trade spending

There are 11 entries for the tag trade spending
Tackling the Topic of "Trade Spend"

By Kristin Avery The topic of “Trade Spend” can be a difficult one to tackle. Where does one start? What key words should I type when doing an internet search? Who are experts on the topic? What information can I trust? All right, don’t panic! Answers Systems is here to provide the answers to all your “Trade Spend” questions. You can start to tackle the topic of “Trade Spend” right here. Instead of conducting a general search on the internet that would cost you time browsing through article upon article, Answers Systems has compiled 5 of their most visited “Trade Spend” blog...

posted @ Friday, August 12, 2011 1:39 PM | Feedback (0)

Trade Promotion Management - More Than Meets The Eye

By Kristin Avery Have you ever wondered how you receive your fast food so fast? Honestly, I’ve never given it a second thought. All I know is that I turn into a five-year-old who’s been denied a toy when my food takes longer than two minutes. The television show “How Do They Do It?” on the Discovery Channel recently helped me put this fast food efficiency into perspective and led me to do some additional research on the topic. CNN Money provides a taste of how complex fast food drive-through technology really is. According to the article, “Candid Camera at the Fast-Food...

posted @ Wednesday, June 22, 2011 3:36 PM | Feedback (0)

A Home Run for Trade Promotion Management

By Kristin Avery It’s baseball season, my favorite season. My favorite team is the Tampa Bay Rays. When I’m not watching the Rays, I’ll even attend an occasional softball game. At a recent softball game, it finally occurred to me that the baseball diamond looks a lot like the Answers Systems logo. While a visual stretch for some, it was an instant connection for me. Well, once I made that initial analogy, it then opened the flood gates for a number of baseball/ Answers Systems trade promotion management analogies. First analogy...                 The first analogy between Answers Systems and baseball goes...

posted @ Monday, June 13, 2011 12:00 PM | Feedback (0)

Rebate Settlement and Data Acquisition

Tracy McQuilkin Data acquisition and cleansing in the process of rebate settlement can be a challenge. Each day in the Settlement Department here at Answers Systems, we work with thousands upon thousands of fields of data. The data we capture is only as good as the data we receive. Many times in the course of data acquisition, we get partial or illegible information. We do our best to cleanse it and capture it, but there are times when we run into roadblocks. Sometimes during the rebate settlement process, we have to place a claim on “pending” status or “on hold” to...

posted @ Thursday, November 04, 2010 9:58 AM | Feedback (0)

ContractPro Trade Promotion Management Tool v4.3 Released

Answers Systems launched the latest version of our ContractPro® solution to the foodservice industry today. The new ContractPro v4.3 release, a complete trade promotion management solution for foodservice manufacturers, offers the new Volume Auto-Populate feature among its over 24 new features and performance enhancements. The Volume Auto-Populate feature automatically analyzes the prior contract period’s claims and estimates volume forecasts automatically when the user renews the contract. Volume estimation when renewing an agreement can be one of the most problematic components in forecasting contract profitability. The Volume Auto-Populate feature in the latest ContractPro v4.3 release will automatically estimate volume based on actual...

posted @ Saturday, October 30, 2010 2:31 PM | Feedback (0)

Millions of Lines of Data Involved in Getting Food on the Table

by Stacy Jackson The amount of data involved in moving food from farm to fork is overwhelming. Even narrowing the focus to data related to foodservice trade promotion management still leaves millions and millions of data to contend with at any given moment. When we take it down to just the universe of Answers Systems’ client data, it’s still quite a bit of information that must be dealt with in order to pay rebates, perform contract management functions, and analyze trade promotion spending. Answers Systems handles incoming claim data for manufacturers and operators at an average of over 5 million lines per...

posted @ Wednesday, October 13, 2010 3:47 PM | Feedback (0)

Nestlé Professional Vitality Beverage Welcomes Continuing Relationship with Answers Systems

Oldsmar, FL, March 23, 2010 -- Answers Systems, the leading provider of foodservice trade promotion management solutions is pleased to announce it’s partnership with Nestlé Professional Vitality Beverage Solutions in managing its trade spending processes. Nestlé Professional Vitality enters this relationship with Answers Systems after acquiring Vitality Foodservice, Inc., Tampa, Florida. Prior to this acquisition, Vitality Foodservice had been working with Answers Systems to manage its trade promotion programs. Nestlé Professional Vitality sees Answers Systems as the optimal solution provider in continuing to manage the complexities of its Vitality foodservice trade promotion and spending. Since 1986, Answers Systems has been...

posted @ Tuesday, March 23, 2010 9:43 AM | Feedback (0)

One Size Does Not Fit All

The Foodservice Industry is changing. Foodservice has evolved to a $600 billion industry. Along with growth comes “growing pains”. Manufacturer’s trade promotion spending now totals more than $70 billion annually. Where foodservice trade spend was just a black hole that companies tried not to think too hard about; the elephant in the room has grown to extent that it can no longer be ignored. There is a new awareness of the need for more accountabilities, and greater transparency in not only wher

posted @ Tuesday, March 09, 2010 9:25 AM | Feedback (0)

Trade Promotion Management: What is Trade Spend?

Posted by Tom Tipps There’s been a lot of dialogue around the topic of trade-spend management in the Foodservice industry; but, in all honesty I’m not sure the industry has ever really agreed on the definition of “Trade” Spending. From my perspective Foodservice trade spending involves incentives paid by manufacturers directly to their operator and distributor trading partners…to motivate those trading partners to purchase, sell or promote the manufacturers products/brands to the restaur

posted @ Thursday, December 10, 2009 8:50 AM | Feedback (0)

Optimize Resources Tied to Trade Promotion Management

In yesterday’s blog post (November 22), I touched on how the ContractPro® solution helps foodservice manufacturers mitigate risk in their trade promotion management process. Today I want to give an overview of how Answers Systems and the ContractPro solution help foodservice manufacturers optimize resources tied to trade promotion management. The reality in today’s economic environment is that most organizations are having to do more with less – less people, less budget dollars, less time. A

posted @ Tuesday, November 24, 2009 9:04 AM | Feedback (0)

The Times They are a Changin'

Posted by John Nicholas I am old enough to remember life before computers. There was no real information to guide business decisions. I had to rely strictly on my good looks and personality. Okay, I exaggerated; I just had my personality to work with. But the point is that I remember a time when everything was based on relationship, not numbers. “Back in the day”, as a foodservice manufacturer rep, if I had a great relationship with a distributor or operator buyer, many times I could

posted @ Wednesday, October 07, 2009 3:04 PM | Feedback (0)