ContractPro
Posts about the ContractPro solution for foodservice manufacturers
Answers Systems is excited to announce that our go-live date with the FSEnet+ solution is September 13. We are believers in and advocates for electronic contract collaboration between foodservice industry trading partners, and we are pleased to be the first and only foodservice trade promotion management solution for Manufaturers to offer an electronic interface with FSEnet+.
Answers Systems' integration of the ContractPro solution with FSEnet+ will mean:
reduced risk of human error due to elimination of dual entry (manual contract creation in both systems won't be required),
greater visibility into the status of a...
by Bud Hilton
I wish I had coined this phrase but I can’t take credit. My son, who has spent 16 years or so with our company and is now our President, made this statement one day when I said to him, “I wish we could get through the maze and find out who, at this particular company, can approve our project.” He simply directed me to not look for the one who can say “yes” . . . find the one that is saying “NO” and impeding the search. The more I thought of this the more...
Not only do we have an economic downturn, but today's businesses must navigate a number of major issues from heightened competition to a demand for more customized product. Even in tough times, a successful company must deliver on the bottom-line. There is a tendency and a mindset with most every company that to increase revenue, you just need to move more product out the door. In a challenging economic environment, the pressure is especially on to increase sales.
The obvious problem is that
by Greg Hilton
“A computer, is like a bicycle for the mind,” Steve Jobs, Founder/CEO Apple.
I always liked that quote. Humans have a difficult time keeping up with the other creatures that inhabit this earth. Thanks to opposable thumbs, our early ancestors could grasp a wooden club and “evolve” to create more advanced technology through the ages. What sets us apart from every other known species is our ability to build tools. These mechanical extensions make difficult jobs easier and make
by Brian Maloney
It’s almost impossible for manufacturers and distributors to keep track of all the locations in the foodservice industry and which Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) each location may/may not belong to today…and that’s hoping each location belongs to just one GPO when it relates to foodservice purchasing.
The issue is so mind boggling at times that whenever the topic comes up, everyone just shakes their heads, agrees that it’s a big problem, and then they move on without even trying to figure out possible solutions.
Here’s a solution . . . .the Foodservice Industry needs One Source that maintains all the GPO’s and which locations...
Is spending in our foodservice industry on its way back? What could postpone the return of restaurant spending, once the economic conditions begin to loosen up? Can the really smart marketers help to promote the return of spending in foodservice locations? The answers lie in understanding what we did to initially promote spending in a more prosperous economy.
In much better times, when marketers pushed to redirect consumer dollars from retail grocery stores to eating out, we were successful
by Greg Hilton
In the short time that I have had an opportunity to serve as President of Answers Systems, I have been reminded (from this new perspective) of the exciting destination that Answers Systems--and the customers we serve--are heading toward. In an industry with so many complications and challenges, it is important to reflect on the vision on which our our team is focused.
The Answers System’s Vision . . . To provide critical information to the Foodservice Industry with easy-to-
Getting Started with submitting Electronic Billback Reporting for deviated billbacks . . .
Many distributors are unsure of where to begin. When I talk to them about sending a data file for their deviated billbacks rather than emailing a static report format, distributors are sometimes hesitant because they want to make sure one solution and the same file layout will satisfy every manufacturer trading partner’s requirements.
The good news is there are easy-to-adopt industry standards for
We are always looking for ways to do things better, more accurately, and more timely within the Settlement department. We are working on testing an enhancement for claim verification that will do all of these things. Our current process for e-claims works pretty well to resolve contracts/trade spending agreements. We are going to use this same process on paper claims.
If you do not want to know what happens for most foodservice manufacturers concerning ineligible deductions read no further.
Unless a manufacturer has a very quick way to validate, reconcile and process claims, in most cases a request for payment from a distributor will turn into a deduction. In fact, here at Answers Systems we find that an average new client is settling at least 80% of their claims by deduction and some 20% by check. Our Distributor Liaison Team and Settlement Group know th
Among many pieces of information that manufacturers absolutely covet are:
Unit level data
P&L information (by contract, category, SKU, etc.)
