There is no better time for reflection than the New Year; that’s why CGT asked its subscriber base to identify their most valued and used solutions and services providers across 11 categories. We hope that the results of our eighth annual Readers’ Choice Survey, as well as accompanying commentary from CGT, industry analysts and users in the field, help as you ponder your business and technology choices past, present and future.

 

TOP 10 LISTS
The results on the pages that follow are derived from the feedback of approximately 150 consumer goods business and IT executives. The ballot spanned a various technology and services categories, including Supply Chain Planning, Customer Relationship Management, Trade Promotion Management, Demand Data Analytics, Business Intelligence, New Product Development and Introduction, Outsourcing and more.

 

Survey respondents were asked to identify the solutions and services vendors they currently use across the aforementioned categories, and rank the customer experience they have had using a scale of one to five

(1 being extremely dissatisfied, 5 being extremely satisfied). Subsequently, the Top 10 list (or Top 5 list, in some cases) for each category was determined by assigning each company a combined score of the sheer number of votes (indicative of their reach in the consumer goods industry) weighed against their average customer experience ratings. The 10 companies (or five) that received the highest combined scores in each category were then ranked accordingly.

 

To ensure the integrity of the survey process, we asked respondents to only vote in the categories in which they are intimately involved. Thus, supply chain executives voted in categories that touch the supply chain; sales and marketing executives voted in customer-facing categories; innovation-minded executives voted in the new product development and introduction category; and general business and IT executives, because they touch all areas of the business, voted in every category (see Figure 2).

 

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AND SMB MARKET
In addition to our Top 10 and Top 5 lists, CGT recognizes companies in each category that received special accolades from readers for excellence in customer satisfaction and performance in the small to midsize business market. Here is an explanation of each:

 

Customer Experience: This list identifies the three companies that received the highest average customer satisfaction rating from users in their respective categories. In addition, we’ve added a measure, titled “Category Customer Experience,” that averages customer experience ratings from all responses in a category.We hope that this measure is indicative of how much value a particular category of solutions or services is providing the consumer goods industry.

 

SMB Market: This list determines the most widely used services and solutions providers among consumer goods firms with $1 billion or less in revenue. The methodology for this list follows the same rules as that for the larger Top 10 and Top 5 lists — but the demographic consists only of those executives who identified themselves as working for a small to midsize firm, 44 percent of our respondent base (see Figure 1 and Figure 3).

 

EDITORS’ PICK
Even though this year’s Readers’ Choice survey contains 11 different solutions and services categories, some companies did not find an appropriate home within its parameters. In response, an “Editors’ Pick” page was created to assign recognition for those companies with offerings that support your supply chain, sales and marketing and innovation strategies. While these companies may not have a high volume of customer engagements, may be new to the industry or perhaps they simply don’t fit exactly into one specific category, they are making an impact on the industry and are worthy of attention.

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Supply Chain Planning
 

CONSUMER GOODS MANUFACTURERS ARE FACING
macro-level changes that are strongly influencing their investment in supply chain planning solutions. Globalization and low cost country sourcing are dramatically affecting the logistics and economics of moving raw materials and finished product, steering consumer goods companies toward technologies that will help them understand and optimize these opportunities.

 

Consumer goods companies are tackling persistent out of stocks with demand signal repositories — specialized databases for demand data often working in concert with inventory fingerprinting via RFID. While RFID investments have become more pragmatic, “it has raised awareness of other data sources such as point of sale that companies are not doing much with,” says Simon Ellis, supply chain strategies practice director for Manufacturing Insights, an IDC company.

 

Becoming demand-driven has been a common goal, but many consumer goods companies are finding the reality tough. The new approach is “demand aware but fulfillment driven,” says Ellis. Attitudes toward planning and forecasting have also changed. Near-term planning is still important, of course: Mother Parkers, a large coffee and tea manufacturer in North America, recently deployed Logility Voyager Solutions to improve demand and inventory planning, gain visibility into market demand and seasonal patterns, and aggregate data quickly for capacity planning, saving $800,000 on safety stock in the first two months; New Era Cap selected the SAP Business All-in-One solution to optimize complex supply chain processes, improve inventory control and increase order fill rates across U.S. and European operations; and H.J. Heinz added JDA’s Dynamic Demand Response solution to improve visibility into its North America supply chain, enabling it to sense and respond to market demand fluctuations.

 

But, consumer goods companies are expressing a renewed interest in long-term planning to better consider overall supply chain costs. “We will start to see a bit of reversal of the low cost country sourcing trend to optimize total supply chain costs,” says Ellis. Quality, counterfeit and recall issues are also driving this reversal.

 

Another trend is the movement toward tools to forecast SKUs that fall outside the high volume categories for which many tools were designed, according to Lora Cecere, research director, consumer products at AMR Research.

 

Reviving interest in vendor managed inventory (VMI) is also winning attention. JDA announced an end-to-end supply chain optimization solution with integrated VMI planning and execution capabilities, integrating JDA and Manugistics replenishment, planning and execution applications.

 

Supply chain software developers, including Oracle and SAP, continue to move to service-oriented architectures, Software as a Service and mobility to connect front office and back office applications. These firms are also increasing channel programs to penetrate small to midsize companies; JDA, for example, created an Alliance Connection program to address increased worldwide demand. Meanwhile, SAP continues to expand its vertical and geographic best practices.

 

Customer Experience
“Procter & Gamble (P&G) is successfully using Terra Technology’s solutions in a significant portion of our business and we plan to roll out globally in the near future,” says Mark Kremblewski, global business expert, demand planning,P&G. “The forecast accuracy improvement delivered by Demand Sensing enabled significant reductions in safety stock while maintaining service levels. Demand Sensing is an important part of P&G’s Consumer- Driven Supply Network,helping us win at the first moment of truth.”

