Information Technology

Thank You Steve Jobs

Answers Systems — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 14:42:26 GMT

Much to the chagrin of some of our IT staff, I am a Mac fanatic. Love, love, love Apple products. I had one of the first generation iPods and a first generation iPod Touch. I have a first generation iPad. I’ve been through an iBook, a PowerBook, and now on a MacBook Pro (one for work and one at home). I just can’t imagine life without Apple products. Thank you, Steve Jobs, for your innovative products that have enriched lives and improved the way people work (although I am sure I would get some argument from my Windows friends on the “improving work” part).

Although not unexpected, I was still saddened at the news of Steve Jobs’ death. Other than simply being in awe of the legacy of innovation he leaves, I am in awe of him as a figure. He seemed to doggedly pursue his vision for his products despite anything the naysayers threw at him, and he was a master artisan at sharing the product story with consumers. I highly recommend this presentation from Carmine Gallo, Columnist for BusinessWeek, that outlines Jobs’ story-telling approach. It’s a really great read for those interested in creating a compelling story that your customers and prospects will care about.

Companies like Answers Systems, a division of AFS Technologies, can thank Steve Jobs for pushing the envelope. Through his revolutionary products, solution providers have new opportunities to deliver mobile software to sales people—making their job easier, making their reaction time quicker and more efficient. We can also thank him for his example to stick to your guns when you're pursuing excellence in product development.

Facebook Freak-out!

Answers Systems — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 16:28:40 GMT

By Kristin Avery

If you’ve been on Facebook recently then you heard the rumor that Facebook was going to start charging its users. There was one posting in particular that I saw several times and it went like this:

"FACEBOOK JUST RELEASED THEIR PRICE GRID FOR MEMBERSHIP. $9.99 PER MONTH FOR GOLD MEMBER SERVICES, $6.99 PER MONTH FOR SILVER MEMBER SERVICES, $3.99 PER MONTH FOR BRONZE MEMBER SERVICES, FREE IF YOU COPY AND PASTE THIS MESSAGE BEFORE MIDNIGHT TONIGHT. WHEN YOU SIGN ON TOMORROW MORNING YOU WILL BE PROMPTED FOR PAYMENT INFO...IT IS OFFICIAL IT WAS EVEN ON THE NEWS Facebook WILL START CHARGING DUE TO THE NEW PROFILE CHANGES. IF YOU COPY THIS ON YOUR WALL YOUR ICON WILL TURN BLUE AND Facebook WILL BE FREE FOR YOU. PLEASE PASS THIS MESSAGE ON IF NOT YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE DELETED IF YOU DO NOT PAY!!"

At first, I brushed it off but the more I saw it, the more I started to think that Facebook might actually start charging me to stay a member. Shortly after having a social networking panic attack, I came to realize this was clearly a hoax. This Facebook hoax got me to thinking. If I was convinced, I couldn’t be the only one that believed it was true. It only took a few people a couple of hours to get the rumor started before it spread like wildfire. This Facebook fabrication spread to the point where it was even covered by “The Christian Science Monitor”.

No matter where you go, rumors and misinformation are sure to follow. There may even be misconceptions and misinformation floating around your organization regarding the performance of your trade spending programs. I encourage you to get all the facts before making critical decisions that will greatly impact your organization. Answers Systems, a division of AFS Technologies, can help you squash any trade promotion management fallacies and provide the right answers to all your questions to ensure best-in-class trade promotion management for your organization. To request your online ContractPro® demonstration today, click here.

To follow Answers Systems, a division of AFS Technologies on Facebook for free, click here.

Technorati tags: contractpro, trade promotion management, facebook

Here's a Tip!

Answers Systems — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 19:42:34 GMT

By Kristin Avery

Did you know there are 1001 tips for cleaning with white distilled vinegar? Did you also know there’s an inexpensive tip for curing a sore throat? Just add one teaspoon to one cup of warm water and gargle. Well, no matter who you are everyone loves a good tip. You name it, there’s a tip for it. Everything from cooking tips to tips on how to save money on your next electricity bill. Tips are meant to provide us with useful information and make our life easier. Here at Answers Systems, we understand the appeal of tips. That’s why we have people like Natalie Rice, Senior Trainer, to provide tips on a monthly basis that make using ContractPro^® easier.