Price Optimization capability
Market Share realization
There is a tremendous amount of energy and focus placed on organizations to select and implement great reporting and analytics tools to help plan and analyze their trading relationship data. The need to select a great reporting and analytics platform for information analysis is paramount to managing a superior business. It is, in fact, no longer a differentiator but a requirement to stay competitive.
by Tracy McQuilkin
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?
by Greg Hilton
Each May, professionals from all around the food industry make the annual pilgrimage to the National Restaurant Association show in Chicago. I have attended on and off for around 15 years or so and each year, I meet an incredibly fascinating group of individuals and learn a tremendous amount. I am also in awe of the shear magnitude of the planning process and what must go into putting on a show of that size. Kudos to all of the individuals involved.
by Greg Hilton
At Answers Systems, we take quality, audit compliance and process controls very seriously. To that end, each year, our team goes through a rigorous independent audit by an certified public accounting operating under the guidance of the American Institute of CPAs. The outcome of this audit is our annual SAS 70...
As I was working on a list of things to get prepared for our team attending this month's National Restaurant Show in Chicago, I happened to start humming "Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music for no particular reason. It inspired me to write some alternative lyrics. Go ahead . . . close your office door and sing along with me:
Verse 1
Coffee and soda, some samples for sipping,
Delicious salsas wait for chips to come dipping,
Neat little trinkets in bags with pull strings,
These a
by Brian Maloney
Hi, I’m Brian Maloney and my Social Security number is…….well I won’t go that far but I can tell you this: Hi, we’re Answers Systems and our GLN number is 1100001011810. So there you have it. Take this number and use it wherever you like. After years of preaching standardization in the Foodservice Industry and Contract Management more specifically, we figured we better eat our own words and sign us up for a GLN. If you don’t know what a GLN is, it’s a unique number for our place of business.
Just like a GTIN is a unique...
by Sue Sanford
This week's frequently asked question concerns quick entry of estimated volume and pricing when you have multiple products on a contract.
Question: I have over 50 products on my contract, is there a way to enter the estimate volume and pricing quickly?
Answers: Yes, there are two ways in ContractPro to price multiple items quickly.
Bulk Pricing - you can access this by clicking on the $ symbol located on the left hand side of screen above the products. This feature allows you to tab through the fields so you can enter your volume and rebate...
by Sue Sanford
The ContractPro Support team often gets the following question from ContractPro users: what's the difference between Program types Deviated Pricing and HQ Rebate?
Deviated Pricing – is when their pricing (fixed rate or fixed price) is passed through their distributor. The distributor will bill back for the re-imbursement and provide proof of delivery to the Operator (Contractee). Distributors will generally submit their billbacks on a weekly or quarterly basis.
HQ Rebate – is when the Operator will submit their tracking reports (velocity reports) from their distributors to receive their rebate. They generally submit their requests on a Quarterly basis....
Answers Systems has been in production with our proprietary application, EclaimSM since 2006 – it’s allowed us to become an industry leader with billback data acquisition and implement foodservice trading partner inter-connectivity at every opportunity. Most of the Top 50 Broadline Distributors have already been set up and 70 of the largest chain operators are sending their claims electronically to their designated client mailbox at Answers.
Eclaim is a perfected blend of technology and dedi
Great job – You are a manufacturer sales representative setting up a trade promotion contract for a large chain account and you figured out how to double your volume on the contract.
Not so great – You got twice the increase in volume by selling your products for half the listed price!
Synopsis – You may be the shortest tenured sales representative in the history of the example company. I put that together after only the minimum “required economics” courses in college.
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...
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.
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...
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...
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
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
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...
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.
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...
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 b
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
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
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...
Throughout recent history the Foodservice and Trade Spend Management industry, as well as much of corporate America, has used really cool big words to describe trends and philosophies.
