DemandTec Awards Scholarships to Winners of 2nd Annual "Retail Challenge"
Safeway, Best Buy and Cargill Ventures join DemandTec in Sponsoring $5,000 College Scholarships for Math and Science Contest
SAN CARLOS, CA – March 13, 2007 – DemandTec, Inc., the leading provider of Consumer-Centric Merchandising, Sales and Marketing software for retailers and consumer products firms, today announced the three winners of its second annual Retail Challenge by awarding each a $5,000 scholarship for the 2007/2008 school year to the college of their choice. The judges named the winning team, consisting of Ali Mozayan, 16, of Branham High and Max Vujovic and Dennis Ho, both 17, of Mountain View High during an awards ceremony held at DemandTec's headquarters attended by students, school faculty, parents and DemandTec employees.
The contest provides teams of high school seniors the opportunity to use advanced statistical techniques and simulated retail data to develop pricing and sales strategies for two competing products. The teams presented their strategies to a panel of experts and answered questions on how they arrived at their solutions.
"Mathematics is having a profound affect in every industry – leading companies are using advanced math to better understand and serve their customers," said Dan Fishback, CEO of DemandTec. "Our aim with the Retail Challenge is to expose interested high-school students to real-world retail and consumer products business environments where math is having a dramatic impact. Each year the students have produced great results and have said that the experience has opened their eyes to future career opportunities they had not considered."
The Retail Challenge is co-sponsored by Safeway, Best Buy and Cargill Ventures as part of a community outreach program designed to foster awareness of the practical applications of math in a business environment.
"Safeway is proud to sponsor the 2007 Retail Challenge," said Jennifer Webber, Public Affairs Director for Safeway's Northern California Division. "Supporting education is one of the many ways Safeway gives back to the communities where we operate. The Retail Challenge allows Safeway to play a role in helping students make the connection between math class and real-world applications that are critical to the development of innovative technologies."
The finalist teams were South San Francisco High School, Sequoia High School in Redwood City, Branham High School in San Jose, and Mountain View High School. The math problem involved using advanced statistical techniques to analyze simulated retail pointofsale data to forecast future sales volumes for products. DemandTec provided mentors to support and assist the students as they worked to solve the problem. Judging was based on each team's understanding of the problem, the accuracy of their forecasts, their ability to articulate how they achieved their results and the collaboration and teamwork they demonstrated in presenting their findings.
About DemandTec
DemandTec's Consumer-Centric Merchandising, Sales and Marketing software helps retailers and consumer products manufacturers strategically plan, optimize and execute pricing, promotion and markdown programs based on a quantified understanding of consumer demand. DemandTec customers include leading retailers such as Advance Auto Parts, Best Buy, Circle K Stores, Delhaize America, Giant-Carlisle, H-E-B Grocery Co., Monoprix and Safeway. More than 2,000 consumer products manufacturers use DemandTec. For more information, please visit www.demandtec.com.
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