Companies On The Move - January 2005
Even though the following IT firms did not land a coveted spot on this year's Reader's Choice list, Consumer Goods Technology would be remiss by not bringing them front and center. From in-depth analytics to RFID capabilities, these IT innovators offer what others cannot. And while a handful of these companies on the move are already well-established, there's a good chance the remainder will be household industry names by this time next year.
Agile Software Corporation
www.agile.com
In a highly competitive market, consumer packaged goods companies must accelerate product innovation, development and introductions to hit narrow windows of market opportunity. This is one reason why consumer goods companies are warming up to Agile, realizing that its PLM solutions support business processes like new product development and introduction, packaging and artwork management, external and internal collaboration, etc.
ON THE MOVE: Bayer HealthCare's U.S. Consumer Care division is joining companies like Playtex and Leapfrog in its adoption of Agile PLM solution for formula, label and pack management.
Bay Street Solutions
www.baystreetsolutions.com
Bay Street Solutions is a CRM consulting firm that works with a single technology platform: Siebel. Its dedication to Siebel allows the company to tout deep product knowledge, technical expertise and streamlined implementation best practices. Nike tapped Bay Street Solutions for the order-capture system in Siebel as part of a major Supply Chain re-engineering effort. Similarly, Binney & Smith, the Crayola brand owner, consulted Bay Street Solutions to develop a CRM blueprint and implement Siebel technology.
ON THE MOVE: Bay Street leverages industry expertise and Siebel product knowledge to help clients rapidly reach CRM objectives.
Checkpoint Systems
www.checkpointsystems.com
Historically, Checkpoint Systems garnered its success from its electronic article surveillance, electronic security devices, closed-circuit TV systems and electronic access control systems used by retail stores and grocers. Today, Checkpoint is making a bigger name for itself as a provider of radio frequency-based product identification and shrink management solutions for consumer package goods manufacturers. In November, the company announced the Checkpoint Systems EPC Compliance Network, a partnership of companies dedicated to providing end users with end-to-end EPC compliance and design solutions to support EPC compliance initiatives.
ON THE MOVE: Systems integrators, solution providers and third-party logistics companies deliver EPC-compliant RFID solutions via Checkpoint's EPC Compliance Network.
Comergent Technologies
www.comergent.com
In a 2004 study "MarketScope: Sell-Side Electronic Commerce", Gartner, Inc. determined that Comergent was firmly positioned as a visionary that is actively building competencies to sustain market leadership. The company's customer-facing software applications enable enterprises to streamline and automate their selling processes and sales channels. In fact, Comergent's demonstrated ability to increase operating efficiencies, reduce order error rates and improve sales revenues have made Comergent the No. 1 choice in sell-side e-business software solutions for Maytag, DuPont, Nissan and Goodyear.
ON THE MOVE: Gartner gives Comergent a "positive" rating for helping partners increase revenue and profit by streamlining selling and ordering processes.
DemandTec
www.demandtec.com
DemandTec makes software that helps manufacturers and suppliers predict consumer demand, and set their strategies for retail pricing and promotion. More than 230 retailers ranked DemandTec No. 1 in strategic value, customer satisfaction and quality of service among 98 software vendors in RIS News Leaderboard 2004 -- a supplement to CGT's sister publication RIS News. Following retail's lead, consumer goods companies such as General Mills are increasingly turning to DemandTec for help in meeting business objectives for sales, profit and volume.
ON THE MOVE: DemandTec received the AlwaysOn 100 award from AlwaysOn and KPMG for leadership and innovation relating to market traction and new approaches and technologies.
Eleven Technology
www.11.com
Eleven Technology works with companies that seek mobile technology solutions that break through the capabilities of existing sales force automation tools. In August 2004, Pepperidge Farm selected Eleven's SMARTselling application suite for its next generation handheld software solution. Using Eleven's SMARTselling application, Pepperidge Farm will provide timely, useful information to its independent distributors, exceeding the existing functionality of its current data-entry tools.
ON THE MOVE: Eleven gets respect for breakthrough mobile solutions developed for Pepsi, Procter & Gamble and Pepperidge Farm.
FullTilt Solutions
www.fulltilt.com
In its December 2004 Forrester Wave report "Product Information Management Leaders Emerge", Forrester Research recognized FullTilt's Perfect Product Suite solution as the No. 1 ranking among 17 product information management (PIM) solutions. Forrester lauded FullTilt as "a model for ease of use" and also identified its PIM technology as being oriented toward the emerging enterprise data management space. For consumer goods companies such as McCain Foods, The Perfect Product Suite provides a comprehensive PIM solution to aggregate, create and manage product data from disparate internal and external sources, and then enhance, extend and synchronize it through a registry like UCCnet.
ON THE MOVE: FullTilt tops list of product information management vendors in study by Forrester Research.