From the early eighties, we had Total Quality Management (TQM), a management theory for defect reduction and heightened quality standards. Sun Tzu (that is him on the right), an ancient Chinese military general penned, “The Art of war” and a whole industry of management theorist began translating the logic of
If you monitor Twitter, Apple-related news, or technology gadgets in general, you probably know that the Apple tablet is being revealed - about right now, in fact (1:00 EST).
For years we’ve all tried to get the sales force to stop using the cocktail napkins as a preferred contract delivery method. Now with the advent of Apple’s revolutionary tablet computer, the game is changing for contract management. The new tablet (and future generations of tablets) will allows our apps to become a "dig
by Greg Hilton
Answers Systems has kicked off an incredibly exciting product development roadmap for 2010. We are focused on delivering focused improvements in our core products, ContractPro® and ValuTrak®. In the design of this year’s major product and service releases, our team focused on some key needs for our customers:
When Foodservice manufacturers first join our ContractPro® Community, they are typically settling a huge number of claims via distributor deduction. The manufacturer cannot process the distributors’ claims within payment terms, so the distributors just deduct.
In other words, the manufacturers are allowing their distributors to deduct claims from invoice payments…in essence, allowing the distributor to make the audit and payment decision. Bet the auditors love that!
by Stacy Jackson
If you haven't already heard, a federal appeals court reversed the ruling on the Feesers vs. Michael Foods and Sodexo case. You may remember last summer (here's a link to that post) a lower court found Michael Foods and Sodexo guilty of violating the Robinson-Patman Act. Last week, Friday, January 8, that ruling was reversed.
Below are some links to that latest news:
Appeals Court Reverses Foodservice Pricing Pricing Ruling, Food Management
Third Circuit Rules that Food Service Management Companies and Distributors are Not Competitors for Robinson-Patman Act Analysis, USLaw.com
Michael Foods wins pricing case appeal, Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal
Technorati tags: Feesers v. Michael...
It's easy to match claims to contracts, right? You would think the answer is yes, and it should be. Yet, that's not always the case.
The issue we often find is that the contract that the distributor or operator customer has does not match what a user entered into the ContractPro application. When a contract creator chooses to create his or her own version of the contract (via spreedsheet or word processing software) instead of using the the system-generated contract documentation, things j
I recently watched a television show featuring a Snowman. My mind’s eye began to conjure up our foodservice industry in relation to the 3 parts of the Snowman. Go ahead and say it . . . I don’t have a real life!!! Maybe so, but let me tell you more about my vision.
“So, Jay, what is ABC’s policy for the overpayment of claims from our distributors and restaurant operator customers?"
"Well, Bob, we really don’t have a policy on this, but I hear that our accounting department overpays claims by about 20%.”
"Wow, Jay, that sounds like a lot of money. How can ABC Co afford that?"
First off, I wanted to say thank you to each and everyone of our our incredible customers. Your continued support of Answers Systems' vision allows our team to serve you each and every day. Serving you, our customers, is the single most important endeavor that we seek to succeed at.
Posted by Janet Zlokovich
As we wrap up the 2009 year, I want to leave you one thought as you have discussions with your supply chain partners on trade promotion . . . .
Collaboration on data exchange should be a key factor when you establish the core objectives for your trade program model. A requirement of the model must include the submission of electronic billback reporting to the manufacturer for claim settlement. It is simply the only way vendor partners will have the proper insigh
Posted by Stacy Jackson
After reading “The Yadda Yadda Conundrum,” published December 4, in New York Magazine, I realized that a timely statement of the facts could have gone a long way for Tiger Woods. Had he just given an immediate, simple explanation of his car accident to the police, he might not be dealing with all this poking and prying into his personal life. I’m not here to comment on Mr. Woods’ life choices – just pointing out that a statement of concrete facts may have saved him a
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 restaur
In yesterday’s blog post (November 22), I touched on how the ContractPro® solution helps foodservice manufacturers mitigate risk in their trade promotion management process. Today I want to give an overview of how Answers Systems and the ContractPro solution help foodservice manufacturers optimize resources tied to trade promotion management.
