Stacy Jackson
Posts by Stacy Jackson, Marketing Manager at Answers Systems.
Stacy Jackson
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...
Stacy Jackson
The irony of the modern age: sometimes the more connected we are, the less connected we feel. Once upon a time, you called Grandma on Sundays. Now maybe you send a text message or email. Those old friends from college get a passing comment or “Like” on their Facebook pages while you try to keep tabs on work email, personal email, update your LinkedIn profile, pay bills online, monitor your child’s grades, all while posting tweets about the movie you are half-way watching on Netflix. So many ways to connect can leave us scattered, distracted, and dissatisfied.
As more...
Stacy Jackson
In our years of experience, we’ve seen many different organizational models employed by foodservice manufacturers for managing trade spending and all of its related functions (contract management, settlement, deduction management, reporting, etc.). There is no one organizational structure or reporting hierarchy common across the industry that has ownership of trade spending as its sole purpose in the life of the organization. In some companies “who owns trade spending” may not be very clearly defined at all – to the point where the scattering of activities across departments leads to redundant work, inefficient processes, decentralized information, and lack of analytical insights....
posted by Stacy Jackson
Today we released ContractPro® v5.1 for general use! Take a moment to check out the feature release document attached here! Not a current customer, learn more about what the ContractPro trade promotion management Solution can do for your organization!
Answers Systems, leading provider of foodservice trade promotion management solutions, and CHD Expert North America, LLC, the leader in collecting, managing and analyzing information for the Away-From-Home Foodservice market, announced their strategic partnership, formalized this January. The partnership will provide new opportunities for clients of both organizations to leverage new data analyses on their trade promotion programs and gain insights in street operator marketing initiatives, planning, and tracking.
“We are very excited about this new partnership with CHD Expert. The target market reach of the CHD operator database combined with Answers Systems and ContractPro solution’s data fulfillment and analytics provides a...
by Stacy Jackson
As Groundhog Day approaches, along with a blast of wintry weather, I am reminded of a movie that I could watch over and over again. "What movie is that?" you may ask. Why it’s Groundhog Day, of course!
There are obvious reasons to like this movie: Bill Murray’s comedic talents, an interesting storyline, a great Ray Charles song. Beyond that, I like what I see as one of the underlying themes of the movie: lasting change can only come from profound change.
As Bill Murray’s character grows wearier of repeating the same day over and over again, he begins...
Answers Systems, a leading provider of foodservice trade promotion management solutions, and FSE Inc., a leading provider of data synchronization services throughout North America, formalized a strategic partnership this January. This partnership reinforces both organizations’ commitment to trading partner connectivity and reduction of redundancies in the trade promotion contract management process.
Answers Systems and FSE Inc., partnered last September to provide connectivity between the Answers Systems’ ContractPro® trade promotion management application, a solution for capture of manufacturer contract agreements, and the FSEnet+Contract Management System, a hosted solution for the capture and publication of deviated and non-deviated contract agreements for Distributors and Operators.
The...
If you were unable to attend last week's GS1 US Foodservice Initiative Overview webinar hosted by Answers Systems or if you want to review the webinar recording, please visit our webinar session page online. There you will find the session recordings and a PDF of the presentation decks.
As a solution provider that deals with foodservice trading partner data, Answers Systems understands the importance of the GS1 Initiative for the foodservice industry in helping bring standardization and efficiencies to the supply chain.
We look forward to seeing you at upcoming sessions featuring discussion about operator coupons and the ContractPro Road Map...
By Stacy Jackson
January is a month when many of us spend time both reflecting on the past and looking toward the future. It’s an especially big year for those of us working at Answers Systems: this April marks our 25th anniversary serving the rebate and trade promotion management (TPM) needs of the foodservice industry. This April also marks my 16th year with the company.
In the past 16 years that I’ve been with Answers Systems, we have done a lot of hard work. We’ve moved from a paper-based system of rebate and trade promotion management to an increasingly paperless, automated way...
Tweet
by Stacy Jackson (@StacyatAnswers)
While reviewing the feed from our Foodservice list on Twitter, I came across an article tweeted by Jeff Cattell (Twitter handle: fooddude4life) from Harvard Business Review website entitled, “Why Best Practices Are Hard to Practice.” It caught my eye because here at Answers Systems, we talk a lot about best practices in the area of trade promotion management.
The article in HBR by Ron Ashkenas points out that many organizations fail at implementing best practices due to two main factors:
Lack of adaptation: a process can’t simply be lifted from one company...
Full Stacy Jackson Archive