1. Terra Technology
2. Logility
3. Oracle

 

SMB Market
Johnsonville Sausage LLC uses mySAP Supply Chain Management with its SAP Advanced Planning & Optimization component. “Our customers are on these programs for years. This not only provides us with a competitive advantage but also holds our feet to the fire. There’s a deep trust and we are committed to sustaining the correct level of inventory at our customers’ distribution centers,” says Brian Harlin, master scheduler, Johnsonville Sausage LLC.

1. SAP
2. Oracle
3. i2 Technolgies

 

Supply Chain Execution

A BACK-TO-BASICS MOVEMENT IS SPURRING
consumer goods manufacturers to consider investment in supply chain execution applications. Consumer goods companies will continue to spend more than others on supply chain management applications in 2008, allocating 10 percent of software budgets versus 7 percent for other industries. Overall, consumer goods companies’ IT spending continues to grow with a budget increase of 9.8 percent for 2008 versus the industry average of 8 percent, according to AMR Research’s “An Update on IT Spending in Consumer Products.”

 

It’s time for a technology refresh for many warehouse management systems (WMS), and consumer goods companies are taking advantage of newer features, platforms and delivery options, including hosted WMS for small and midsize operators and enterprise branches. Consumer goods companies are also eyeing WMS to address interest in enhancing store execution, redesigning warehouse storage to enhance order fulfillment and using automated picking to decrease shipment errors, says Lora Cecere, research director, Consumer Products, AMR Research. Another boon in WMS upgrades:
Voice-directed WMS activities, an area that’s “red hot now for consumer products manufacturers,” says AMR Research.

 

Transportation management is a big focus to address five trends, says Cecere: to improve on-time deliveries to retail, to address sustainability issues by seeking cleaner transportation options, to better address direct store delivery of promotional merchandise, to gain better transportation visibility and to shift from truckload to LTL shipments where warranted to reduce inventory.

 

“We’ve forced customers to full truckload shipments, but that’s too much inventory and it’s buffering demand signals,” explains Cecere. Simon Ellis, supply chain strategies practice director, Manufacturing Insights, an IDC company, expects increasing use of intermodal transportation by consumer goods firms.

 

Rising interest in transportation management systems is not lost on developers. Logility Voyager Transportation Planning and Management recently added new carrier on-boarding capabilities to enable rapid deployment and increased visibility and collaboration with carriers.

 

Consumer goods firms must also be increasingly concerned with sustainability, not only in product design, but in the methods and partners they choose. PepsiCo was heralded this year for its purchase of renewable energy and is evangelizing the green message to supply chain partners, scorecarding them on progress.

 

After a few years of lukewarm interest, consumer goods companies are starting to invest in warehouse labor management to ensure the right number of workers with the right skills are deployed exactly when needed to meet business objectives and customer demand. Companies are also exploring the emerging category of inventory optimization to strike the same right time/place/quantity formula.

 

In the wake of recalls, tainted product scandals and counterfeiting, a rising call for product traceability has vendors such as RedPrairie and HighJump unveiling traceability tools, says Cecere. “The big guys are building it into their platforms,” says Ellis.

 

Breakout Winners

Customer Experience 
“Manhattan Associates’ solutions have been an integral part of increasing our distribution productivity and improving quality service to booksellers,” according to Drew Bordas, director,Warehouse Management Systems for the Ingram Book Group.“The time Manhattan Associates invested and its ability to execute the technology allowed us to implement the solutions without interrupting service to our customers.”

1. Manhattan Associates
2. Logility
3. Jesta I.S.

 

SMB Market
“For Wilton the benefits from Oracle Demantra were a 20 percent decrease in inventory. That also allowed me to increase annual turns by half a turn, which is a big deal. My fill rate is 97 percent to 98 percent consistent every single month against a goal of 95 percent. Sales now believes that I'm going to deliver.There's a lot more increased communication between sales and SCM, and we think that was the key,” says Wendy Malloy, director of Forecast and Inventory Planning,Wilton Enterprises.

1. Oracle
2. 3M/HighJump
3. SAP

 

RFID Hardware

THE TOP THREE WINNERS FOR RFID HARDWARE
in our annual Readers’ Choice Survey are also the most innovative when it comes to driving the technology forward. Hewlett-Packard (HP) is currently enabling complete RFID, research and development, and innovation within its enterprise. Intermec has completely refreshed its product lines in 2007 according to end user and customer requirements, including form factors, batteries and applications. Intermec’s line of RFID hardware devices is also now supported by Microsoft Corp.'s BizTalk Server 2006 R2, which gives customers a uniform way to communicate with and manage RFID devices on the Microsoft Windows platform. Zebra Technologies diversified its offerings by acquiring WhereNet and Navis in the RFID market and realtime solutions space. The company is enhancing its wireless capabilities and offers real-time location services, like asset tracking for inventory control according to product value as an alternative to cheaper passive solutions. Other applications include security access control and supply chain management through RFID.

 

“The current trends in RFID hardware are about price, performance, features and functionality, reliability, form factor, mobility and the intelligence of the reader for specific applications,” explains Michael Liard, research director, RFID and contactless for ABI Research. Form factor considerations include durability, battery life, weight, size, ruggedness, portable printing and mobility. Tag innovations continue to develop, from different types and sizes to the encasing of tags, and frequency selection is increasing alongside form factor selection in the marketplace.

 

“RFID is about business process change. Look at your business problems and identify your pain points. How can RFID fix these? If you’re thinking about RFID technology, make sure you have an appropriate internal IT champion and a business process person, plus a marketing person, on your team to leverage the RFID data to increase your ROI,” advises Liard. For Trade Promotion Management, RFID can track when products hit the sales floor, whether or not they reached there on time, and the point-of-sale sales uplift according to that timing.

 

“Only 50 percent of products make it on time for promotions to sell on the shelves,” he explains. “RFID can save on labor costs for checking on ‘problem children’ stores in this regard. Procter & Gamble is doing this with the pharmacies and with Wal-Mart. They put a reader at the back door and at the entrance to the sales floor. Then they put one in the box crusher to ensure the product doesn’t end up there. There’s definitely ROI to be had there.”

