ContractPro

No Kids Allowed!

Answers Systems — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 17:12:07 GMT

By Kristin Avery

For some restaurants kids don’t eat free, matter of fact they don’t eat at all. There is a new trend of restaurants banning children from dining at their establishments. Some feel this is a flat-out act of discrimination while others feel it’s simply a smart business move.

Mike Vucik is among those who support the child ban from restaurants. He’s an owner of a Pittsburgh area eatery whose children ban went into effect two months ago. In an article titled “Restaurant Bans Kids Under 6. Discrimination or smart move?” Mike Vucik says the decision for the children ban comes, “after receiving noise complaints from customers about crying kids at neighboring tables.” The article also goes on to mention, “-Last year, North Carolina's Olde Salty restaurant made a similar decision. Owner Brenda Armes posted a sign that read 'Sceaming children will not be tolerated,’ making it clear to parents when their kids scream, they'll be asked to take it outside.”

Reasons for the ban according to FindLaw.com included, “Noisy kids may break a nice restaurant's ambiance. Rambunctious children who don't listen to their parents may also end up bumping into customers in stores, and can end up being both destructive and disruptive.”

Those opposed to the children ban are parents who claim the ban discriminates against children that may have special needs. According to an article “Mother Raising Her Own Voice Over Restaurant’s Ban on Screaming Kids,” “Forbidding an autistic child to scream can be like requiring a paraplegic person to dance the Charleston, so Kelly Chambliss, the mother of an autistic son, claims a restaurant's policy against screaming children is blatant discrimination and a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.”

Other drawbacks to the ban according to FindLaw.com titled “Legal to Ban Children from Your Business?” include, “kids' parents are usually the bread and butter customer of most stores and restaurants. And, by preventing children from entering into the business, you might be reducing your business' chance of making sales from moms and dads?”

So, so far we’ve been presented with two opposing sides that are for and against restaurants banning children, but is this child ban even legal? According to abcnews.com, “Federal forbids discrimination on racial or religious grounds, but there is no blanket protection for children. For business owners like Mike Vuick that means they can set the rules.”

In this economy can restaurants afford to lose customers? Is there any direct link between restaurants not welcoming child patrons to decline in sales or are restaurant owners just tired of dealing with the floods of customer complaints about screaming children? At this point there doesn’t seem be a direct link between crying/ screaming children and declining restaurant sales. It’s more a matter of what the restaurant desired target market is. If the restaurant is going for a classy and quiet atmosphere then certainly children throwing chicken fingers and running around the restaurant screaming won’t work. It’s a matter of personal preference for the restaurant owner. So, what do you think about restaurant banning children? Are you for or against the ban? Tell us why?

Thank You Steve Jobs

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

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 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.

Staying Connected to Solve Complex Problems

Answers Systems — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 15:00:56 GMT

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 businesses move their customer support efforts online, you are lucky to get 140-characters-worth of help from the Twitter profile of your software provider’s help desk. Or, perhaps you attempt a request for help via email to a generic email box. Don't get me wrong--some companies do a great job with these technologies, but it still doesn’t replace the need for human interaction when facing complex business problems.

At Answers Systems, a division of AFS Technologies, we understand that the key to our success is based on collaborative, trust-based relationships with our clients. We tell them “it takes more than software to manage your trade spending.” Software is not the magic bullet. Engaged people and a new organizational mindset make the software work. We provide the full gamut of trade promotion management and optimization software AND services to help them gain new insights and increase ROI. Whether it’s our account managers providing analyses, our training team providing software training and help desk support, or our data acquisition team working with operators and distributors on clients’ behalves, we ultimately have one thing in mind—connecting with and serving the needs of the people at client and trading partner organizations to perform best-in-class trade promotion management.

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.

Who's Minding the Trade Spending?

Answers Systems — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 18:16:47 GMT

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. And, we know where all of that leads . . . no true understanding of program impact, loss of opportunities, and potentially loss of ROI/profitability.

It’s important that foodservice manufacturers clearly define ownership and responsibilities as they pertain to trade spending—especially when moving into a trade promotion management offering like the ContractPro® service and solution model. By addressing organizational change as part of your software/service integration, you will set your company down the path for success. Everyone should know his or her role in the successful integration and ongoing support of your trade promotion management and optimization initiative. Not only must you define roles, you need to also ensure each role holder knows his or her goals and metrics for success.

Key areas to ensure organizational alignment for successful trade promotion management are:

Contract Management: how will contract terms be captured and centralized? Who is responsible for entering contracts? Will there be auto-approval logic built into your TPM solution? Who is responsible for managing approvals and rejections? How will contracts be communicated to operators and distributors? What role does the solution partner play versus your direct employees and/or broker agency partners?