The reality in today’s economic environment is that most organizations are having to do more with less – less people, less budget dollars, less time. A
When I opened the November 16, 2009, Special Issue of InformationWeek, the first thing I read was the “Down to Smarter Business” section written by editor, Rob Preston. His article headline is “People Want Results, Not ‘Solutions.’” That got me to thinking about the Answers Systems ContractPro® “solutions” versus the “results” our clients get from our trade promotion management solutions. While our offering is best-in-class for foodservice manufacturers, it’s really the results of those solution
Posted By Greg Hilton
Here is a simile for you . . . Buying a reporting solution and not considering the cleanliness, accuracy and timeliness of the data being analyzed, is like installing a beautiful water faucet in your kitchen and hooking the plumbing directly to your sewer line.
Good data is like a filet mignon!
I was on a phone call with a potential customer the other day. I love being involved in the sales process because you really get energized by offering answers to the problems th
Posted by Tracy McQuilkin
E-claims are claims that come in an electronic format to Answers Systems and can be loaded into our processing system behind the scenes. This is a completely paperless process that eliminates the need for printed claims and manual claim entry.
The benefits of the Eclaimsm process are two-fold. Naturally, as members of the global business community, we have a certain responsibility to contribute to the preservation of our environment. By introducing and encouraging clients to use this greener, more accurate process, we reduce the amount of paper needed for the claims process. And when you’re processing more than 400,000 claims...
Posted by Bud Hilton
I recently complimented one of our managers at Answers Systems for stepping out on the edge and challenging a client on changing some of the practices they were doing in favor of a proven “best practice” way of accomplishing a task within their contract management system. After covering relentless arguing points and hovering in the “no change-safe zone”, the client agreed to make certain concessions and change their position and practice. I can’t express strongly enough h
Posted by Jennifer Grumbling
LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, You Tube, blogging, it really can turn into an endless list of social networking outlets for anyone and everyone to connect to, well, anyone and everyone. Whether you’re a business looking to spread the word about a new product or a retiree seeking out your best friend from high school, it’s amazing the reach these tools can have.
Posted by Jennifer Grumbling
When it comes to trade promotion, foodservice manufacturers have some pretty distinct challenges when it comes to contract management. Here at Answers Systems, we have an entire team of Account Managers that handle specific client accounts and try to alleviate those challenges. Our clients are some of the world’s top brands (scrolling sidebar): Answers Systems Clients (I will finish my horn tooting in a moment.) Over the past 23 years that we have been transforming
Posted by Stacy Jackson
Over the years we have learned a lot about what happens in the first 90 days or so after a manufacturer implements a new contract management system. We call it the pain curve. Excitement and expectations for the new system turn into angst over errors that seem to be piling up in the way of pendings, recalculated claims, and deductions. Things improve, though, after a little work. The pain subsides and turns into confidence in the new system - deductions are down (o
Posted by Jennifer Grumbling
So you did it, you finally reached your weight loss goal! The tricky part begins: maintenance. You work hard to get to where you are and then you have to continue to work to maintain what you have achieved. How do you do it? You keep yourself in check; you continue to perform “tune-ups” on your exercise and diet. But keep in mind, in the end, it always pays off.
Since 1986, Answers Systems has been meeting the unique trade promotion and compliance performance management needs of the foodservice industry. We know the industry-specific requirements and challenges faced by each trading partner, and we understand the perspectives of key stakeholders such as sales, marketing, finance,IT, and purchasing.
As a best-in-class provider of trade promotion and compliance performance management solutions to some of the leading foodservice and hospitality brands in the world, Answers Systems helps clients analyze and understand their contracts, increase efficiencies, identify claim inaccuracies, gain compliance, and improve ROI. In the course of serving our clients . . .
...