 

To ensure ROI on your RFID investment, you need to be very application and user specific in your procurement. The total cost of ownership needs to include the pilot price with the long-term costs — which might prove to be the best source of ROI in the long term. For high-value, high-risk items, like consumer electronics, fashion apparel and footwear, RFID is ideal for asset and supply chain management, as well as for anti-counterfeiting measures. The tag cost needs to be justified by the price points, at least until RFID hardware costs come down for consumer goods applications.

 

Breakout Winners

Customer Experience
In December 2007, Motorola formed a strategic relationship with Intelleflex to deliver Extended Capability RFID solutions.“The combination of Motorola’s RFID leadership and Intelleflex’ breakthrough extended capability RFID technology is compelling. It will allow us to deliver powerful new solutions to our current and future customers in automotive,food and drug,electronics, government, healthcare and other industry sectors,” says Mike Lowry, president, Lowry Computer Products.

 

1. Motorola
2. Hewlett-Packard
3. Avery Dennison

 

SMB Market
Hewlett-Packard’s (HP) RFID solutions and services are based on unique industry and business needs to help organizations increase manufacturing efficiencies and enable the next-generation supply chain.HP RFID can enable companies to meet customer and compliance mandates; improve ability to accurately determine inventory at various stages of production; reduce cycle times through automation; lower operational risks; improve return on investment; enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.

 

1. Hewlett-Packard
2. Motorola
3. Intermec

 

 

The pressure of globalization requires consumer goods firms to obtain a unified view of their business to ensure profitability. So, it comes as no surprise that ERP budgets are growing. According to AMR Research, 47 percent of large enterprises will increase ERP budgets in 2008 and their ERP budgets will grow 5.4 percent on average in 2008. Similarly, 48 percent of midsize enterprises will increase their ERP budgets, with an expected average increase of 5.1 percent in 2008. Our Top 5 ERP companies are sure to be recipients of those swelling investments.

 

Breakout Winners

Customer Experience
“The insight into our activities has increased 1000 percent, so to speak, now that QAD is our central information backbone. All employees have access to the same information, which makes us much more efficient. As QAD is tailored to specific issues in our industry, including rules and regulation, we are able to operate more flexibly. Everything is stored in a uniform way and that’s an ideal situation,” says Ton Mens, controller, Agio Cigars.

 

1. QAD
2. Microsoft Corporation

 

SMB Market
Butterball LLC formed in 2006 when Carolina Turkeys acquired the Butterball brand from ConAgra Foods. Carolina Turkeys deployed an SAP ERP application in less than seven months, then scaled the initial deployment to integrate the Butterball assets — growing from $500 million to $1.5 billion in revenue within five months. “When we learned there was a preconfigured solution designed for our industry, we immediately began investigating the SAP software and realized it fit our needs perfectly,” says Ron Wells, CIO, Butterball LLC.

 

1. SAP
2. Oracle

 

 

CRM encompasses sales, marketing and customer service, a definition that leads to a lot of variety in the marketplace. Research in CGT and AMR Research’s 2007 Tech Trends Study showed that many organizations turned away from traditional CRM investments for a short time, as ambiguity led to application overspending and under-utilization. But consumer goods firms are ready to re-invest in managing the customer experience as enhanced user interfaces and ondemand options come to market from the CRM leaders listed here.

 

Breakout Winners

Customer Experience
“We are extremely happy with the implementation.CPWerx satisfies all our expectations with regard to technology, scope of functionality, process efficiency and flexibility — even after an implementation period of just four months for the first phase,” explains Stefan Matheis,CRM project manager,Karlsberg Brauerei GmbH.“User acceptance has been overwhelming and extraordinary for a software project of this magnitude. Our field sales staff is really enthusiastic.”

 

1. CAS
2. MEI

 

SMB Market
Polaris Industries is one of the largest manufacturers of all-terrain vehicles and a recognized leader in the snowmobile industry.According to Bede Braegelmann, project manager for Sales,Service & Marketing for Polaris Industries. “One hour after implementing Microsoft CRM, a dealer called to discuss an open case.With one click, the support representative accessed the records needed to successfully handle the call.”

 

1. Microsoft Corporation
2. SAP

 

Trade Promotion Management

IN 2007, THE TRADE PROMOTION MANAGEMENT
(TPM) space continued to mature, according to Gartner’s Dale Hagemeyer, research vice president, Manufacturing - Life Sciences and Consumer Goods. He comments that this is evident in the fact that the Top 10 ratings are a mix of suite vendors, point solution vendors and those dedicated to optimization of TPM.

 

“What I see is that smaller consumer goods companies usually go with the hosted solutions, while the larger companies stay with the suites that allow for customization and cover more key selling processes. This makes sense because the smaller consumer goods companies often see TPM as an urgent need, but not in the context of a more complete solution including category management, retail execution and monitoring, and volume planning,” says Hagemeyer.

 

We asked Hagemeyer to further comment on the evolution of the TPM market. Here’s what he had to say: “Optimization beyond transactional is critical; the cycle of ‘plan-execute-pay’ was grossly in need of automation. But now, with optimization and predictive modeling added to TPM, it promises to open up a new horizon of spending more time looking out the windshield at the future instead of in the rear view mirror at the past.

 

“There are companies doing innovative things to move TPM forward. Some of this may be directly related to TPM such as predictive modeling and some of it may be as an enabler to TPM such as point-of-sale data analytics, marketing mix modeling and shelf management.

 

“Durable and semi-durable consumer goods companies are still not as well represented in TPM as they should be. Earlier in the decade, I attributed this to the down economy. But the trend has persisted. The consumables companies continue to outpace the other categories.

 

“Watch for more consolidation among the hosted TPM vendors; watch for continued polarization as the multi-billion dollar consumer goods companies stay with the suite solutions that allow for customization and a broader footprint of salesrelated activities; and watch for optimization and predictive modeling to play a greater role in how consumer goods companies go to market.”