Natalie Rice, Senior Trainer

Here’s a recap of some helpful ContractPro^® tips that will make your trade promotion management life easier.

· Don’t forget, you can communicate via email about a pending claim through the Claim Detail, Claim Comments tab, and keep all of your communication in one place. Just remember to check the “do not send to Answers” if Answers does need to take action.
· When creating a contract to clear a pending claim, remember to enter a claim comment after the contract is approved. You will receive an alert of the approval in your User Messages.
· The Quick Search is an “exact search” so if you do not receive a result to your search, try the Advance Search and utilize “like”. You may just find what you are looking for.

Do you still need ContractPro^® help? Email Support

Not a current ContractPro^® client? Would you like to know more on how ContractPro^® can help your organization gain critical trade promotion management insights and increase ROI? Please Contact Us and learn more about how our service and software solutions can work for your organization. Connect and collaborate with the industry leaders today.

Tackling the Topic of "Trade Spend"

Answers Systems — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 17:39:45 GMT

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 posts. You can trust the information provided because Answers Systems was founded by foodservice professionals and has met the unique trade spend and trade promotion management requirements of the foodservice industry for 25 years.

Now that your mind has been put at ease, here is a list of the top 5 most visited “Trade Spend” posts. If you still would like to know more about Answers Systems and our ContractPro trade promotion management solution, contact us.

1. "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 restaurant…. (Read More)

2. "Trade Spending Statistics: Answers Systems Clients vs. Industry Standard"

Posted by Tom Tipps

Through our decades of experience in managing trade promotion transactions for foodservice manufacturers, Answers Systems is able to validate many of these statistics with real-world examples. Technomic says, "On average 28% of trade claims are overstated." For Answers Systems' clients the numbers range from a high of 50% for new clients to a low of 22% of seasoned clients. The critical statistic is that the dollar value of invalid claims totals 15% of the total dollar… (Read More)

3. "Data Mapping Stats - Music to My Ears"

Posted by Stacy Jackson

Do you ever get songs stuck in your head? I do. Today’s song is “Surf City” by Jan & Dean. “Two girls for every boy” and “I’m going to Surf City where it’s two to one. Yeah, I’m going to Surf City. Gonna have some fun.” It’s kind of annoying, yet it got me to thinking about ratios. Surf City apparently had a 2:1 ratio of girls to boys. I started wondering what kind of ratios I might find in the quarterly report I received regarding our data mapping for our clients'…(Read More)

4. "Ultimate Questions in Business Intelligence"

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… (Read More)

5. "Trade Spend or Trade Investment?"

Posted by Bud Hilton

In a recent foodservice conference someone made a case that manufacturers’ expenditures toward the trade should be considered “investment” not “spend.” An executive with a very large food manufacturer made the statement . . . “Don’t try to kid yourselves, most of it is spend, not investment.”…(Read More)

Technorati tags: Trade Spend, Trade Spending, Trade Promotion Management, Trade Spend Formula

Trade Promotion Management - More Than Meets The Eye

Answers Systems — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 19:36:59 GMT

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 Drive thru” on the CNN Money website, “Here's how it works: when a customer places an order at the drive-thru speaker, the order is taken by someone at a remote ‘order center.’" The order is then sent right back to the restaurant where it was received.” The article then goes on to say, “The second component of the technology is even more interesting, and somewhat controversial. It involves a camera located at the drive-thru order window that takes a picture of the customer and the car. According to Gagnon, the pictures help staff accurately match the order to the customer, thus cutting down on botched orders.” To read more details about how the drive-through systems works, please click on the link. http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/06/news/companies/wendys_cameras/

“The Long-Distance of a Fast-Food Order” from the New York Times states that employees at that specific fast food location may not even take orders. When describing a typical fast food drive-thru transaction, the article point out how far – literally - some establishments go to provide customer service: “What made the $12.08 transaction remarkable was that the customer was not just outside Ms. Vargas's workplace here on California's central coast. She was at a McDonald's in Honolulu. And within a two-minute span Ms. Vargas had also taken orders from drive-through windows in Gulfport, Miss., and Gillette, Wyo. “

Wow! All that just to receive a number 4. Well, there’s also more than meets the eye here at Answers Systems. More that goes into providing the most accurate data and ensuring that claims are processed in a timely fashion. There is a level of complexity that goes into creating and maintaining trade promotion management solutions.