Posted by Stacy Jackson
Through our years of experience in helping clients manage their Data Acquisition & Data Management in trade promotion management, we've identified the following potential pain points that foodservice manufacturers face:
* Slow (or NO) submission of claims
* Claim information scattered throughout the organization
* Lack of internal capability to receive electronic claims
* Data mapping of incoming claims
* Matching claims to contracts
* N
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
Posted by Tracy McQuilkin
A deduction in the Answers Systems trade promotion management solution is simply a status type for a completed claim. Whether we cut a check or a deduction occurs, we still fully validate the claim against the contract stored in the ContractPro® application.
Posted by Stacy Jackson
Last week I posted on the topic of Breaking Down TPM Critical Steps - Standardization & Rules of Engagement, based on the webinar series from Foodservice University and Answers Systems. As promised, here is some information about Back-Office Procedures to employ once you have gone about the process of standardizing your trade promotion management process and defining rules of engagement.
Post by Janet Zlokovich
Everyone who sends a tax return to the IRS (business or personal) wonders, "How do I know the IRS received it?” Most taxpayers and tax preparers in 2009 used IRS e-file to file their taxes. During this process, they did not have to send a single scrap of paper to the Internal Revenue Service. In January of this year, the IRS was predicting the the total number of individual tax returns, both electronic and paper, to reach about 140 million in 2009. And it expects e-fil
Posted by Jennifer Grumbling
You are probably thinking what do the Yankees and trade promotion management have to do with each other? Well, you would be surprised.
Baseball can be a tricky business. In a nutshell, the success of the team depends strictly on the players and coaches and their talent and ability for the game. So, one would think that throwing huge contracts and salaries at big name talents to draw them to the team would increase the chances, or maybe even guarantee a chance,
Posted by Stacy Jackson
Recently I posted about the critical steps in foodservice trade promotion management (TPM). The foundation of those critical steps for any TPM solution is standardization. I pulled the transcript of a webinar about Standardization & Communication in Foodservice Trade Promotion Management presented by Roth Block, COO – Answers Systems and Tom Rector, President – Foodservice University®. This information is too good not to share again - at least in this summary form. To
Posted by John Nicholas
I am old enough to remember life before computers. There was no real information to guide business decisions. I had to rely strictly on my good looks and personality. Okay, I exaggerated; I just had my personality to work with. But the point is that I remember a time when everything was based on relationship, not numbers.
“Back in the day”, as a foodservice manufacturer rep, if I had a great relationship with a distributor or operator buyer, many times I could
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' tra
Over the past few years, we have traded a number of thoughts with clients and potential clients on the use of customer-level purchase information to drive sales and marketing initiatives.
Without getting into major minutia, I just wanted to recap Answers Systems' current capabilities in harvesting and reporting this data for CRM purposes. First of all, I would highlight that our system tracks the manufacturer's case shipments into and through distribution to the end-user. The depth of this de
Posted by Greg Hilton
Wikipedia says the term Value Add speaks to difference between the cost to produce a good or service and the sale price. My economics professor in college, “Professor Humdrum,” probably defined it in the same calculating boring and repetitious way (he was good about that). Nothing against monotony, it just seems to go on and on.
Years later in the real world, the term Value Add became less synonymous with economic theory and definition and more about a handy catch p
Posted by Tom Tipps
Price “waterfalling” seems a fairly simple process that deals with the tracking of various revenue reductions/deductions as a product travels through distribution to its ultimate destination… the end-user.
The waterfalling process supports the identification of cost-cutting/margin enhancement opportunities…typically in a company’s go-to-market model.
Posted by Stacy Jackson
Implementing a disciplined, standardized trade promotion management process may seem like a daunting task, but it is essential in today’s business environment. Some of the risks associated with poor contract and trade spend management are:
Lost contracts and documentation
Missed deadlines and opportunities
Compromised operator and distributor relationships
“Maverick” contracts that leave your company open to risk due to unauthorized changes to contractual lan
Have you ever wondered how a company like Answers Systems prioritizes software enhancements or major client/corporate initiatives are? Like many other businesses, we employ the Project Management Office (PMO) concept.
