Hoping to sell more of its software to large consumer goods manufacturing companies, Oracle Corp. yesterday announced availability of a new off-the-shelf integration between two of its packages that will support advanced analysis and simulation of trade promotions.
The integration between the Trade Promotions Management module of Oracle’s Siebel CRM suite and the Predictive Trade Planning and Promotion Optimization piece of its Demantra demand planning product is targeted at large CPG manufacturers already running Siebel Trade Promotions Management, said Jeff Wexler, Oracle’s vice president for retail and consumer goods product strategy, in an interview.
Many large CPG manufacturers use Siebel Trade Promotions Management to execute and settle promotion deals with retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target, Wexler said. Under such deals, for example, CPG representatives pay retail partners to display products in an aisle-end location or include them in a retailer’s advertising. Consumer goods manufacturers spend between 17% and 20% of their revenues on trade promotions, Oracle estimates.
Integration of the Demantra Predictive Trade Planning and Promotion Optimization module with Siebel will allow CPG manufacturers to more easily analyze the effectiveness of the promotions spending that they manage through Siebel, Wexler said. Demantra, for example, provides sales and statistical forecasts, account planning summaries, and quota analysis. Demantra can also be used to model and simulate promotions and conduct pre-promotion analysis of lift and profitability. Such analytical tools, he said, can help CPG manufacturers better understand the ROI of their trade promotions spending.