Formation Systems
www.formationsystems.com
Formation Systems helps consumer goods giants like Coca-Cola, Hormel and Groupe Danone transform new product ideas into reality. The company announced in November that yet another industry leader, Campbell Soup Company, chose its flagship product, Optiva software, for its product development infrastructure. "As our first truly global IT solution, Optiva enables us to bring products to market faster, while reducing risk and ensuring regulatory compliance," says Joseph Spagnoletti, Campbell's VP of information technology. Looking to 2005, Formation Systems will continue to gain traction as a PLM vendor by helping manufacturers accelerate new product introduction and achieve globally compliant products with lower development costs and a shorter time to world markets.
ON THE MOVE: Formation Systems transforms product development into best competitive advantage for Campbell and many more Fortune 500 companies.
Information Resources Inc.
www.infores.com
Continuing its business transformation and client acquisition, Information Resources Inc. (IRI) unveiled plans in September for the consumer goods industry's first Content-on-Demand Factory called MarketKnowledge. New capabilities are expected to improve the speed, flexibility and data quality currently provided, giving manufacturers and retailers a real-time, comprehensive view of their market. MarketKnowledge is based on grid computing architecture to deliver daily data from select retailers and InfoScan data three times faster. Customer pilots are scheduled for 2005.
ON THE MOVE: Dial selected IRI as its preferred provider of marketplace information services. "IRI has demonstrated leadership in improving marketplace coverage and data quality," says Linda Hannen, VP of Marketing Services for Dial.
KhiMetrics
www.khimetrics.com
KhiMetrics launched its first solution to predict and manage customer demand (retail revenue management) in 1999. Today, major retailers such as Lowe's and Albertson's use that solution to drive incremental profits and sales while increasing customer loyalty. In witnessing that value, consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies approached KhiMetrics to apply the same software foundations. As a result, global enterprises in CPG are using Customer Demand Solutions to anticipate changes in customer priorities and respond to competition.
ON THE MOVE: Inc. Magazine's 23rd annual Inc. 500 ranking of the fastest growing companies in the country listed KhiMetrics as No. 24, with four year average annual sales growth of 803 percent.
Notiva Corporation
www.notiva.com
Founded in 2000, Notiva takes pride in building a collaborative financial bridge between consumer goods firms and retail partners. The company's Web-based, open architecture was designed from the ground up by retail experts to lower cost, reduce business friction and gain better intelligence as a result of a single source of accurate, agreed-upon financial data shared among all trading partners. Notiva customers include several of the world's leading consumer packaged goods manufacturers and retailers.
ON THE MOVE: Notiva recently debuted a revolutionary platform designed to serve as a single source of accurate financial data for retailers and manufacturers to reduce trade disputes, lower the cost of goods and boost top-line revenue.
Pelion Systems
www.pelionsystems.com
What, pray tell, is Manufacturing Process Optimization (MPO)? Glad you asked. As manufacturers adopt demand-driven manufacturing strategies to eliminate waste, reduce costs, liberate working capital, improve productivity and increase revenue performance, they turn to Pelion technology to jumpstart implementation, provide powerful factory optimization, and enable global rollout and sustainable breakthrough improvements. Pelion MPO analyzes existing shop floor configurations and processes for immediate results while enabling rapid "what-if" models for factory and process improvements. Pelion's customers include Husqvarna and Osram Sylvania.
ON THE MOVE: Flush with $5 million in recent funding, Pelion crowned Gary Siemer as chief financial officer: A 12-year veteran of domestic and international financial management with a strong software industry background.
ProClarity Corporation
www.proclarity.com
Since business intelligence software is riding the next big IT wave, ProClarity Corporation stands to benefit big time. In November, the company made the wise decision to partner with Digital Aspects to offer connectivity options to several common enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications. Digital Aspects, an independent software developer, developed Cubics, a real-time analytic middleware product designed to provide dynamic access to SAP, J.D. Edwards and PeopleSoft for the ProClarity Analytics Platform. Clients include AT&T, Nabisco, Ericsson and Hewlett-Packard.
ON THE MOVE: ProClarity was nominated to the elite list of "Cool Vendors", according to the March 2004 "Cool Vendors in BI, BAM and Data Warehousing" report by Gartner Inc.
Prodika
www.prodika.com
Prodika provides a suite of product lifecycle management (PLM) tools that help customers conceive, develop and produce products. Most PLM vendors focus on heavy industrial manufacturers, such as aerospace and automotive companies, but Prodika's customer base includes Heinz and other suppliers of food and beverages. By streamlining product development operations across the enterprise and with supply chain partners, Prodika helps reduce time-to-market; maximize supplier relationships; manage quality, safety and regulatory requirements; reduce cost of goods sold; and optimize ROI from new products.
ON THE MOVE: The Prodika data synchronization solution is fully integrated with its PLM solutions, including New Product Development (NPD) and Global Specifications Management (GSM).
Retek
www.retek.com
To move its focus beyond the borders of a retail-centric business toward the consumer goods side of things, Retek Inc. announced the expansion of its Supply Chain Management (SCM) offering for enhanced Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR) technology in November 2004. To help extend its SCM offering, Retek acquired certain assets and the related liabilities of Syncra Systems Inc. -- a provider of CPFR technology -- to allow retailers to collaborate with suppliers on planning and forecasting, resulting in a customer-centric model fueled by a supply chain network orchestrated around optimized customer demand.