Answers Systems offers two contract management and trade spending solutions for the foodservice industry. For Foodservice Manufacturers, Answers Systems can increase contract profitability and measure trade promotion management effectiveness with the ContractPro® solution. ContractPro provides foodservice professionals with a high tech, online solution that allows users to input, approve, and track the performance of their distributor and bid/ chain operator agreements.

For Multi-Unit Operators, Answers Systems can maximize value of their existing supplier programs, identify opportunities for new rebate programs and perform price verification with the ValuTrak™ solution.

Answers Systems has a whole support team that works day in and day out to provide the most easy-to-use, easy- adopt trade spending management solutions. Just in the accounting department alone, 13,000 checks are printed and distributed a month. Settlement has the constant challenge of processing thousands of claims to meet required turnaround times.

The Answers Systems team also includes Six Sigma green belts with expertise in Lean process improvement methodologies. Our Project Management team, Business Analysts with Six Sigma certifications and Quality Assurance team are all part of the group that contributes to; requirements collection, project execution and quality product/process delivery. All these processes are monitored and implemented within a consistent and centralized Project Management Office team. We are SAS 70, Type II Certified and we are Sarbanes Oxley Compliant

Wow! All of that just to ensure your business receives the best trade promotion management. It just goes to show you that not everything is what it seems. If you dig a little further, you might find that there’s more than meets the eye.

Technorati tags: trade spending, trade promotion management, foodservice

Facing Non-Compliance

Answers Systems — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:33:18 GMT

Captain Obvious once said . . . Your Best Customer is Your Existing Customer! Most of us in the Foodservice industry feel that some of our best customers are our contracted chain accounts because once we sell them, the cases keep repeating. Good Concept! The problems start when manufacturers make price concessions for a large multi-unit chain and finds out later that ALL units may not be purchasing or case predictions are understated. Years ago suppliers didn’t have to worry much about this issue simply because they didn’t have good reporting systems to identify operator unit level compliance or non compliance on a regular basis, across all distribution. So, the problem just did not exist!!!

Shifting gears to current times we know that technology, Foodservice expansion and improved sophistication have come together to provide much better opportunities for identification of the critical information elements that can drive our decisions. Every day that passes challenges suppliers to “get much better at utilizing information”. Many outside concerns, in the business of information gathering and interpretation, continue to dig deeper into info-elements and continue to pile this “stuff” in the laps their clients. The piles grow and most users of such data are simply not well equipped to “do anything with it” because they are busy running their day to day business. Visionaries knew this would happen. Too much water-for-the-sponge! The “Information Aftermarket” is HERE! It just may be time to ask for some help in planning the strategy and tactics to deal with the hot lava flow of data.

So, let’s investigate WHY many suppliers find it difficult to act on such available data. After all a hypothetical big operator/customer having, let’s say 400 units . . . liked and approved our product, communicated it downward and now we determine, from our data, that only 300 units are purchasing. What do we do? Well, solution is not as easy as one might think. Let’s look at what the manufacturer has to deal with:

It is not that easy to go tell a big operator . . . you approved it, so why can’t you dictate it? You “promised” compliance, based on my pricing, so what happened? First of all, many suppliers have a tough time getting those kinds of words out of their mouth with a customer. Second, they are not totally sure who in their organization to assign that task . . . the highest National Account person? The NAM over the specific operator? The Sales VP? The Broker that is close with the Operator Headquarter?