 

Regarding our top three TPM vendors: Oracle’s Application Integration Architecture was announced in April 2007. The company also indicated that the release of the Siebel CRM Trade Promotions and Deductions Integration Pack for Oracle E-Business Suite is expected to provide a closed-loop trade promotional process for consumer goods companies, encompassing trade promotion creation and settlement flows.

 

SAP introduced the “next evolution” of SAP Customer Relationship Management in December 2007. New capabilities include enhanced TPM and Market Development Funds applications to help customers “extract more out of their promotional spend, while securing greater visibility, control and traceability of end-to-end funds and claims processes.”

 

MEI announced it signed four additional client partners during November: Alacer Corporation, Kettle Foods, Quaker Maid Meats and Smart Balance. These companies will leverage the hosted Troubadour solution.

 

Breakout Winners

Customer Experience
“Adesso Solutions has given us the ability to take a strangle hold on our receivables,” says Bill Chappell, trade marketing manager, Redox Brands.“Promotional funding is accrued as an “on going” process, and the dreaded surprise deduction has all but been eliminated.”

 

“Not only is MEI easy to use and easy to achieve results, they treat their clients like Pinnacle Foods treats and respects our clients and consumers. This relationship is what makes MEI so successful,” says Santa Pandolfo, director of Sales Operations and Customer Specific Marketing, Pinnacle Foods.

 

1. (tie) Adesso Solutions
1. (tie) MEI
2. SAP

 

SMB Market
“With trade dollar spending consuming a greater and increasing portion of our promotional budget we had a need to ensure that we are getting the best value for each dollar spent,” says Merl McGriff, senior manager of Sales Administration & Logistics, Red Gold Inc.“With the Demantra Trade Fund Management Software we can now quickly and efficiently track and evaluate all of our trade spending programs and make them much more effective.”

 

1. Oracle
2. Adesso Solutions
3. MEI

 

New Product Development & Introduction

“THE INCREASED DEMAND FOR INNOVATION FROM
consumers and retailers — and the high failure rates of successful introductions — means that there is a growing need to develop more new products every year. As a result, consumer goods companies are increasingly adopting new product development solutions to manage the costs of product development and focus attention on the most likely winners,” says Peter Bambridge, research director, Manufacturing IAS, Gartner Industry Advisory Services.

 

But what makes something innovative? Cheryl Perkins, president of Innovation Edge, says, “Here is the simplest definition: Innovation is any product or service that delivers desirable experiences for your consumers and sustainable growth for your company. In other words, innovation delivers economic value.” She says to create and deliver outstanding customer experiences, leaders are discovering that there are multiple combinations of processes, technology and interaction “must-haves” to bring a new offering to market.

 

Of course those process leaders and technology providers that support innovation appear in our Top 10 list. Microsoft is emphasizing innovation as a process, using partners — many of which are on the Top 10 list — for formal PLM applications. In addition, it is helping clients to leverage standard MS tools and applications such as SharePoint and Office to automate and improve new product development and innovation through collaboration.

 

No. 2 Oracle acquired Agile mid-year 2007. Oracle President Charles Phillips says in a press release, "Profitable product innovation is critical to product-based industries, making PLM one of the fastest growing application segments. The addition of Agile, which will serve as the foundation of our PLM offering, will further Oracle's strategy of delivering industry-specific enterprise applications."

 

In August 2007, SAP unveiled its road map for the SAP PLM application, which, according to SAP, will help companies successfully address the accelerated speed of change and the need to differentiate through innovation within their business network. Over the next three years, the extended application will build on existing SAP PLM capabilities to provide an end-to-end solution.

 

In 2008, Perkins says the biggest trend around innovation will be “the continued gravitation toward using more structured tools and methods for discovering and understanding the needs of customers, analyzing the insights gained from customer and market research, and synthesizing these emergent patterns into desirable customer experiences.” Partnership strategies will change as “truly innovative” companies engage multiple partners to build a strong competitive advantage. “As open innovation practices become more prevalent, managing and integrating between partners becomes a much higher management imperative,” concludes Perkins.

 

Bambridge adds, “We see the market continuing to consolidate as vendors fight to grow market share and extend their solution footprints...We see increased interest in ‘green’ and ethical issues.” He also sees new product development moving from a “product specific focus to one that is more product portfolio focused.”

 

Breakout Winners

Customer Experience
"Tyson Foods has an excellent strategic supply partner program.With Prodika [now Oracle Agile PLM for Process], we will drive for even more effective supplier relationships and rationalization of ingredients, leading to improved optimization of new and existing products,” Hal Carper, senior vice president,research and development, Tyson Foods, told CGT in September 2007. The company was early in its implementation, but Carper said benefits had already been realized.

 

1. Oracle
2. Paxonix
3. IBM

 

SMB Market
“The spark behind our innovation comes from engineers and conceptual designers working together with customers as well as other employees,” says John Loo, senior manager of Design Systems at Callaway Golf, a Microsoft Corporation client.“With the collaborative functions available in our SharePoint-based portal, team members can work together more efficiently on design problems and refine concepts faster.”

 

1. Microsoft Corporation
2. Oracle
3. IBM

 

Outsourcing

AS CONSUMER GOODS COMPANIES STRIVE TOBE
lean and increasingly realize that success is dependent on “doing what you are good at” — in other words, focusing on core competencies — outsourcing initiatives continue to be on the rise. “Gartner on Outsourcing, 2007-2008,” reports, “The global outsourcing market [overall] continues to grow at a steady pace, with a 2007 growth rate of 10.2 percent for both IT outsourcing and business process outsourcing (BPO), with BPO showing a double-digit growth.”

 

Filippo Passerini, chief information and global services officer for The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G), was quoted in a Hewlett-Packard (HP) document detailing its services: “P&G is spending more on technologies that drive innovation and less on infrastructure. That’s exactly the way it should be . . .” HP is now entering it’s fifth year of a 10-year contract with P&G. Earlier this year, the company also announced it had been awarded a seven-year, global services contract by Heineken.