At the top of the PMO Governance document, you will find the following quote: “The PMO’s function is not to make people work, but to make it possible for people to work.” This applies in a couple of ways:
Posted by Jennifer Grumbling
Lately I have been addicted to watching the Food Network, particularly Man vs. Food with Adam Richman. There’s something about watching a man battle a 30-inch pizza with over 5 five pounds of meat or watching him devour wings that reach 150,000 on the Scoville Heat Unit, this just amazes me. It’s quite an undertaking for one man.
Now what do my television habits, the Food Network and trade promotion management have in common? I’ll explain. Like Adam Richman,
Posted by John Nicholas
Over the past eight years I have interviewed scores of foodservice manufacturers. At some point in the conversation, I ask them whether their sales and marketing efforts and trade spend dollars are primarily geared toward operators or distributors? Every manufacturer recognizes the value of their distributor partners, and the need to support the distributor’s efforts in getting their products to market. Having said that, most manufacturers feel more than a little quea
posted by Stacy Jackson
Today's post is an overview of the concept of The Seven Critical Steps in Best-Practice trade promotion Management. These steps have been identified and document by Answers Systems based on over 20-years of contract management and claim settlement experience in the foodservice industry.
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
If you Google “change management,” you get about 240 million results. As you can imagine, this is a hot topic and has become quite the buzzword. What is it, and when did this become one of the most integral parts of managing the success of a business?
According to Wikipedia, Change Management is “the structured approach to transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state.” Also, common sense (and Einstein) says that doing the same thing over
Posted by Sue Sanford
As the Training Manager for the ContractPro solution at Answers Systems, I have seen many contracts created by a Sales Rep/Broker that cannot be used to pay on the claims submitted for that contract. The creator (Sales Rep/Broker) logs into the ContractPro application and finds a pending or learns that their customer has not been paid. What do they do now? Some will go to the pending claim and enter a comment to use the contract they created while others will investigate
I was struck recently by a Wall Street Journal article about Starbucks. It highlighted Scott Heydon, “vice president of lean thinking,” and a student of Toyota’s efficiency manufacturing processes. Mr. Heydon’s job is to find money by re-engineering various business models. One of his recent onsite studies reduced drive-through transactions by two seconds. Another streamlined customer service by an hour-and-a-half per week. Mr Heydon’s strategies include the use of a stopwatch and a Mr. Potato H
I am, by no means, what you would call a gamer. Yes, I grew up during the height of “Pac-Man Fever,” went to the arcade frequently, played Atari at home, followed by Nintendo in the later teen years, but I pretty much left the video games behind after college. Left them behind until I fell in love with the Nintendo Wii. I now even have a GameFly subscription.
I have rented everything from Resident Evil to The Dog Island, which I did conquer by the way. I have Silent Hill, Spore, Raving Rabbid
Imagine this…
Every month you get your credit card bill (not very hard to imagine!), you hop online, and pay your bill. The only difference is that your credit card company only provides you with a total amount due. There isn’t a line item statement included detailing the charges to your card. Would you just pay your bill and trust that they’re not charging you an inflated interest rate or billing you for charges you didn’t authorize? Probably not. You could potentially be throwing away mone
As Data Acquisition Liaison, I work with foodservice distributors to set up electronic data transmissions for trade spend contract management. In today’s competitive economic environment, electronic data and automated file transmissions are key to maximizing trade spend billbacks that occur on the end-of-the-supply-chain. Answers Systems has both manufacturer and operator clients so there are many opportunities to streamline data interchange for all 3 sides of the foodservice triangle.
My
The easy answer is “both strategies, all the time”, and most manufacturers will say that they do this religiously. However, if you peel back the onion one will find that certain times are more favorable for choosing one or the other as a primary 80/20 strategy and putting appropriate resources behind it.
There really are only a few tactical applications that fit each of these strategies. Gaining new customers is sometimes the most costly way to expand business. The manufacturer must allocate
The ContractPro® Community is a dynamic, collaborative group consisting of foodservice manufacturers, brokers, distributors, operators, and the Answers Systems team. All of these entities work together within the Community to achieve a common goal that benefits each party: best-practice trade promotion and contract management.
