Software maximizes promotion planning and execution.

Press Release Summary:



Demantra PE Promotion Effectiveness Software helps consumer goods companies meet demands of regulatory and competitive pressures by managing and optimizing trade promotion process, from modeling and planning to reconciliation, reporting, and measurement. Users can automate creation of event calendars based on optimization goals, and organize, automate, and expedite invoice deduction resolution. Data can be integrated with any packaged ERP application.



Original Press Release:



Demantra Extends Promotions Effectiveness Leadership with New Promotion Optimization, Deductions Management and Enterprise Data Integration Features



Additions to Demantra PE Enable Consumer Goods Organizations to Respond to New Market Dynamics, Maximize Promotion Planning and Execution

WALTHAM, Mass. November 18, 2003 Demantra, a leading provider of
collaborative marketing and supply chain solutions that rapidly create, manage and fulfill demand, today announced new features for its Promotions Effectiveness product, Demantra PE, the industry's leading solution for promotion modeling, forecasting and analytics. The new features provide critical functionality in the areas of promotion optimization, deductions management and enterprise data integration.

Combined with the proven capabilities of Demantra PE, the new features help consumer goods (CG) companies meet the demands of new regulatory and competitive pressures with an unmatched solution for managing and optimizing every aspect of the trade promotion process, from modeling and planning to reconciliation, reporting and measurement.

Market Dynamics Drive Optimization Need
Several market dynamics are converging to put increased pressure on CG organizations as they plan and execute promotion-based sales and marketing strategies. While Sarbanes-Oxley has increased the cost of promotions by demanding deeper levels of detail in financial reporting, Fair Accounting Standards Board (FASB) rules requiring promotion costs to be accounted against revenue instead of as expenses make it even more difficult to craft profitable promotions. These factors, combined with increased competitive pressures and the pervasive challenge of doing more with fewer resources, mean CG companies need promotion management tools that raise the bar in the areas of modeling, automation, reconciliation and reporting.

Welch's has been using Demantra's enhanced PE solution and recognizes the significant benefits it will generate. "This increased visibility into promotional plans and performance will enable us to accurately monitor and measure the performance of trade and other promotional investments, generate a greater return on promotions, and improve the stability and accuracy of demand signals to our plants," said Girard Liberty, CIO of Welch's.

"We have seen very strong demand for PE this year, but our customers have made it clear that they want even more," said Bill Seibel, CEO of Demantra. "The area of greatest interest has been trade promotion management (TPM), particularly the ability to automate time-intensive processes like the creation of event calendars, the reconciliation of promotion funding and the management of deductions. With the addition of the trade promotion capabilities we are announcing today, Demantra has taken a major step in solidifying its lead in the highly critical promotions segment of the supply-chain equation, tying together strategic activities from sales and marketing organizations to supply chain operations to help companies substantially reduce missed revenue opportunities from stock-outs."

New Demantra PE Features and Benefits

Promotion Optimization
- Automate the creation of event calendars, based on specific optimization goals, such as greatest revenue lift or best use of funds
- Ensure maximum lift and ROI, and eliminate stock-outs and excess inventory with synchronized volume plans
- Model optimal promotion plans by forecasting specific effects, including cannibalization and forward buying
- Uncover true promotion effectiveness by evaluating internal and syndicated retail data to determine net lift and quantify key metrics, including cannibalization, forward buying, pantry loading and halo effect
- Accurately predict and maximize profitability of future promotion effects with advanced predictive modeling tools
- Leverage comprehensive planning capabilities, including account planning, fund planning, event planning and volume planning

Deductions Management for consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies
- Organize, automate and expedite invoice deduction resolution
- Link sales, brokers and service organizations, and quickly match deductions with trade promotions using integrated, web-based access to a central information repository
- Reduce average deduction resolution time
- Reduce number of employees required to handle deductions

Enterprise Data Integration
- Easily integrate with any packaged enterprise resource planning (ERP) application or in-house developed system to support or improve existing trade promotion management processes
- Configurable integration platform integrates PE with accounts receivable systems for deductions, syndicated data sources such as IRI and ACNielsen for market intelligence, data warehouses for reporting, point-of-sale data for retail monitoring, and ERP to synchronize demand information
- Comprehensive integration platform features include:
o Process and map designers
o Structured and unstructured data schema designers
o Central repository to meet all application integration requirements
o Support for real-time EDI and XML integration
o Extensive library of plug-ins and pre-defined connectors to reduce the total cost of integration, development and maintenance

MEI Partnership
For CG companies seeking a more extensive trade promotions and retail execution system featuring Demantra's industry leading promotion effectiveness capabilities, Demantra has partnered with MEI, a leading provider of complete and proven trade and retail management solutions for the CG industry. MEI will offer a new promotion modeling solution, powered by Demantra's PE engine, as part of the MEI CG Suite.

About Demantra PE
Demantra PE and its new enhancements are part of the Demantra Spectrum(TM) suite of offerings, and enable brand management, trade marketing, sales and supply chain operations to create a synchronized volume plan. Demantra PE ensures that sales and marketing organizations are effective in creating profit-maximizing promotional plans and in achieving desired objectives.

For more information about Demantra Spectrum and its components, please visit Demantra at www.demantra.com/So_MarketingOptimization.shtml.

About Demantra
Demantra's demand-driven marketing and supply chain solutions manage the rapid creation, planning and fulfillment of demand from promotion management to inventory replenishment. The Demantra SpectrumTM collaborative environment enables our customers to optimize service levels, increase profit margins and significantly drive overall business performance. Demantra has provided proven results 100 to 500 percent ROI within the first year to more than 100 FORTUNE 1000 companies and other global organizations including: Hunter Douglas, Gulistan, Dal-Tile (Mohawk), Unilever, Welch's, Reckitt Benckiser, McCain Foods, DeRoyal, Wendy's International, Firmenich and VTech. For more information, please visit www.demantra.com or contact 1.866.DEMANTRA.

Demantra is a registered trademark and The Demantra Spectrum(TM) Suite is a trademark of Demantra, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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