 

Indeed, more and more, innovation is becoming connected to outsourcing. In a recent report titled “Innovation Sourcing: Increasing business value within outsourcing relationships,” IBM states, “The outsourcing agenda is changing, and companies are increasingly focused on driving this greater business value. They are venturing into innovation partnerships to boost the value of their outsourcing relationships. Innovation partnerships enable companies to take advantage of the outsourcer’s wider capabilities . . .” In December 2007, Unilever extended its services relationship with the company. IBM will “integrate and manage procurement operations in Latin America.”

 

Unilever also calls No. 3 Accenture an outsourcing partner with a seven-year human resources outsourcing deal signed in 2006. In September 2007, Accenture and Microsoft signed a sever-year BPO agreement with Accenture providing finance and accounting and procurement services. The Wall Street Journal reported on Accenture’s first quarter earnings as of Nov. 30, 2007, and noted that, “New bookings — an indicator of future revenue and potential profit — were $5.92 billion.” Accenture’s Chief Executive William D. Green was quoted in the article saying, "We are seeing strong demand for our services in both consulting and outsourcing."

 

Gartner’s outlook for the upcoming year is in line with the cases mentioned here. “Gartner believes that the outsourcing market has reached a tipping point with regard to utility delivery models, and that change and innovation will take hold and accelerate in this area through 2008.” Also predicted, is an increase in multi-provider strategies; a trend toward software as a service offerings; and more “near-shore” alternatives as the demand for optimized global delivery adds pressure. The report also notes that “green IT” initiatives garnered attention in 2007, “demanding greater data center power efficiency,” and this is expected to continue.

 

The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) appears to agree with Gartner’s forecast saying that: “Socially responsible outsourcing, global competition for talented employees and a power shift among outsourcing players will be among the key trends in the coming year.”

 

Breakout Winners

Customer Experience
“We will get access to the expertise and technology strengths of IBM to further streamline our processes and improve efficiencies,” said Unilever’s Greg Polcer, SVP, Supply Chain, NA, of the company’s procurement services deal with IBM signed in 2005. “IBM’s management of our nonproduction items will further free Unilever in North America to focus resources and energy around business activities that are more consumer and customer facing to add more value and drive growth.”

 

1. IBM
2. Hewlett-Packard
3. Wipro Technologies

 

SMB Market
“We chose HP more than five years ago because of the company’s ability to provide full service software manufacturing outsourcing services and manage our entire supply chain out of our Nashua, NH location for our global requirements. We recently renewed our contract with HP because of its quality,service and competitive pricing.With HP,we are able to focus on our core business — creating powerful and easy to use products for music creation and recording,” says Peter Oram, CFO, Cakewalk.

 

1. Hewlett-Packard
2. IBM
3. CSC

 

Consulting

OUR TOP THREE READERS’ CHOICE WINNERS
in the Consulting category — IBM, Deloitte and Accenture — are doing extremely well in the consumer goods marketplace, but with very different business models. The most strategic consulting partners offer operations and business consulting in the traditional sense. However, major IT execution is also in the picture, with some Indian service providers, like Wipro Technologies, Cognizant, Tata Consultancy Services [TCS] and Infosys Technologies.

 

Consumer goods firms will continue to rely on consulting partners for assistance because it is extremely difficult to recruit and retain sufficient expertise in-house. Consulting is becoming increasingly useful from an execution perspective to enable companies to reach their milestones and to stay on track with IT implementations.

 

“There can be a balance between partnerships and adversarial relationships in this regard,” explains Dana Stiffler, research director, consulting and outsourcing services for AMR Research. “Consumer goods firms have different company cultures, from family run businesses to major corporations, and so different consulting styles are needed. Many companies are now interested in finding a partner with a point of view that they can execute — with plenty of coaching along the way.”

 

Offshore consulting in India has become more expensive with the rupee appreciating against the U.S. dollar, and more challenging due to attrition and the difference in time zones. Latin America is starting to offer near shore IT sourcing and business process outsourcing (BPO). Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Chile are the key countries providing these services, and they are all in a more convenient time zone band for U.S. companies. The U.S. dollar is so weak that U.S. options are becoming more competitive in states, like Oklahoma, West Virginia and Mississippi, which share a similar culture, language and time zone for U.S. companies seeking consultancy services.

 

Consumer goods consulting usually involves support around enterprise applications (from SAP, Siebel, PeopleSoft and Oracle), with a third party being responsible for maintenance and support. Consumer goods firms also seek support for upgrades, global roll outs, and consolidation and rationalization in advance of a major upgrade. Specialist consultants often provide expansion implementation, like specialized modules for the implementation of ERP, but at a larger volume.

 

“The big ERP vendors are building their own Software as a Servic (SaaS) products. For trying out new functionality and going into new markets, SaaS is ideal. In five to ten years, most business applications will be using the SaaS delivery model. We’ll see composite applications to procure and deliver services across companies,” says Stiffler.

 

She predicts that service providers will be wrapping around business services, providing full capabilities as outsourced business processes: “Trade Promotion Management, even now, is completely outsourced by a few consumer goods companies. Business process consulting and the demand for sales and operations planning will continue.”

 

Breakout Winners

Customer Experience
“Clarkston Consulting has been a tremendous value add to one of our company’s most significant business process and technology improvement initiatives. They have brought a wealth of industry knowledge to the table, along with a disciplined approach to project execution which has resulted in excellent customer service.I would highly recommend Clarkston Consulting to any CPG company,” says Brian Stockdale, SVP, Marketing Operations, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

 

1. Clarkston Consulting
2. Accenture
3. McKinsey & Company

 

SMB Market
“We selected Deloitte to help us implement SAP because of the industry knowledge they demonstrated. The consultants really hit the ground running and were key to our project being implemented on time and on budget. Their project manager, as well as the partner, worked closely with their consultants to guarantee the success of the project. Perhaps our greatest compliment to Deloitte is they have been invited back for other SAP initiatives,”says Ron Wells, CIO, Butterball LLC.