One also has to be careful because when some operators are confronted they may choose to hand the supplier back the monkey with . . . “it is your job to get your message into our units and it appears that you have not been totally successful”. Although a weak position, some manufacturers may not have good answers.
Another problem is, with many operators, compliance is dependent upon partnering franchisees who can affect a lot of “off-contract” purchasing and are very difficult to control.

The bottom line is – the right strategy and accompanying tactics may be difficult to determine and even harder to exercise.
Information overload has done a few things. It has helped to identify promises versus activity. It seems to have dictated that suppliers must find better ways to address the visibility that they have so actively craved. It also has presented some potential job opportunities for a handful of consulting specialists in the marketplace that know how to help suppliers maneuver through the maze of issues across many multi-unit channels, while at the same time taking some third party ownership of undesirable issues.

Our group is very concerned that we work with the industry to address these topics with as much background information that we can get. So, we are asking you, as an equally concerned supplier, to help us by completing the very short and very simple questionnaire. Once we have compiled and analyzed this data we will present our findings back to you. Thank you ahead of time for your participation.

PLEASE COMPLETE AND FORWARD . . . .

Click here to complete the Facing Non-Compliance Survey

Answers Systems- Who We Are and What We Do

Answers Systems — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 19:41:24 GMT

By John Nicholas

Answers Systems corporate offices are in Oldsmar, Florida. We have a secondary office and a Tier 4 data center in Chattanooga, TN. We also maintain a field sales office in Evansville, Indiana.

ContractPro® is our contract management solution for food manufacturers. We support the management of their agreements with distributors and operators.

ContractPro® provides foodservice professionals with a high tech, online solution that allows users to input, approve, and track the performance of their distributor and bid/ chain operator agreements.

Our value proposition is pretty simple, we do not allow the payment of invalid claims. For tenured clients, we save them 15% of total dollars claimed. For new clients, the savings ranges from 20 - 25%. We are also able to enforce business rules for distributor earned income on street and chain business, as well as broker commission payments for same. We provide opportunities for improved productivity/reduced overhead. We also give real-time visibility into the performance of your distributor and operator trade deals.

Potential ROI
Trade promotion management is approx 12% to 15% of sales
(Technomics estimate).

Trade promotion management claims are overstated by an average of 15%.
(That 15% includes every kind of claim error one could imagine)

For example, a company doing $500 million in sales, would have total trade of about $60 million X 15% error rate = $9 million of overpayments

A quick review of workflow: Your sales organization enters their agreements into ContractPro® where they are routed through an approval process customized to your business rules. Our system monitors compliance & performance of the contracts.

We also provide connectivity between the various industry Networks/Portals; e.g., iTN/CaRMA; FSE and Sysco.
Through an integrated process, we take claims and billback information directly from distributors and operators and compare it to the contract terms. We audit the claims against your contracts, and approve claims passing audit. About 75% of claims pass audit and are paid by check, before the distributors can deduct. The remaining 25% of claims have errors that must be reconciled before payment.

If the distributor deducts, we quickly identify which deductions are invalid, and have a push-button rebill process that allows the client to collect a high percentage of invalid deductions. This process is successful since we operate with very accurate/timely data.

Our analytics and reporting system shows in real time such things as performance of a contract, whether a distributor or operator is in compliance, who is buying and who is not, detailed profitability, etc)

Our client base includes some of the top names in the industry; e.g., Kraft Foods NA, Unilever NA, Nestle, J. M. Smucker Company, Starbucks, Land O’ Lakes, PepsiCo, Hormel, and Campbell’s, and others. With an extensive community of manufacturer users, great ideas about improving our application and services are constantly brought into our development pipeline.

The Answers Systems master database contains over 600,000 Operators and 2,000 + distributors. Due to our commitment to mapping every operator and every distributor to a master record, all of our customers gain knowledge about this information due to our communities’ input. No proprietary information is ever shared across customers.

Hardware/Software Requirements
As a hosted solution, our Trade Management application requires only a web connection and Internet Explorer v6.0 or higher with Javascript and Cookies enabled.

