PITTSBURGH, Pa. -- Data integration and analysis firm Management Science Associates Inc. launched a program-management solution targeting the distributor class of trade.
Management Science Associates (MSA), Pittsburgh, Pa., launched its Distributor Trade Program Management (DTPM) service, designed to help distributors and their retail customers drive compliance with trade programs, resolve distribution voids and achieve optimal payouts.
DTPM is an end-to-end solution that allows wholesalers to capture program rules, manage store enrollments, measure performance and recommend orders to achieve compliance. Distributors use DTPM to manage both manufacturers’ and wholesalers’ own program offerings.
“We already had a successful partnership with MSA for our data-management and -access needs,” said John Scardina, senior vice president of merchandising, Eby-Brown, Naperville, Ill. “DTPM was the obvious choice to simplify and improve our measurement of compliance for our vendors’ retail-trade programs.”
“Distributors and retailers are constantly challenged to keep abreast of manufacturer incentive programs,” said Ray Gomez, an industry advisor formerly with Winston-Salem, N.C.-based R.J. Reynolds and now president of RTG & Associates, Greensboro, N.C. “Manufacturers are challenged to ensure enrolled clients—wholesaler and retailer—execute against those business-building performance metrics. DTPM is the ‘partnership’ link for distributors and retailers to maximize manufacturer-performance programs.”
Gomez noted that DTPM provides performance metrics prior to manufacturers’ own performance reports, thus allowing the distributor and retailer the most time to plan and execute program elements.
DTPM also provides data feeds to distributor or third-party sales-order applications, helping reps recommend orders to fill voids in the field and directly place the orders with the warehouse from the same electronic device.
“With MSA’s DTPM system, we expect to fill over 50,000 voids this year, resulting in an additional $10 million in sales,” said Michael Berro, vice president, corporate development, for distributor Harold Levinson Associates, Farmingdale, N.Y. “DTPM feeds into our sales-management tools, helping us fill the gaps in our distribution.”
With a web interface and easy mobile access through all browsers, DTPM enables the enrollment of individual stores and chains, the ability to add and remove SKUs and point-and-click reporting, reducing the data entry and the labor required for spin reports.
“We worked closely with a panel of distributors to optimize this application,” said Alice Greene, vice president of solutions management with MSA’s information management solutions division. “The result is an easy-to-use tool that translates retailer commitments to goals—whether distribution, SKU counts or speed-to-shelf—and into increased sales for all trading partners.”
Established in 1963, MSA is a data integration and analysis firm. Its information management solutions division provides the consumer-packaged-goods channel partners with data integration, trade-program management and retail-execution solutions paired with strategic analytics.
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