Consumer Goods Technology - August 2017 - 10

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Tech Solutions Guide

SALES AND MARKETING

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DATA &
ANALYTICS

SUPPLY CHAIN

INNOVATION

2017
DATA &

WAYNE SPENCER
President & Founder
T-Pro Solutions

ANALYTICS

SOLUTIONS
In this month's edition of CGT's Technology Solutions Guide series,
experts from AFS Technologies and T-Pro Solutions provide thought
leadership for consumer goods manufacturers navigating the
challenges and opportunities involved in effective, efficient data
management and analytics.

Q

How close is the
consumer goods
industry to true single-view
data management? What
still needs to be done?

SCOTT: The quest for single-view data
is more of a journey than a destination.
With the immense amount of data
available today, organizations must be
able to map new data streams with
existing data streams for eﬀective
use. For example, while the Internet
of Things contains valuable data,
companies must be able to connect
it back to their own data to take full
advantage of it. It's great to know one
of our freezers is malfunctioning, but
we need connectivity with our other

systems for scheduling maintenance,
managing deliveries, evaluating failure
rates - based on brand, geography and
other factors.
Organizations can address this by
knowing what data from diﬀerent
systems can help them run their
businesses better and where that data
resides. Even with masses of data, we
only need a small portion of it to help
us. Many CG companies have mastered
pieces of the puzzle, but few have fully
solved it.
SPENCER: From a standpoint of true
single-view data management, we do
not see any consumer packaged goods
manufacturers close to accomplishing
this. The sticking point is a combination

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10

CGT | AUGUST 2017 | CONSUMERGOODS.COM

MICHAEL SCOTT
Vice President,
G2 Analytics
AFS Technologies

of antiquated enterprise resource
planning systems and at least three
to ﬁve disparate intelligence silos that
still require a spreadsheet to achieve
total corporate business analysis.
From a trade promotion
optimization perspective, some
solutions can deliver a single-view
database with all the necessary
analytical components: shipment
data, event spending data, POS data,
competitive data and consumer/
shopper marketing initiatives. This
kind of single-view TPO database
enables accurate, best-in-class postpromotion analysis, in addition to
predictive/optimized merchandising
scenario development that enables
annual customer planning optimized
for revenue, volume and proﬁt
objectives.
With this in mind, the CG
companies that are seeing the most
data-driven success are the ones
that can quickly organize data into
useable analytical insight that drives
action. Gone are the days where
analysis only leads to a justiﬁcation of
spending. Instead, these companies
are combining this intelligence with
predictive/prescriptive modeling to
build proactive strategies to manage
revenue and sustain growth.
Consumer Goods Technology - August 2017

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