ContractPro

Join us on March 17 - Contract Collaboration Webinar

Answers Systems — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:34:11 GMT

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 developed a win-win situation for foodservice manufacturers working through the new US Foodservice (USF) contract portal, developed by FSE Inc.

In this webinar, we will discuss how foodservice manufacturers can save time and resources and reduce rebill deductions in the long term when working with USF.

Technorati tags: ContractPro, US Foodservice, FSE Inc., contract collaboration, foodservice contract management, foodservice trade spending

One Size Does Not Fit All

Answers Systems — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:25:33 GMT

by John Nicholas

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 where the money is going, but what is the bang for the buck? Up to this point, many companies have tried to manage trade promotion spending with solutions that are geared toward retail/grocery. It does not work! I hear time and time again from companies how they want a solution to manage both the retail and foodservice sides of their business. That solution does not exist! There is no one size fits all solution! The food service industry is unique in its culture, vocabulary and processes. As a result, companies employing retail oriented solutions struggle to manage trade spending dollars and track operator performance in the foodservice vertical. Processes lack data integrity. Contract information is stored in multiple files at various locations. There is no transparency into the business. Many companies have very little idea of what is being sold where, let alone have a way to measure the effectiveness of their trade promotion spending. Answers Systems Can Help! We have developed a system that is completely devoted and dedicated to managing the foodservice side of trade promotion spending.

Our full-cycle contract management center provides a powerful tool for creating, managing and analyzing your distributor and operator deals. Additionally, our software can help you with the reconciliation and settlement of customer claims.

Collection of sales/billback data (from almost 2000 distributors and operators with approximately 70% of the data being electronic)
Management of contracts (capture terms, approval process, monitor compliance & performance)
Claim reconciliation and settlement (verifies and reconciles, and settles terms of agreement against the claim)
Our push button rebill process, (for ineligible deductions), is successfully collecting up to 80% of everything rebilled.

Analytics and reporting

What accounts are in compliance with your agreements
What accounts are underperforming
Profitability of an account
How geographies, customer groups or sales people are performing
What sales impact any marketing activity has on your business

Give us a call. We would love to take a deeper dive and show you the significant hard dollar ROI that could add to your bottomline!

Answers Systems Releases the ContractPro® v4.2 Application

Answers Systems — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:23:09 GMT

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 3D reports module.

Enhanced Security Feature
Password reset and strength policy at the client level: because each client may have varying standards of password strength and reset frequency, the ContractPro version 4.2 release rolls out new, client-managed password security policy management. Broker users who represent more than one ContractPro customer will still be able to use the ContractPro User central sign-on, and their password set up rule will default to the client's policy that has the most rigorous standard.

Increased Productivity Features
The majority of features in the ContractPro version 4.2 release will represent major time-savings and productivity increases for clients. Among this feature set are:

Auto load estimated volume from actuals: volume for renewed contracts will be auto-populated in the new contract version based on historical purchase activity from a previous version. Users can use the historical purchase volume as the estimate or adjust them based on growth or other factors that may impact the customer's purchase behavior.
Spreadsheet pricing: the ContractPro spreadsheet pricing feature allows users to leverage the power and familiarity of products such as the Microsoft® Excel® spreadsheet application to price contracts in either online or off-line mode.
Additional time-saving features include new Workflow Rules Engine and various enhanced search capabilities.

New Contract Reporting Capabilities
The ContractPro v4.2 release also includes the launch of the ContractPro 3D reporting v1. ContractPro 3D reporting provides users with both static and dynamic reporting options to analyze trade promotion data in a more robust and efficient way than ever before. With this new version, Clients will be able to designate "super users" who can create and deploy custom reporting across their organization.

"We continue to provide the most mature workflow solutions available in Foodservice TPM and we've established ourselves as a dominant leader in that space. Now, the release of ContractPro 3D Reporting capabilities marks a pivotal step in Answers Systems evolution where we expose the full potential of the information produced by these systems," said Shawn Cady, Vice President of Marketing at Answers Systems.

