Collaborative promotions planning from IBM

The goal

Customize your plan for successful promotions

Can you easily communicate and execute the myriad of details involved in a joint promotion agreement? Effective collaboration is key to the success of joint promotional events. The collaborative promotions planning solution from IBM can help retailers and manufacturers align business processes to run more efficient, profitable promotions.

The advantage

Invest in leadership and experience

The collaborative promotions planning solution from IBM has been shaped by more than 30 years of retail industry experience:

• We provide the expertise of 4,400 consultants worldwide dedicated to consumer focused industries.
• The collaborative promotions planning solution from IBM is the first to implement the Uniform Commercial Code/European Article Numbering (UCC/EAN) promotional events standards.
• IBM continues to support the industry with leadership in developing and implementing the Global Commerce Initiative scorecard, key performance indicators and capability assessments.
• Since 1980, we have earned over 134 patents for our retail inventions.

The benefits

Facilitate and automate joint planning

Find the right deal. Negotiate terms. Forecast demand. Finalize the plan. The collaborative promotions planning solution from IBM can help you simplify the complex processes involved in communicating and executing joint promotion agreements. The infrastructure and workflow processes provided by this solution can help retailers and manufacturers increase the level of trading partner automation and decrease operational risk.

This solution enables manufacturers and retailers to conform with UCC/EAN Retail Events Message specifications, allowing trading partners to:

• Negotiate the terms of a promotion plan quickly and efficiently.
• Collaborate on the details of its execution.
• Forecast consumer demand and the effects on the supply chain.
• Publish necessary information to the appropriate functional teams.
• Monitor execution and results of the promotion, taking corrective action when necessary.

Using built in promotion planning tools, your company can:

• Track and maintain an audit trail of all promotional activities.
• Extend promotional business processes to your trading partners.
• Publish promotional forecasts to other enterprise systems.
• Increase field sales selling time by reducing time spent tracking promotional activity.

The approach

Successful implementation

We have helped many major retailers use technology to collaborate with manufacturers and increase profitability.

We helped a large U.S. supermarket chain transform their manual, paper-based product information management process into an e-business model. A solution was up and running within four-months.

We provided connectivity tools, enabling changes to product information in real-time. A consolidated view of item attributes from multiple enterprise systems resulted in reliable and effective connections with trading partners. The solution allows suppliers to dynamically map and publish product information to the appropriate applications, automating item management and promotional processes.

Our solution helped the supermarket retailer reduce costs, add functionality, increase speed-to-market and improve customer service.

The financial advantage

Improve sales through effective promotions planning

With the collaborative promotions planning solution from IBM, retailers can accelerate promotional return on investment.

• Enhance sales by making the right offer, to the right customer, through the right channel, at the right time.
• Lower promotion support costs and reduce cycle time through automated processes.
• Reduce excess inventory costs or promotional out of stocks with increased visibility into expected demand.