 

1. Deloitte
2. IBM
3. Hewlett-Packard

 

Demand Data Analytics

AS MANY CONSUMER GOODS COMPANIES ADOPT
demand-driven strategies, the spotlight in recent years has been on demand signals and how they can be leveraged throughout the enterprise. Last year, we added Demand Data Analytics as a category to our annual Readers’ Choice survey. As expected, the market continues to evolve as consumer goods manufacturers begin to take action on this important initiative and software vendors continue to roll out solutions and provide more functionality toward the overall goal.

 

The ultimate holistic vision includes a centrally managed repository (Demand Signal Repository or DSR) where all demand data — point of sale (POS), warehouse withdrawals, CPFR/VMI transactional data, RFID, loyalty card, syndicated, etc. — from all retailers is cleansed, normalized, aggregated and stored for multiple business processes to leverage.

 

While some of this data has been analyzed by account teams and marketing organizations for years, the difference lies in the amount of data now being shared by retailers — particularly the granularity and frequency — and the vision for this data to be used outside of traditional sales and marketing applications. Most of the vendors on our Top 10 Demand Data Analytics list have been involved with either providing data or analyzing the data for sales and marketing organizations, many for sales and category management purposes.

 

As in past years, the leaders are Information Resources Inc. (IRI) and ACNielsen, the leading syndicated data providers. In addition to their traditional data and analysis products, both have added new solutions to assist manufacturers leverage POS data: IRI is providing new ways to quickly identify and act on consumer insights with it’s Shopper Insights Explorer Solution. ACNielsen has focused on managing on-shelf availability with its Decisions Made Easy application.

 

The next group of technology vendors — rich in niche functionality — has collectively added many top-tier and well-known consumer goods names to their client rosters. Vision Chain moved up a slot from last year, as the company continues to work with top-tier clients to move beyond Wal-Mart data analysis toward a complete Demand Signal Repository solution. It recently released a new version of software in a hosted model, enhancing deployment options. Kenosia also moved up a slot, leveraging its loyal and satisfied client base to attract new clients and continues to provide valued data insights.

 

No. 5 player VeriSign deserves a mention as months of rumor and speculation are finally laid to rest: VeriSign has agreed to sell its Retail Data Services business to T3Ci. With a nod to the original company name and the primary purpose of the data and analytics solutions provided, the combined entity will be called Retail Solutions.

 

As downstream data and the DSR vision evolve, consumer goods companies will continue to put the pieces together to achieve the ultimate goal of having demand insights integrated into all critical business processes. Expect several traditional technology providers to enter the market as this space progresses and retailers continue to expect more from their trading partners in exchange for sharing their data.

 

Breakout Winners

Customer Experience
“We had a need that Kenosia seemed to fill very effectively. They provided the resources to program, customize and deliver a tool that we use in account planning. No other supplier offered the same service and responsiveness. Kenosia’s ability to provide a unique solution to our specific requirements proved helpful to us in our pursuit of new item placement and SKU performance,” says Brad Anderson, director of Distribution, Space Planning and Technology, Nestlé Purina Petcare.

 

1. Kenosia
2. Relational Solutions
3. G4 Analytics

 

SMB Market
“To compete in the seasonal and volatile lawn and garden industry,we are continually challenged to find more powerful means of assessing consumer demand. We selected Shiloh because it significantly enhances this capability,” says Alan Jennings, director, Sales Planning & Operations, United Industries Corporation. “Shiloh has shown itself to be flexible and powerful. The training and technical support provided by Bentonville Software Associates allows our team to fully extract value from Shiloh.”

 

1. Bentonville Software
2. ACNielsen
3. IRI

 

Business Intelligence

THE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE MARKET HAS OUR
vote for most changed in 2007 as the major players — both applications vendors and platform vendors — have made significant investments to broaden their analytic portfolios — mostly through acquisition.

 

Specifically, business intelligence victor SAP announced plans to acquire Business Objects in October 2007. Operating as a stand-alone business within the SAP Group, Business Objects offers expertise and solutions complimentary to existing SAP offerings for business users — for example, business intelligence in the SAP platform and corporate performance management capabilities, including those recently added through tuck-in acquisitions of OutlookSoft Corp. (May 2007) and Pilot Software (February 2007).

 

In November 2007, IBM made its 23rd acquisition in support of its Information on Demand strategy. It announced its intent to integrate Cognos as a group within IBM’s Information Management Software division.

 

Additionally, No. 3 player Oracle bolstered its business intelligence capabilities with the acquisition of Hyperion in March 2007, which couples Hyperion’s enterprise performance management software with Oracle’s business intelligence tools and analytic applications to form an end-to-end performance management system.

 

While the ink dries on these recent deals, AMR Research Analyst John Hagerty expects the consumer goods user community to experience some natural confusion as to status of existing products due to combining product road-maps and shifting marketing messages. “We expect road maps to be clearly defined and understood by midyear 2008, and then customers should start to see the fruit of these mergers with more analytics starting around the end of 2008,” he predicts. “The most visible impact to consumer goods companies will be that they can buy more technology from fewer vendors. Call it one-stop shopping.”

 

In the longer-term, Hagerty expects that enhanced analytics capabilities will be delivered to support the needs of consumer goods companies that want and demand business intelligence providers to deliver information to users in context of what they do. Finance, marketing, supply chain, sales and so on will have more dedicated analytic applications, providing the context that customers crave.

 

By way of precedent, users should expect more mergers and acquisitions in the business intelligence market. “When power concentrates in the hands of fewer very large players, there will be economic pressure to combine,” says Hagerty. Specifically, he expects that seventh ranked Teradata will either merge with another business intelligence company or be acquired by a major player to solidify a stronghold in the business intelligence market.

 

In response to the changing market landscape and the confusion that acquisitions have created, best-in-class providers have an opportunity to capitalize by playing specialists roles. “My expectation is that they will all bang the drum loudly to make the most of this confusion,” closes Hagerty.

 

Breakout Winners

Customer Experience
“Business Objects has made our sales force and our entire business much more agile,” said Tim R. Oligmueller, sales automation manager, adidas Group, in a company press release issued before the SAP acquisition.“With the business intelligence infrastructure,we can be confident we have consistent, accurate information when we walk into the board room.We will continue to upgrade and explore opportunities that will give us even faster access to the information that matters most to our business.”

