic data” for trade spend contract management….the electronic claim lifecycle begins when Answers Systems receives billback submissions invoiced to our manufacturer clients. We have technology capable of transforming several different file types. It all begins when we retrieve the claim file, standardize and translate the data capture, and load the file for processing the same day. Wow, that’s an advancement that rivals any service provider for trade promotion management!

I’ve found creativity, flexibility and persistence to the most important skills I need to use in my job. Each company can have different formats and file types so we tailor our data capture to translate whatever the claimant can offer so the data can be synchronized to our standard file preferred layout. I am really inspired by distributors who are ready to adopt the GS1 US standards for data exchange, but just as excited when I can work with a company who wants to make any advancement toward any type of electronic billback capabilities.

My experience has been where some distributors want to invest in developing an EDI 867-Billback on their first attempt but others will take advantage of an alternative format available to those companies who have technology or resource limitations. Either way our Business Intelligence group can turn a report into electronic data without any human intervention, it’s automation at its finest!

I’ve had distributors that prioritized their development and dedicate the necessary resources to convert to electronic reporting in less than 2 weeks. Others might take 2 years before they finally decide to prioritize the project but then realize it was much easier than first anticipated. Regardless of the time it takes…they’ll hear from me. I guess that is why one distributor nicknamed me the “pleasant pest” because they knew I would be hanging in there until they determined the best solution to fit their needs.

The latest strides in trade send management come from industry leaders who take the initiative to adopt foodservice standards, maximize pricing efficiencies, and look beyond the enterprise to leverage supply chain technologies. One Answers Systems client offers program incentives to their trading partners for customer collaboration. A required element for the program eligibility is electronic claim submission so this initiative translates to value for the manufacturer’s trade spend. They want to be recognized as the most valued supply chain partner and know the key is Electronic Contract Management. It is the critical element that will reduce costs and drive efficiencies.

In my next blog, I will explain how easy it is to convert your paper and current billback reporting into electronic data plus more on how GS1 US standards have formed the framework for the entire contract management lifecycle.

Technorati Tags: foodservice, trade spend, contract management, trade promotion management, rebate management, GS1