Havens Associates provides innovative analytical and technology solutions to major corporations in the consumer packaged goods industry. The company is a leader in data analysis and tools for retail promotional planning. Havens Associates assists Del Monte with advanced data analysis and strategic planning for the forecasting, scheduling and execution of its consumer promotions programs. These programs cover thousands of products under dozens of major consumer brands distributed throughout the world.
The major packaged goods corporations manage complex sales channels and distribution networks for numerous product lines. Consumer brand marketers plan, execute and analyze the results of multifaceted seasonal promotions. As the complexity of these product lines and distribution networks increases, so does the need for more sophisticated tools to coordinate and collaborate on their complementary promotional programs across business units.
Havens developed an initial application for Del Monte in Excel and VBA for planning, tracking and forecasting the results of Del Monte's multi-level trade promotion programs. The value of the tool was immediately recognized, and Havens selected Amadeus Consulting to develop Trade Promotion Planner, a custom software application and database powering a corporate-wide system for the management of promotional planning, forecasting and results analysis across all of their brands and business units.
Havens proposed developing an internal Web-based application with a central SQL Server database which could be utilized by many users across various functional areas including corporate strategy, promotions, brand management and sales. This would resolve some of the limitations with the Excel tool including scalability, performance and client compatibility. A single, powerful database allows immediate roll-up and analysis of data across business units and the addition of high-level reporting and corporate resource planning.
The secure, Web-based application was successfully deployed and is now in use by Del Monte's corporate strategy, promotions, brand management and sales groups. The new system provides corporate-wide access to a centralized, high-performance database which enables the aggregation and analysis of real-time and historical data across multiple business units for reporting and corporate resource planning.
The system includes standard features such as user-account management, system administration and security. Custom features include:
- Graphical, color-coded scheduling calendar with viewing of select promotional schedules on a dynamically variable timescale
- Structured event reports and annual reports by business unit, brand, variety, and segregated by location
- Associated retail chains with a "seasonality profile" for forecasting sales volume and promotional "lift" by season
- Multiple sources of historical promotional events data can be normalized, aggregated and imported for comparison with current plans
- Export ability for reports formatted in Excel, PDF or pre-defined data compliant with accounting package
- Report data export including formats that allow for interfacing into Del Monte's internal systems
- Support for local Windows network login through active directory integration and Forms authentication
- Performance enhanced and optimized by performing complex calculations at the code level and within SQL Server stored procedures as the data is inputted
- Ability to manage and filter hierarchical data for input and results reporting by Zone, Region, Market, Customer
- Ability to plan and adjust product shipments by promotion and non-promotional periods
- Ability to forecast revenue and cost by promotion and compare historical data to plan
- User-personalized data views with pre-selection of assigned products, customers and regions
- Ability to create a new Event based on last year's event
- Alerts for exceeding defined metrics for "Forward Buy Weeks, ROI Threshold or Spend-Per-Case"
- Selective permission for user access to any combination of business units
Amadeus Consulting assisted Del Monte with the deployment of the new system and continues to support its implementation across a large user base. Havens plans to market the system to other major packaged goods companies.