CHICAGO — IRI, a solutions and services provider for consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers and retailers, has acquired Retail Solutions Inc. (RSi), a provider of CPG supply chain solutions.
The addition of RSi’s solutions to IRI’s Liquid Data technology platform will provide a comprehensive supply chain solution, as well as the largest repository of de-identified and anonymous consumer data assets in the CPG industry, according to the companies.
“The acquisition of RSi builds upon IRI’s long track record of continuous investment in technology, solutions and data assets,” said Andrew Appel, president and CEO of IRI. “The investment in RSi to enhance our supply chain optimization capabilities is a direct response to our clients’ needs as they navigate disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
San Jose, Calif.-based RSi’s products and solutions have been used by more than three-fourths of the 50 largest CPG manufacturers to maximize their on-shelf availability, operational productivity and omnichannel sales growth. RSi’s suite of on-shelf availability (OSA) solutions, OSAPower, includes a full spectrum of AI-driven tools to diagnose, reduce and prevent out-of-stocks. RSi powers its solutions with data from more than 150 of the top retailers, to deliver insights to more than 500 global CPG customers in more than 300,000 stores, it said.
Benefits to IRI and RSi clients include:
- A suite of supply chain solutions: Adding RSi’s comprehensive supply chain offerings to IRI’s existing supply chain capabilities will provide seamless integration of currently disparate data assets, creating comprehensive end-to-end supply chain visibility and enabling clients to more efficiently identify and address operational bottlenecks and inefficiencies.
- Expanded market coverage: The combination of IRI and RSi data assets creates the largest repository of store- and warehouse-level supply chain data, enabling national supply chain solutions and capabilities.
- Enhanced collaboration between retailers and manufacturers: The integration of RSi’s solutions, including its Pacific platform, within IRI Liquid Data provides collaboration capabilities within the supply chain ecosystem, creating opportunities to improve clients’ core supply chain metrics.
- Seamless technology and data integration: Ability to access RSi solutions through IRI’s IRI Liquid Data platform will deliver analytics and business intelligence in near real time, fully integrated with other IRI solutions and data assets.
- Digital shopper marketing analytics: As part of the merger, IRI’s Media Center of Excellence will offer RSi’s Ansa solutions. Ansa empowers ad networks to plan, target, optimize and measure campaigns based on daily, store-level sales and inventory.
- Augmented decision-making: IRI’s data assets, geographical coverage, artificial intelligence (AI) and data science capabilities will enhance the supply chain offerings RSi previously provided by incorporating augmented decision-making capabilities. IRI’s platform pushes opportunities and risks to users in a seamless manner, including opportunities to improve on-shelf availability and reduce out-of-stocks, to drive both growth and improve the in-store consumer experience.
In the near term, RSi will become a stand-alone operating subsidiary of IRI. The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the deal.
Chicago-based IRI provides big data, predictive analytics and insights to CPG, over-the-counter (OTC) health care organizations, retailers, financial services and media companies. It has a large repository of purchase, media, social, causal and loyalty data integrated on an on-demand, cloud-based technology platform.
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