Blue Agave, Retail Solutions ally to help manufacturers leverage POS data

The partnership looks to offer integrated analysis of consumer demand, coupled with real-time exception management and reporting. The joint offering integrates the two providers flagship solutions: Blue Agaves Active Performance Management solution and Retail Solutions Discover platform of POS data management tools. Blue Agave and Retail Solutions deliver exactly what major consumer goods manufacturers need to become demand-driven organizations, the two providers said in announcing the joint offering. Specifically, they cited the combined solutions demand signal repository for managing all external customer data; analytical reporting for trend-spotting and more accurate planning; and real-time decision support for proactively identifying and responding to developing issues before they impact the retailer. Consumer goods manufacturers face increasing pressure from the retail channel: shorter order cycle times, reduced inventory and management to the store-SKU level, said Ramesh Murthy, chief operating officer of Retail Solutions. In order to effectively and profitably respond, consumer goods manufacturers are actively seeking demand-driven strategies that extract the maximum value from the vast amounts of retailer data that are now available to them. Combining external POS data with internal transaction system data provides CPG manufacturers with a wealth of information that can be used to capitalize on new and unexpected revenue opportunities, said Doug Percy, president and CEO of Blue Agave Software. The challenge has been how to harness this large volume of dynamic, disparate data and make it meaningful to the business to identify developing issues that today remain hidden from view, enabling teams to take action while there is still time to affect the outcome.