For the Operator
We also help restaurant and operator groups increase revenue and improve processes. I am hoping to schedule a webinar with you to better show you our value proposition. If you will send me available dates and times I will get it set up.
Our ValuTrak® system:
• Makes absolutely sure that you get the monies owed to you from manufacturer rebates
o (We invoice your manufacturers, collect the monies and pay it to either your central office, or pay to your individual units or a combination of both)

• Acquires, maps, and scrubs sales data from almost 2,000 different distributors

• Enforces distributor pricing agreements

• Tracks unit compliance

• Provides detailed Volume Reports at your fingertips by manufacturer, by distributor, by SKU, by unit location

Our ValuTrak® clients include everyone from the US Airforce to Choice Hotels, Buying Groups, and large pizza chains.
Answers Systems was founded in 1986 by foodservice professionals. We leverage all of our 130 full-time employees toward the constant improvement and evolution of our application and services.

Our team includes Six Sigma green belts with expertise in Lean process improvement methodologies. Our Project Management team, Business Analysts with Six Sigma certifications and Quality Assurance team are all part of the group that contributes to; requirements collection, project execution and quality product/process delivery. . All these processes are monitored and implemented within a consistent and centralized Project Management Office team. We have 40 full time IT engineers We are SAS 70, Type II Certified and we are Sarbanes Oxley Compliant.

Technorati tags: operators, trade promotion management, contract management,business intelligence

Street Coupons are Part of the Family

Answers Systems — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 13:44:00 GMT

By Tracy McQuilkin

A family prepares for months before taking home a new born baby. They are constantly doing research, stocking up on baby products, and keeping a watchful eye on the health of the baby through regular doctors’ visits. At the end of April, Answers Systems will be adding street coupons to the ContractPro® family. For several months now, Answers Systems has been doing the essential research, providing adequate support, and conducting diagnostic tests to ensure feature enhancements allow street coupons to be just another type of contract through ContractPro®. Up until this April Release, Answers Systems has processed street coupon claims in a separate settlement system. ContractPro will have the ability to accept Fixed Rate and BOGO (Buy one get one) type offers. Keep your eyes out for information about this upcoming enhancement.

While technology may change, these “tips to make operator coupon settlement easier” stay the same…

Tips to Make Operator Coupon Settlement Easier
Need some ideas on planning your next operator coupon? Here are some tips to help you make settling those incoming claims a little easier and effective:

• Be specific on the guidelines

For example Buy One Get One, do you mean buy two cases and get the price of the second purchase in the form of a rebate check, or do you mean buy one case and you will ship them a second case free?

• Stick to the guidelines

If you state no photocopies on the coupon, stick to that. The more rules you list that you allow exceptions for, the more exceptions you will end up having to deal with.

• Look for cut and paste jobs

We see more "suspicious" proof of performance for street coupon type claims than we do for contracted type claims. Sometimes we will see proof of performance where the bottom of one invoice has been cut and taped to the top of another and then photocopied. In these situations, a good verifier can see where the cut and paste job isn't lining up quite right.

• Be adventurous with your coupons

Operators often respond well to merchandise type coupons, especially if the prizes are well known brands/products. DSRs, on the other hand, to participate more aggressively when they receive a money incentive. From our experience if the premiums vary and are nice quality products, we get more coupons coming in for those merchandise-based promotions than the money deals. Use these types of deals to sell your product, put your logo on them. Then not only do they get a great prize for purchasing your product, they also advertise your company with what they got.

• Try not to run two coupons at the same time for the same products

When this happens, we tend to have more rejects than payments because customers submit the same invoices for both offers. Also you run into the dilemma if both come in at the same time which promotion to reject them for, do you call them and ask them or just pick one?

Technorati tags: feature release, street coupons, operator coupon settlement

6 Questions About Top2Top 2011

Answers Systems — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19:07:41 GMT

Recently Kristin Avery sat down with John Nicholas to have a conversation about his recent Top2Top experience.