Like all environments, the ContractPro Community evolves and grows based on the changing demands and opportunities presented by clients, constituents, and clients’ cu
There have been many discussions lately about what to do when a distributor or operator claims an incorrect amount on a billback or request. There are several options, and I wanted to point out what they are and which ones are better than others.
Disciplinarian Approach (a.k.a. “this is going to hurt me more than it does you”)
The first option is the Disciplinarian Approach: don’t pay the wrong amount – only pay the correct, allowed amount. Either the claimants will accept that “correction
Posted by Greg Hilton
Are you one of those folks who, when prompted to participate in a problem-solving meeting or discussion, cannot help but get involved in the dialogue? Are you the type that likes to hang back and see how the discussion progresses and then give your two cents? I was reminded of a third type of person (just last evening) that has a tendency to want to lead the dialogue, quite certain that they understand enough of the facts to give great insight to those around me… um, him
Trade Promotion Management (TPM) is a term inherited from the retail/CPG side of the business.
The retail guys developed the processes/controls and channel relationships supporting the actual management of their huge trade budgets. Note here that “manage” is a verb that hints of action, which, in the context of trade promotion management is dependent on knowledge.
In the Foodservice sector, “management” of trade promotions has been elusive for decades. We were the “stepchild” in most comp
Lately I have been re-reading parts of Jim Collins' Good To Great, a book based on research into how good companies transform themselves into great organizations. Among the many interesting points/revelations in the book, Jim Collins describes how great companies have a culture of discipline while merely "good" companies often have a disciplinarian culture. The difference between the two is this:
A culture of discipline is made up of self-disciplined people who engage in disciplined thinkin
It still amazes me every day how complicated this foodservice industry is. When people ask me what I do, they listen to my answer and say things like “wow, I never realized there was a need for that.” Once you find yourself in this industry, you never leave. It sucks you in. You find yourself sitting at a restaurant table with friends looking at the back of sugar packets just to see who the distributor is. I’ve been in “the industry” now for 16 years and every time I think I have it figure
posted by Greg Hilton
Foodservice and Problem Solving Frameworks
In this series on problem solving frameworks we are taking a look at solving problems using methods learned from the book, The McKinsey Way by Ethan M. Rasiel, and applying them to trade promotion management issues. If you are checking in from the original post, “The McKinsey Way” is a peek into the problem-solving framework used by one of the world’s most successful business strategy-consulting firms, McKinsey & Company.
If y
posted by Stacy Jackson
If you haven't already begun thinking about the decision handed down in April on the Feesers, Inc. v. Michael Foods, Inc. & Sodexho, Inc., you may want to start now. Not just start thinking about it, but reviewing with your legal department the ways you have been contracting/pricing. (By the way . . . this litigation started before Sodexo dropped the “h” from their name, thus the old-school spelling in the court documents).
The Feesers ruling is tough for some o
Post by Greg Hilton, CIO
Many years ago, I read a great book on problem solving and the art of “framing up” business problems. The book, The McKinsey Way, by Ethan M. Rasiel, is a peek into the problem-solving framework used by one of the world’s most successful business strategy-consulting firms, McKinsey & Company.
The Theme – Approach every business question with a structured framework for solving the question (Ex: How can I measure and management my contract relationships to make sure
The Answers Systems Inc ContractPro Trade Management Application Release 4.0 has been approved for general user availability on the morning of Monday, May 11th, 2009. This release is an interim release intended to address several minor issues and to prepare for upcoming releases. Below are the details of the changes:
Remember that "Seinfeld" episode where George got in trouble for dipping his chip twice? People were really irritated that he double dipped. I think we find double dipping troublesome in the world of foodservice, too.
For those new to foodservice claim settlement - and those who accidentally wound up on this blog - double dipping, in this case, refers to foodservice operators that receive rebate payment on a purchase more than once.
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.
Answers Systems tracks quite a bit of data.