March 2010 Entries

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)

Answers Systems Named Top 60 Top Work Places in Tampa Bay

Oldsmar, Florida--March 22, 2010: Answers Systems was recently named one of Tampa Bay’s Top Work Places 2010 by the St. Petersburg Times. The 60 leading employers in the Tampa Bay region were nominated by their employees, who were then surveyed about a variety of topics, including practices and policies that make these companies the top places to work.

posted @ Monday, March 22, 2010 10:24 AM | Feedback (0)

Distributors Can Now Receive Payment Detail Via Email

Answers Systems now offers foodservice distributors email versions of check stub details. This communication of payment detail will have a positive impact on both manufacturers and their distributor customers in the contract management process. This new system ensures that: The right person receives the payment detail information every time A notice of payment is generated and emailed at the time the check is cut in order to help limit deductions The recipient is able to more easily review information and communicate with his or her manufacturer representative when...

posted @ Friday, March 12, 2010 8:28 AM | Feedback (0)

Contract Collaboration Webinar - Join us on March 17 at 2:00 pm EDT

Navigating the various systems required to complete and execute an agreement between trading partners in the foodservice industry grows more complex by the day. As more distributors and operators implement their own contract management solutions, manufacturers - not to mention their broker users - face a seemingly insurmountable task of learning to use and meet format requirements of various contract and trade promotion management software. Answers Systems and our ContractPro User Community are transforming these change management challenges in to collaborative opportunities between trading partners. We invite you to join our ContractPro Community webinar featuring discussion of how we have...

posted @ Thursday, March 11, 2010 3:34 PM | 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)

Answers Systems Releases the ContractPro® v4.2 Application

Release offers enhanced security options, time-saving features, and powerful analytical tools for foodservice manufacturers Answers Systems, the leading provider of foodservice trade promotion management solutions, deployed the ContractPro® version 4.2 release this month. The version 4.2 release provides features aimed at enhancing security of client instances of the ContractPro portal, increasing user productivity, and providing access to robust new analytical reports in the new ContractPro

posted @ Monday, March 08, 2010 11:23 AM | Feedback (0)

Amend, Renew, Copy? What’s the difference?

by Sue Sanford One of the number one questions we receive through our support line is, “I amended my contract and it won’t let me change the dates, why?”. The answer is that the user made the wrong selection during the Manage Contract selection for the action that they needed to do. There are three options during the Manage Contract function which have very specific purposes and should not be considered interchangeable. Amend is to make changes to an existing contract like adding a sku or a distributor.  Renew is used to change...

posted @ Monday, March 08, 2010 10:37 AM | Feedback (0)

ContractPro(R) Version 4.2 Release

Shawn Cady sat down with Greg Hilton and Tom Tipps to discuss some of the highlites of the new 4.2 release of the ContractPro trade promotion management application, released on March 1, 2010.

posted @ Wednesday, March 03, 2010 11:44 AM | Feedback (0)

To re-bill or not to re-bill? That is the question.

by Tracy McQuilkin When a distributors takes an invalid deduction the question comes up on whether that amount is large enough to attempt to collect that money. This is a question many of our clients have and the answer varies. We have some clients that collect over 80% of what they re-bill and others that collect close to nothing. Why such a huge difference? I guess it all depends on how confident you are with your contracts. The biggest reason for a distributor to submit for something different than the contract we have on file is they have a different contract...

posted @ Tuesday, March 02, 2010 9:24 AM | Feedback (0)