1. In a 100 words or less, what is Top2Top?

Top2Top is an annual conference sponsored by FSMA (Foodservice Sales & Marketing Association). Top2Top is a chance for Brokers/Agencies to come together around issues that are critical to their business. It also allows attendees the opportunity to stay up-to-date on current trends and to hear concerns within the Agency community.

2. What year did you start attending Top2Top?

I started attending Top2Top in 2005.

3. What was different about Top2Top 2011 than Top2Top 2010?

There are several differences between Top2Top 2011 in comparison to Top2Top 2010. In Top2Top 2010, Regionalization was much more of a hot button topic than 2011. It is still a prominent issue, but some of the initial angst has passed, and even if some Agencies are not thrilled with regionalization they have embraced the reality of it.

Along those same lines as regionalization issues surfaced that created tension between many manufacturers and agencies. In 2011 however, because of the economic environment, there is more of a sense that we are all in this together.

4. What are the three major benefits of attending Top2Top?

For me, the three major benefits of attending Top2Top are networking, relationship building, and industry knowledge

5. What speakers had the most impact on you and why?

The speakers that were most valuable to me were from Technomic and the Cleveland Research Company. There were a lot of trending information that I found relevant.

Rick Abraham, the President of FSMA and his team’s did an excellent effort of lining up speakers and providing a conference rich in industry information, as well as providing valuable networking opportunities.

6. Why do you think it’s so important to be in the presence of industry professionals at Top2Top?

I think it’s so important in order to keep relationships fresh and to stay current on industry knowledge/trends. I believe that the FSMA team did an excellent job in creating an environment for foodservice professionals to do just that!

Technorati tags: regionalization, conference, business intelligence

Data Acquisition Made Easy

Answers Systems — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 17:14:32 GMT

By Janet Zlokovich

We are seeing where more manufacturers need our expertise for their Trade Promotion data acquisition. Three sides of the foodservice trading partner triangle – manufacturer, distributor & operator are implementing new enterprise systems and purchasing software applications for their rebate tracking, so there is a downstream impact on their Trade claim reporting. At Answers Systems, we turn this into a positive!! We look for the ultimate benefit the industry will receive from new trading partner capabilities, particularly when they result with an improved billback claim output file or transmission method for delivery. This especially applies to distributors, since they contribute to the majority of billback claim submissions.

Regardless if it is a new file format or changing the host connectivity for the file transfer protocol, Answers Systems has been able to successfully react to streamlining these new requirements into our data acquisition model. We embrace and influence the technology evolution, while at the same time recognize it will take staffed professionals and expertise to translate and integrate these changes to our data load automation processes.

A big part of why this has become a reality is because Answers Systems has the knowledge and proven expertise for managing electronic data. This skill is recognized as a core competency in our portfolio of accomplishments. We have dedicated resources focused on performing these services because we know trading partner requirements will change. We’ve been in full production with accepting and loading billback claim data files since 2006, so we stand tall compared to other trade promotion management services.

In one recent example, a new approach was required to load a data file, which that had been converted from the source specification after it was exported by an E-Commerce service, into our system. It was a challenge but not a roadblock. We feel this is just another illustration of our acceptance and preparedness for doing business with a wide range of trading partners.

Answers Systems’ manufacturer clients benefit from our data extraction capabilities with enhanced reporting they can use for collaboration and developing business strategies with their shared customer. When the data file is an electronic output file, a manufacturer has visibility and access to all the information submitted on the deviated claim. Unlike the “summary totals” information that we commonly hear is the normal data capturing method prior to using our trade promotion management services.

In our opinion, there is never too much data! Every sales transaction reported as part of the deviation support is captured to allow a comprehensive analysis of the claim submission. This return verified information to the claimant that will assist with the sync of their internal rebate tracking.

Our data acquisition resources can offer qualified and experienced recommendations for the preferred file type and transmission method. The charter at Answers Systems is to follow the GS1 US standards (http://www.gs1us.org/sectors/foodservice) but we are flexible and will accept alternative file layouts knowing that it can take time for some trading partners to adopt and enhance their systems to meet these requirements.

Technorati tags: Technology, trade promotion management, data acquistion