Since 1986, Answers Systems has been meeting the unique trade promotion management needs of the Foodservice industry. The company stays on the leading edge of software development and service delivery with the ContractPro® solution for Foodservice manufacturers and the ValuTrak® solution for multi-unit Foodservice operators. Answers Systems solutions provide real-time visibility into the performance of trading partner agreements and support quantifiable ROI improvements for its client base.

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

Answers Systems — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:37:12 GMT

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 dates of a contract and since the renewed contract will its own effective/expiration dates, you will can make other changes as well like sku, pricing, distributors, etc.
Copy is used a shortcut to creating similar contracts quickly by copying the guts of the contact to a new Contractee.

ContractPro(R) Version 4.2 Release

Answers Systems — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:44:15 GMT

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.

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

Answers Systems — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:24:43 GMT

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 than we do. Why is that? Why not create one contract and use it in both places? The client that collects the 80% of re-bills does exactly that. The ContractPro® application is used for the only copy of the contract and that same contract is handed to the customers.

Having two different contracts not only frustrates the customers because they don’t get what they are expecting but also creates a lot of extra work on you, the client. The simple cure, one contract, have customers use the ContractPro ID on the claims they submit. You will have less re-bills and those that you do have will be easily retrievable.

National Debt and Other Fun Children’s Stories

Answers Systems — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:28:07 GMT

by Greg Hilton

I was reading a post on-line a few days ago about both the President and Congress agreeing that things are improving in our nation’s economy. Jobless numbers finally took a small decline and consumer confidence is up (even just a tiny bit) for the first time in many months. Funny though, ‘Things looking up’ when our national economy is facing what seems to be an insurmountable year-over-year budget deficit just does not seem to make sense. It is like saying, “Gee, my car is really driving much better these last few miles (unfortunately in 50 feet is a cliff ahead)”.

It is kind of like if you were a manufacturer setting up a trade promotion contract for a large chain account and you figured out how to double your volume on the contract. That would be great! If you got twice the increase in volume by selling your products for half the listed price, well, that would be bad. Knowing the impact of your contract management decisions is vital to success, not just with one of your customers, but also with your whole portfolio.

What Washington needs is a trade promotion solution. Our capital needs some way to make sure that the contracts that they make with one another, and with the American people make good financial sense. Then, the Senate, House of Representatives and our executive branch need a way to track whether those investments did what they were intended to do. I placed a call with my state senator. I am pretty sure he is going to call me back before I finish this blog.

Want to embrace the issue, consider the solution and really improve your organization’s trade promotion management? Contact us. Answers Systems' ContractPro and ValuTrak solutions are software and outsourced services designed for the unique and specific needs of the foodservice industry.

Technorati tags: trade promotion management, Washington, contract management, foodservice, ValuTrak, ContractPro

A Day in the Life of a Foodservice Manufacturer CFO

Answers Systems — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:42:35 GMT

by John Nicholas

Todd is a CFO for a mid size foodservice manufacturer. He is frustrated! He just asked his Director of Finance to provide him with a report on the dollars and cents impact of raising the price on one of their SKU’s. He simply wanted to know, based on last year’s sales, what the price increase would mean for their bottom-line. It seemed like a simple request on the surface, but the Director of Finance explained to him, that before she could get the numbers to Todd, she needed to analyze what accounts that were selling that specific SKU. She had to then see where there was a guaranteed or fixed price contract in place. She then had to figure what percentage that fixed price business was to the whole and factor it out. She explained to Todd that she could do it, but with a year end audit coming up, it would take a lot of work and time to nail the numbers down. So Todd was left with the realization that significant potential dollars that this price increase represented needed to sit for at least several weeks!

That, of course, was just a piece of the puzzle. Todd also needed to get a feel for what price the market would bear. He needed to know what their major competitors were pricing at. Todd approached the VP of Sales. Who better to know what competitive pricing is? The VP explained “with over a hundred SKU’s in a very volatile market place, I just don’t have competitive pricing at my fingertips.” He told Todd that he could send out a query to the Regional Sales Managers and Brokers.” He went on to say, “however, the sales organization is focused on our quarterly sales promotion. I can get the information to you in a couple of weeks at the earliest.” So much for being a fast moving company in a very competitive environment as they discussed in the company planning meeting!

