No doubt you've heard about an emerging type of software that can help you manage the pricing of your products. Vendors such as Zilliant, Metreo, and Vendavo provide software products to gauge price elasticity, analyze price leakages, and enforce pricing policies. But also now coming to market in greater force is a class of software that can help you understand and manage your products' profitability. Two relatively recent entrants in the profitability category are EIS Analytics, a Vancouver, WA-based on-demand software supplier, and pVelocity, a Toronto-based packaged software firm. Formed in 2005, EIS has a product called Profit InSight, which it describes as an online analytical processing tool that functions as an add-on to an ERP system. The .NET-based software uses modeling and optimization tools to identify a company's optimal product mix based on sales and then predict profitability of the products in that mix. EIS targets steel, forest products, and aggregate manufacturers. A key EIS customer is Rocky Mountain Steel, a specialty-products steel mill. "The industry lacks predictive capabilities of profitability of manufactured products," said David Parnell, EIS chief operating officer, in a briefing. "Were moving companies from 'selling everything you have' to 'selling these products' because they are the most profitable." In late March, pVelocity, which was formed as a consultancy in 2001, released version 7.4 of its software suite, also called pVelocity. The software is designed for manufacturers in the metals, chemical, plastics, rubber, and food and beverage industries, said CEO Paula Hucko, in a briefing. The software, which is .NET- and J2EE-based, is said to analyze and model data from transaction systems and then, using the resultant analytical data, execute changes to a mix of products and their pricing. "We're setting a table, but we have to be fed from other systems," Hucko said. pVelocity's customers include Indalex Aluminum Solutions Group, Hydro Aluminum, Rhodia Corp., a chemicals maker, and Sapa Profiles, an aluminum extruder. This article originally appeared in the May 2006 issue of Managing Automation magazine.