DemandTec

Deal Management

Automate and Streamline the Trade Funds Presentation, Negotiation, and Reconciliation Process

• Streamline processes and eliminate errors through online collaboration based on retailers’ rules of engagement
• Boost efficiency by offloading time-consuming, manual processes to your vendors
• Maximize trade funds' availability by reducing vendor funds held in reserve
• Accelerate the reconciliation and audit process with automated invoicing and an electronic document archive
• Automate the creation of accurate, timely, and complete invoices and accruals
  

In the face of mounting pressure to become even more efficient, many retailers have reexamined the traditional, paper-based approach to deal management. They’ve recognized that this approach is fraught with time-consuming, manual, and error-prone processes that are ripe for automation. For many of these retailers, which routinely receive thousands of new vendor deals a week, the sheer volume of deals has amplified the magnitude of the problem.

DemandTec’s Deal Management software service enables retailers to automate and streamline the presentation, negotiation, and reconciliation of trade promotions they receive from their vendors in a secure, Web-based environment.

Already more than 10,000 users have negotiated more than 2.5 million trade promotion deals using DemandTec's Deal Management. With an average of 3.5 “touches” per deal, retailers are actively collaborating with their vendors, and many have been able to reduce their cost per deal by up to 80%. Retailers are also experiencing reduced latency in the process, which has enabled them to execute additional promotions to further increase sales.

Streamline Processes and Eliminate Errors through Online Collaboration Based on Your Rules of Engagement

Deal Management puts an end to the countless emails, faxes, and spreadsheets that typically go back and forth between retailer and vendor, and it eliminates the errors that are often associated with this kind of unstructured communication. Deal Management allows retailers to collaborate in a secure, Web-based environment based on their rules of engagement and to do it consistently across all vendors.

Boost Efficiency by Offloading Time-Consuming, Manual Processes to Your Vendros

Most retailers simply don’t have the time to manually enter every vendor deal into a system. Deal Management enables retailers to dramatically boost productivity by pushing the data entry work to their vendors and allowing them to enter deal information through a retailer-specific Web portal. Retailers that choose to deploy the full DemandTec End-to-End Promotion Management™ solution can also receive deal information directly into DemandTec’s Promotion Optimization software service to instantly predict the performance of every proposed deal and the net impact on the category.

Maximize Trade Funds Availability by Reducing Vendor Funds Held in Reserve

Vendors typically hold trade funds in reserve due to lengthy, labor-intensive settlement processes. By providing an automated solution that captures the entire deal management process and sharing key information with vendors, retailers are able to cut deal cycle time while lowering their cost-to-serve. This allows vendors to clear deals faster and offer additional deals to their retailers.

Accelerate the Reconciliation and Audit Process with an Electronic Document Archive

Deal Management’s seven-year online archive eliminates the need for costly post-deal audits to ensure all deductions are fairly taken and accounted for. In addition, the archive provides an electronic audit trail for regulatory compliance, such as Sarbanes-Oxley requirements in the USA.

Accelerate the Billing and Accrual of Trade Funds

Deal Management also offers several layers of support for the billing and accrual of trade funds. Retailers can upload their invoices into the billing center and share those with the vendor community that subscribes to the DemandTec service for vendors. They can also deliver invoices more quickly and cost effectively by distributing uploaded invoices to all their vendors via email and tracking deliverability. Finally, they can fully automate the creation of accurate, timely, and complete invoices and accruals within the Deal Management system with the Allowance Billing module. Allowance Billing ties together the allowance entitlements from the Deal Management system with transaction detail from point-of-sale, warehouse, and store receipts. Allowance Billing then completes the process by automatically creating an accounting entry in the financial system.

Deal Management: Part of a Comprehensive Solution for End-to-End Promotion Management

Deal Management is a software service included in DemandTec End-to-End Promotion Management™, a solution that includes related software services for managing the entire promotion process, from collaborative promotion planning and deal management to in-store execution and post-event analysis.

Get Started Today

Are you ready for streamlined deal management? Take the next step. For more information, call 650-645-7100 or request information online.