 

1. SAP/Business Objects
2. Microsoft Corporation
3. IBM/Cognos

 

SMB Market
“Justifying [SAP NetWeaver BI] is similar to an e-mail system in that no business in its right mind today would operate without e-mail. It’s a no-brainer,” says Doug Foster, director of IT, Elmer’s Products Inc, a trusted brand of wellknown adhesives, arts and crafts, educational and office products. He adds,“Our measures are very simple: it comes down to profitability. This solution is solving lots of problems and it is very clear that this is positively impacting profitability.”

 

1. SAP/Business Objects
2. Microsoft Cororation
3. IBM/Cognos

 

 

Editor's Pick

This year’s Readers’ Choice survey spans 11 categories, but some companies do not fit snugly into any one group due to their size or focus. In response, we created the Editors’ Pick section to recognize 24 companies that are making a respectable impact in the industry and should be dually noted.

 

 

Genpact
www.genpact.com
Genpact provides a wide range of services to consumer goods companies using its global delivery platform. For example, Genpact applies Six Sigma and Lean principles plus technology to continuously improve client business processes.

 

FAST FACT: Genpact received the EMPI-Indian Express Indian Innovation Award for its role in pioneering the business process outsourcing sector.

 

Infosys Technologies
www.infosys.com
Consumer packaged goods companies can leverage Infosys Technologies’ consulting and IT services to accelerate innovation, enhance supply chain responsiveness and efficiency, and improve sales and marketing productivity. Infosys helps clients to develop enterprise business process foundations and adopt technologies to better forecast and influence customer demand.

 

FAST FACT: Infosys was ranked No. 2 in Sales & Operations Planning domain and industry-specific expertise in a recent AMR Research survey.

 

Perficient
www.perficient.com
Perficient Inc. provides business consulting services for consumer goods companies looking to increase customer relationship management and business intelligence capabilities. It combines industry expertise with Oracle/Siebel product knowledge to deploy forecasting, trade promotion management,retail execution and analytics solutions.

 

FAST FACT: In 2007, Perficient was ranked No. 15 on Fortune magazine’s“100 Fastest-Growing Companies” list and No. 6 on Business 2.0 magazine’s list of the “100 Fastest Growing Technology Companies.”

 

 

1SYNC
www.1SYNC.org
1SYNC,part of GS1 US, is a Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN)-certified Data Pool that offers solutions in 32 countries to eliminate costly data errors, increase supply chain efficiencies and promote closer trading partner collaboration.

 

FAST FACT: The 1SYNC Data Pool Solution supports the new GDSN price synchronization standard in offering automatic price synchronization.

 

ILOG www.ilog.com
ILOG delivers business rule management systems, supply chain planning and scheduling applications, and optimization and visualization software components to help consumer good customers to make better decisions and manage change and complexity.

 

FAST FACT: Software Magazine ranked ILOG 166 on “The Software 500” list and was also listed in the “100 Great Supply Chain Partners” by Global Logistics & Supply Chain Strategies magazine this year.

 

Inovis
www.inovis.com
Inovis’ on-demand Business Community Management solutions allow companies to transact, collaborate and optimize communications with their trading community. Inovis customers include 17 of the top 20 consumer goods companies worldwide.

 

FAST FACT: Inovis acquired BetweenMarkets, a provider of on-demand trading partner applications for supply chain hubs and suppliers, in November 2007.

 

ORTEC
www.ortec.com
ORTEC’s solutions address advanced order decision making for customer service and logistics personnel, providing the ability to upsize orders, increase weight or cube and improve picking. ORTEC’s SAP embedded solutions optimize pallet, vehicle space and route planning.

 

FAST FACT: ORTEC and Coca-Cola Enterprises were nominated for the 2007 Franz Edelman Award, which recognizes outstanding examples of innovative operations research that improve organizations — and often change people’s lives.

 

Planalytics
www.planalytics.com
Planalytics’ Business Weather Intelligence helps clients understand and plan for the impact that weather has on their business. Nestlé Waters, Campbell Soup Company, Welch’s,McCain Foods,Hanes Brands and Alberto-Culver are just some of the consumer goods companies that are “putting the weather to work” with Planalytics.

 

FAST FACT: Planalytics added 43 new clients to its Business Weather Intelligence platform in 2007.

 

Software AG
www.softwareag.com
Software AG integrates, monitors and measures a consumer goods company’s end-to-end processes. Product suite features include process modeling and orchestration, workflow and document management, realtime dashboards, business rules management, process assets library, graphical run-time simulation, robust system integration and enterprise-class service-oriented architecture.

 

FAST FACT: Software AG’s webMethods Business Process Management Suite was profiled in both the Gartner Magic Quadrant and the Forrester Waves reports.

 

Sterling Commerce
www.sterlingcommerce.com
Sterling Commerce provides selling, fulfillment and integration solutions that augment and extend a manufacturer’s traditional ERP and other legacy systems to enable multi-enterprise supply chain processes.

 

FAST FACT: In 2007, Sterling Commerce was recognized as an industry leader by Food Logistics magazine, Manufacturing Business Technology, Start-IT magazine, Global Logistics & Supply Chain Strategies and Software Magazine.

 

Retail Solutions Inc.
www.retailsolutions.com
Formerly known as T3Ci, Retail Solutions develops and delivers a comprehensive suite of Software-as-a-Service solutions that turn retailer data into actionable visibility into the store and onto the shelf. Retail Solutions helps consumer goods companies to reduce out of stocks, improve promotion design and execution, maximize instore operations productivity and increase sales.

 

FAST FACT: In January 2008,T3Ci acquired VeriSign Retail Data Services and renamed itself Retail Solutions.