This is typical of the challenges we hear from the Finance Executives in foodservice manufacturers all over the country and Canada. Answers Systems solves this problem with capturing all the contract information and putting it in an electronic file cabinet. That contract information identifies whether it is a deviation off of list, or whether it is a fixed or guaranteed price. When the sales person or broker initiates the deal, the contract information also captures why the discount or guaranteed is being offered, including whether it is matching or beating competitive pricing. The process provides a place to capture this competitive pricing with every contract created. Answers Systems does not stop there. Our system, the ContractPro solution, electronically bumps all the contract information, against sales into distribution, also comparing it to the billback information. (Answers is collecting from almost 2000 distributors). The Answers Systems reporting and analytics tool then gives visibility into a manufacturer’s business like never before. With a few keystrokes Todd, for instance, could have seen the very information he was needing to drive a profitable business. He could see detailed profitability reports, compliance reports, competitive pricing, etc. Bottomline… you don’t have to drive your business in the dark anymore!

Technorati tags: finance, foodservice, contract management, competitive pricing, ContractPro, Answers Systems

Contract Management, Avatar, and Dances With Wolves

Answers Systems — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:06:53 GMT

Post by Stacy Jackson

I may be one of the loneliest movie-goers around after I make my confession: I didn't like Avatar.

If you have resumed consciousness after reading that shocking revelation, I'd like to tell you why before you totally write me off as a know-nothing hack.

I didn't like it because I didn't like the story. The artistry and technology were amazing, but the movie was LONG and there was something that irked me for the first two hours that I couldn't quite put my finger. Then at 2 hours and 15 minutes, a memory roared into my head like the thundering of bison across the prairie plains: this movie seemed quite a bit like Dances with Wolves.

I'm not a movie snob, but I do like a good plot with some new twists. This just didn't have that for me (sure, it was in space and it looked way cool, but you could easily write a plot summary and it could be for either movie - read this article from Big Hollywood to see what I mean). But, hey - that doesn't matter in the big picture. Mr. Cameron is not lying awake at night worried about his movie because Stacy J. doesn't like the plot of his record-breaking, mega-blockbuster hit.

Maybe I am being too harsh in my opinion of Avatar - after all, almost everything seems like it's been done before, right? That Kid Rock "All Summer Long" song sounds a lot like "Sweet Home Alabama" and even "Werewolves of London" in some spots. Everything old is new again at some point. Why mess with a tried and true formula?

Contract templates - I bet you were wondering how I was going to get around to contract management - are sort of the same way. They are tried and true, they get the job done, and they help ContractPro® users save time and produce successful contracts for their organizations and customers. If you are not currently working with templates in your contract management system - ContractPro or otherwise - you should really consider the benefits that a template library can bring:

Contract Templates Reduce Errors: Because certain fields are already pre-defined, they reduces the occurrence of user error
Contract Templates Save Time: There is less data entry, more confidence, shorter approval time, less time fixing errors
Contract Templates Improve Workflow: Templates can allow for non-hierarchical approval workflows if necessary

Specifically with the ContractPro solution . . .

Contract Templates Assist with Visibility: You can more easily control what users can and can't see with templates versus dependence upon sales hierarchy only
Contract Templates are More Robust: Templates provide a more robust reporting environment and will provide greater benefits with ContractPro 3D Reporting

Contract templates may be used over and over again, but they can be your very own mega-blockbuster hit. Oh - and if you want to talk about artistry and beautiful technology, well, you have to check out the ContractPro solution, of course!

Technorati tags: contract management, dances with wolves, avatar, trade promotion management, contract template

Deductions: What is the Best Way to Handle Them?

Answers Systems — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:50:33 GMT

by Tracy McQuilkin

Deductions are something every manufacturer we work with does differently. It seems no one has found the perfect way to handle deductions that is consistent across all companies.

We recently had a deep dive with a client’s deduction team. Most of the confusion was related to terminology and lack of understanding of what it takes to clear a deduction. Job shadowing was suggested to help with this client.

How do you handle deductions? What makes it so hard with your organization? We'd love to hear your feedback - click here to let us know what is working (or not working) in your organization.

Technorati tags: deductions, foodservice, manufacturer