DemandTec Offers Complete Lifecycle Pricing With Latest CDM Software Release

Enables retailers to optimize pricing throughout the product lifecycle

SAN CARLOS, Calif. – September 13, 2004 – DemandTec, the leading provider of Consumer Demand Management (CDM) software for retailers and consumer products companies, today announced the latest version of its DemandTec CDM for Retail™ software suite. The integrated DemandTec suite, which includes DT Price™, DT Promotion™, and DT Markdown™, built on the DemandTec CDM Platform™, enables retailers to strategically plan and execute optimal pricing strategies throughout the product lifecycle – new items, everyday priced items, promoted items, and markdowns – based on a holistic and actionable understanding of consumer demand.

"We're seeing retailers of nearly every type invest in gaining a deeper understanding of their customers and how to most effectively merchandise and market to those customers," said Dan Fishback, chief executive officer of DemandTec, Inc. "DT 4.6 provides our customers with a single platform from which to forecast, optimize, and execute pricing strategies across the entire product lifecycle. The breadth of functionality and usability of this product is unsurpassed in the market today."

DemandTec CDM for Retail 4.6 includes functional enhancements to the following:

• DT Markdown ­­­ Markdown and clearance planning and optimization application that allows retail buyers to more effectively plan markdown strategies that will meet business goals such as profitability, sell-thru, inventory depletion, and revenue.

  As with DT Price and DT Promotion, DT Markdown utilizes the DemandTec CDM Platform™ demand models for price elasticity, cannibalization and halo effects, as well as constraints such as inventory, markdown budgets, and pricing rules to optimize the number, cadence, and depth of markdown occasions to meet selected business goals.

• Master Calendar ­­­ The Master Calendar provides a significant link between the integrated DemandTec applications. All planned, approved, and active pricing scenarios from DT Price, DT Promotion, and DT Markdown will be managed as part of a single merchandising calendar, enabling complete lifecycle pricing as well as top–down and bottom–up planning, price execution, and post-event analysis that takes into account demand effects of every category and every item simultaneously.
• MyDemandTec™ ­­­ MyDemandTec, another module integrating all DemandTec applications, enhances usability by providing a personalized, Web-based dashboard for unique users. Category managers, pricing analysts, senior managers, and others can be given role-specific dashboards, as well as the ability to personalize their own individual experience.

  MyDemandTec links all DemandTec applications from one dashboard, allowing users to view business status indicators at–a–glance, quickly view key reports and visualizations, create and respond to alerts and notifications, manage daily tasks and priorities, and collaborate with other users of the system.

• DT OpenLink™ ­­­ DT Openlink™ provides data integration and enhancement services used to import data (summary POS, transaction log, syndicated, etc), cleanse and enhance data for modeling, and integrate to downstream systems for outbound data interfaces (such as price delivery to legacy host or store systems). DT OpenLink now utilizes advanced data flow technology for zero–latency processing of large data loads and complex analytics, enhancing scalability and performance within tight processing windows.
• DemandTec CDM Platform™ ­­­ The DemandTec CDM Platform provides a unified, holistic understanding of consumer demand. The platform serves as a "single version of the truth" for the applications and provides the Web–based, extensible, enterprise software architecture upon which to deploy multiple, integrated applications.

  The DemandTec CDM Platform allows all DemandTec applications to share key capabilities such as market basket and performance analysis, demand modeling science, forecasting, optimization, price management, workflow, rules management, and configuration management. The platform extends the optimization and planning capabilities of the applications with the ability to manage updates to existing prices based on new inbound data as well as the ability to schedule delivery of prices to legacy host or store systems, updated forecasts to supply chain systems, and promotional event details to other third-party applications.

About DemandTec
DemandTec's Consumer Demand Management software helps retailers and consumer products manufacturers strategically plan, optimize, and execute demand-driven merchandising and marketing programs based on a quantified understanding of consumer demand. Retailers have ranked DemandTec #1 in Strategic Value, Customer Satisfaction, and Quality of Service among the top 50 retail software vendors in the 2004 RIS Leaderboard survey. DemandTec customers include B&Q, Best Buy, Brookshire Grocery Company, Duane Reade, H–E–B Grocery Co., Longs Drugs, Monoprix, RadioShack, and Safeway. DemandTec software is provided via the IBM On Demand program. For more information, please visit www.demandtec.com

All trademarks or registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.