 

ToolsGroup
www.ToolsGroup.com
ToolsGroup provides inventory optimization solutions to large multi-nationals such as Diageo,Avon and Cadbury Schweppes, as well as smaller regional businesses. By correctly setting safety stocks and improving daily forecast accuracy, ToolsGroup customers achieve “service level excellence” (up to 99 percent or more) and topline growth with less global inventory.

 

FAST FACT: In 2007, ToolsGroup was named on Food Logistics’ “FL 100;” Manufacturing Business Technology’s “Top 40 Emerging Software Vendors” and the Global Logistics & Supply Chain Strategies’ “Top 100 Great Supply Chain Partners.”

 

Trimble
www.trimble.com
Trimble Mobile Solutions’ Retail Execution application combines elements of retail execution and direct store delivery (DSD) and with global positioning system (GPS) enablers. Its other solution,Trimble DSD, combines elements of pre-sales and delivery with route sales.

 

FAST FACT: Trimble DSD has algorithms to suggest order quantities based on store attributes. Its retail execution solution can guide users through various activities and can work in connected or disconnected mode. Both solutions can handle pricing or promotion permutations to support frequent changes.

 

 

 

Eqos
www.eqos.com
Eqos’ product lifecycle management, global sourcing and supplier management solutions help retailers to connect, collaborate and achieve compliance throughout the retail supply chain. Suite business solutions help bring products to market faster, enhance product innovation, improve supplier performance and ensure product quality and factory compliance.

 

FAST FACT: Eqos supports millions of transactions daily for more than 15,000 users, managing more than $50 billion in inventory for the world’s largest, most recognized global retailers.

 

Kalypso
www.kalypso.com
Kalypso is a product lifecycle management (PLM) expert in the consumer goods industry. In addition to developing PLM strategies and deploying proprietary PLM technology, Kalypso’s service offerings include product strategy, development, introduction, commercialization,consumer and shopper immersion, go-to-market capability and organization design.

 

FAST FACT: Kalypso acquired Kalypso Learning,an eLearning business, to build customized, on-demand training solutions for clients.

 

NineSigma
www.ninesigma.com
NineSigma partners with consumer goods companies, like Procter & Gamble, Kraft Foods, Kimberly-Clark and Unilever, to broaden their innovation capabilities by connecting them with the best creative minds around the world. NineSigma’s open network of innovators is the largest of its kind and spans industries, geographies and technical disciplines.

 

FAST FACT: NineSigma celebrated its 1000th client project in late 2007.

 

Sopheon
www.sopheon.com
Sopheon helps research- and development-intensive companies generate more revenues and profits from their investments in product innovation. Its Vision Strategist tool helps to roadmap the future of products and technologies. Accolade automates the product development process and the management of product portfolios.

 

FAST FACT: Land O’ Lakes, SABMiller, Church & Dwight and Beiersdorf selected the Accolade PLM system to enhance product innovation processes in 2007.

 

Zweave
www.zweave.com
Zweave’s on-demand product lifecycle management software solutions allow users to share and manage product development information. Using the Zdesign On-Demand delivery model, manufacturers can support supply chain partners as well as streamline collaboration and accountability between merchandising, design and sourcing activities.

 

FAST FACT: Zdesign On-Demand was built with seven consecutive R&D grants from the Department of Defense’s Small Business Innovation Research Program to support PLM for the American Defense Manufacturing base.

 

 

 

Apriso
www.apriso.com
Apriso Corporation’s FlexNet platformprovides visibility, adaptability and real-time control of manufacturing operations across the enterprise and supply chain network by integrating planning, execution and control, increasing operational efficiency and eliminating errors in the production process.

 

FAST FAC T : Apriso was recently highlighted by Manufacturing Business Technology as a “Top 40 Emerging Software Vendor.”

 

Fastech Integrated Solutions
www.fastechis.com
With 25 years of experience,Fastech Integrated Solutions develops mobile, retail execution solutions tailored to the specific needs of the consumer packaged goods industry. Its On Demand model allows customers to deploy systems quickly and cost-effectively. Its merchandising and DSD solutions enable manufacturers to capture,analyze, manage and integrate information.

 

FAST FACT: Fastech recently launched FastDSD, a fully On Demand solution to address the needs of DSD distributors, providing all hardware, software and reporting for one low weekly cost.

 

Epic Group – Global Technology
www.epicglobaltech.com
Epic is a provider of Integrated Perfect Measurement solutions,with certified verification for dimensional weight, data synchronization, warehouse cubing and space management systems.Epic’s Hawkeye Perfect Measure System is the only hardware/software solution utilizing the GDSNGS1 measurement standards.

 

FAST FACT: Epic was chosen by Associated Wholesale Grocers to implement its Data Synchronization On Board program.The company will utilize Hawkeye Perfect Measure Systems for perfect measurements and weights.

 

JDSU
www.jdsu.com/brand
JDSU is a provider of security pigments and recently introduced Charms. A low loading of this taggant — a micro flake with a brand logo — in printing ink adds a unique covert feature to a product. The product is optimized for use on high unit volume consumer products and allows quick and reliable product authentication.

 

FAST FACT: JDSU pigments protect far more products and documents worldwide than any other comparable technology.

 

O4 Corporation
www.o4corporation.com
O4 Corporation’s specialty is mobile software solutions that optimize field sales, marketing, merchandising and DSD operations for consumer products companies. O4 solutions allow organizations to connect with field personnel in real time and proactively address the greatest retail priorities quickly and efficiently.

 

FAST FACT: O4 has deployed mobile solutions for consumer products companies with different business process requirements, the need for multiple languages and currencies, and with anywhere from a few dozen to thousands of users.

 

RW3 Inc.
www.rw3.com
RW3 Inc.is a business solutions provider of strategic consulting, custom reporting, analytics and flexible technology for consumer goods companies.The company provides solutions through InStore, a web-based and device-specific solution that allows for the sharing of targeted information within the sales organization, and via the InSight Group,its on-call reporting and analytics consulting team.

 

FAST FACT: RW3 signed Nestlé Emerging Markets division, Nestlé Pet Specialty Group,Timex Corporation, Energizer and National Tobacco Company in 2007.