ON THE MOVE: Retek packaged Syncra technology into three solutions for the consumer goods market: Retek Syncra Exchange, Retek Promotion Planning and Retek Co-Managed Inventory.
RW3 Technologies
www.rw3.com
RW3 Technologies is the provider of performance measurement and workflow optimization solutions for the consumer goods industry, giving manufacturers multiple sales channels and multi-tier sales organizations the flexibility and controls to mange sales processes at various levels to reach the end consumer. Over the past year, RW3 expanded its focus into new verticals in the consumer goods industry, outside of its traditional consumer packaged goods space, with clients such as BMG Canada and Sony Computer Entertainment America.
ON THE MOVE: Kellogg, Nestle, PepsiCo and ConAgra, as well as consumer electronic and media/publishing companies, are moving to RW3 to help measure their demand chains.
Satyam Computer Services
www.satyam.com
India's fourth largest exporter of software services, Satyam Computer Services Ltd., marked its growing influence in the U.S. marketplace by forming a service and technology partnership with G-Log. In its service provider role, Satyam's Global Logistics Practice (GLP), part of Consulting & Enterprise Solutions (CES) group, is offering G-Log a wide array of services that include system integration services of the G-Log flagship product, Global Command and Control Center (GC3) software with other customer-specific applications; product development; sales; and global implementation services.
ON THE MOVE: Satyam collaborates with G-Log to offer complete portfolio of supply chain solutions, helping to address global markets and strengthen its presence in the practice.
SPSS
www.spss.com
SPSS Inc.'s offerings use predictive analytics to connect data to effective action by drawing reliable conclusions about current conditions and future events. SPSS provides two classes of software and service offerings to two distinct audiences. For researchers proficient in the use of analytical methods, the company offers statistical and data mining software tools to examine and predict from a broad range of enterprise data. For business users acquainted with, but not experts in data analysis techniques, SPSS delivers easy-to-use applications that bring the power of predictive analytics to address particular business problems.
ON THE MOVE: META Group expects the data mining market to expand 10 percent to 20 percent annually. "SPSS remains a leader in the current data mining market and has no significant weakness or disadvantage for prospective customers," says META Group.
TDLinx
www.tdlinx.com
TDLinx provides marketers and marketing services companies with universal coverage and unique codes for stores, outlets and accounts. Retail trade channels include grocery, mass merchandiser, drug store, club, liquor, convenience and cigarette outlets; on-premise trade channels include dining, bar/nightclub, lodging, recreation, transportation, caterer and military. The hierarchy of reporting relationships for each store/outlet in the database is also tracked with TDLinx Codes at every level of the owner hierarchy, from immediate report to ultimate parent. TDLinx clients include Dean Foods, Beech-Nut, EJ Gallo and Ocean Spray.
ON THE MOVE: The Grocery Manufacturers of America publicly announced its support for the trade channel definitions marketed by TDLinx.
ToolsGroup
www.toolsgroup.com
Toolsgroup provides inventory optimization software solutions for distribution-intensive businesses such as Barilla, Coca-Cola bottler Casbega and Danone. The company' stochastic solution optimizes distribution chain inventory from finished goods assembly to the end consumer, and from strategic network design to daily operations. It allows supply chain managers to meet demanding service levels, while reducing inventory and operating costs.
ON THE MOVE: In November 2004, ToolsGroup announced four European food companies achieved reduced costs and improved inventory mix as a result of using its inventory optimization software.
VeriSign
www.verisign.com
Verisign is convinced that RFID, in the context of next generation, net-centric business models, is an opportunity to extend the reach and accuracy of tomorrow's market leaders. In 2004, VeriSign was singled out by EPCglobal to manage the Root ONS registry for the EPCglobal Network. This directory facilitates next generation supply chain processes by providing real-time access to sensory-level data for individual products across a network of trading relationships using the EPC. In September, VeriSign announced the availability of the EPC Starter Service, a bundle of network services that helps companies target multi-enterprise process opportunities. In 2005, look to VeriSign and its network of partners to bring clarity in an increasingly noisy market
ON THE MOVE: VeriSign recently consolidated its disparate IT operations on Oracle and projects a 240 percent ROI.
Zilliant
www.zilliant.com
Wouldn't it be great if there were a way to figure out how much things should, or could, cost? For consumer goods firms, there is a way in Zilliant's profit and revenue optimization software. Zilliant combines data analysis with statistical and operations research to help companies price products and improve margins. Zilliant just announced a new pricing application that is now available as part of the Zilliant Pricing Suite (ZPS). The ZPS Deal Manager includes features for deal quoting, deal review, workflow, deal analysis, deal scoring and price and discounting policy enforcement. By leveraging unique Key Performance Indicators to score deals, the ZPS Deal Manager allows sales people to make better judgments in the heat of the negotiation cycle.
ON THE MOVE: The PriceWaterhouseCoopers Manufacturing Barometer for 3Q 2004 shows that companies are making significant investments in pricing capabilities.