Data Acquisition: how will you capture the claim data that will come in response to your contract communications? Do you have the resources and people to handle the complexities of electronic data submissions as well as the more manually intensive paper claims? Are you prepared to manage data mapping? Is your solution partner equipped to deal with these complexities on your behalf?

Verification: after the claim data is acquired, are you able to quickly and easily match claims to contracts? Are terms and products available for efficient and expedient validation? Will you be able to spot and prevent double or triple dip payments? Does your solution partner offer integrated verification/settlement tools or services?
Reconciliation: if you encounter claims that aren’t a perfect match to contracts on file, how do you handle the reconciliation of those claims against contracts? Are your systems set up to easily accommodate the claim and contract adjustment work? Does your vendor partner have the expertise to help you with this step in the trade promotion management process?

Settlement: are you able to turn around payments quickly to distributors and operators to prevent deductions and customer relationship issues? Can your system provide you with key data to help you resolve claims via deduction and rebill any portion of the deduction that was taken in error?

Analytics & Reporting: do you have the necessary tools to manage the analyses and reporting required to truly manage and optimize your trade promotion deals? Does your solution provider offer a robust reporting tool or are you dependent upon off-the-shelf spreadsheet solutions?

Answers Systems, a division of AFS Technologies, can help you find the right answers to all of these questions to ensure best-in-class trade promotion management for your organization. Our typical customer experiences a 400 – 1200% ROI in the first year. Contact us today to get your online demonstration and learn more about how the ContractPro solution can help you improve profitability, speed of data insights, and ROI.

ContractPro® v5.1 Release

Answers Systems — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 14:39:24 GMT

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!

Did You Hear the News? Answers Systems Joins the AFS Technologies Family

Answers Systems — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 12:46:09 GMT

On September 1, 2011, Answers Systems was acquired by AFS Technologies. AFS Technlogies Inc. is the leading provider of business enterprise and Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions. The company serves over 1,200 customers across the Americas with a portfolio of solutions for the food and beverage, supply chain, and financial segments. AFS Supply Chain Solutions and AFS Food & Beverage Solutions are designed to reduce costs, improve efficiency, increase sales and margins, streamline internal processes, and assist in regulatory compliance; including data synchronization to GS1. All AFS solutions utilize service-oriented architecture (SOA) built with Microsoft .NET framework technology. With a focus on modular design, the solutions allow customers in manufacturing, sales agencies, distribution, and complex software companies the flexibility to upgrade specific elements of the software without affecting the rest of the system. To match the needs of our diverse customer base, products are available on both a license and true SaaS model basis.

"The merger with AFS will allow Answers to expand the scale of products and services that was my vision in building Answers," said Bud Hilton, Founder and CEO of Answers. "I will continue to work with AFS to build the vision that we both share," he added.

AFS Technologies also acquired Synectics Group Inc. on September 1, 2011. Synectics Group has been focused on focused on helping CPG manufacturers manage and get more ROI from trade promotion spending for over 25 years.

Read the AFS Technologies press release to learn more about this exciting new chapter for Answers Systems.

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

The Eye Of The Tiger

Answers Systems — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 17:49:36 GMT

Ten Answers Systems employees spent Friday, August 5, serving the Tampa Bay Community through volunteer efforts at Big Cat Rescue, the world’s largest accredited sanctuary for exotic cats. At first, the Florida sun made it seem like this might be an impossible task, but volunteers pushed through the heat as we offered our washing and tree trimming skills in order to maintain the property and make it appealing to visitors.

Once done with volunteering, Answers Systems employees were given a special treat for all their hard work and effort. As a special treat, we got to take a tour of the sanctuary. The tour guide at Big Cat Rescue was great and very knowledgeable about the big cats. We were informed of several different species and were told stories of how the big cats got there under less than perfect circumstances. Once receiving the tour it was clear that all the hard work in the blistering Florida heat was well worth it. We plan our Fall project to be with Feeding America Tampa Bay Chapter in November.

Answers Systems feels it’s important to have a community service day benefit for employees. Not only does it give Answers Systems employees an opportunity to enrich their own lives by helping others: it’s also a way to give back to the community which they live in. Community service projects assemble employees that may not have the opportunity to work together otherwise. It creates outlets for employees to demonstrate and develop skills they can bring back to the office such as leadership, teamwork, and communication.

Technorati tags: volunteer, community service, service day benefit