Adesso’s Client Community ‘Migrates’ to the East Coast With the Flamingo TPM System "Key West" Release

Rolling Meadows, IL. May 31, 2018 – Adesso Solutions announced today the latest Flamingo release, and the Trade Promotion Management (TPM) System’s first migration to the east coast with this release being… Key West!

After a series of releases in the last 3 years, creatively named for west coast beaches, major new client growth and significant technology upgrades created the need for a foundation to move forward. Where better to relax than Key West! 

This new foundation includes automated QuickBooks setups, a Software as a Service (SaaS) model for Flamingo and other new improvements. It is also a springboard to take advantage of the improved Offline Planner and Smart Dashboards – both being released prior to the summer season and in time for 2019 retailer planning – for existing and soon to be clients alike. As always, Key West’s functionality is rooted in client recommendations, broader client confirmation and Adesso’s deep industry experience. Over 60% of this added functionality improves ‘ease of use’ for field sales & broker partners, enhancing Flamingo’s position as the easiest to use TPM system on the market.

“The span of the Key West release is across technology, our Flamingo TPM System, as well as our extended services,” said Rich Jones, Executive Vice President of Technology at Adesso Solutions. “Upgrading to Key West also provides the basis to take advantage of other Adesso TPE solutions going forward and has been integral to  our long term strategy.”

“We are excited to get clients on the Key West release as quickly as possible.” Said Keith Peers, Senior Vice President of Operations at Adesso. “Invitations for registration to Key West Release webinars and our new, expanded training service will be going out directly to our client community, as well as their broker partners, to ensure that all users are trained and ready for the new functionality.”

For more information about Adesso’s systems and services, as well as the ongoing release process, please contact Karin Souren, Director of Marketing, at ksouren@adesso-solutions.com.

About Adesso Solutions
Adesso Solutions is a leader in delivering Trade Promotion Effectiveness for small to medium sized Consumer Packaged Goods manufacturers. Adesso leverages a long history and deep expertise in the industry, and offers the all-encompassing Flamingo TPM system, unique System Effectiveness Services, Trade Analysis & Planning Services, as well as an active community for client collaboration.  https://www.adessosolutions.com

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Adesso Launches the “Venice Beach” Release of Their Flamingo TPM System

Rolling Meadows, IL (July 13, 2016) – Adesso is excited to announce the 8th product release to enhance the already leading edge Flamingo Trade Promotion Management (TPM) System. Venice Beach builds upon improvements initiated in the Santa Monica release in early 2016, and provides business benefits that include further user control and visibility, system restriction to enhance accuracy, as well as significant time-saving functionality.
“Adesso’s Flamingo Trade Management system is as a standard system,” said Fred Schroeder, President & CEO of Adesso Solutions. “When we add functionality to the product, every client in our TPE Community has access to it. These releases occur between 3 and 4 times each year, and are guided by user feedback and executive business discussions from our regular client conferences.” Continue reading

Concerned about the cost and efficiency of your trade promotion spending – You are not alone!

Studies indicate that:

  1. 2/3 of CPG executives are concerned about the cost and efficiency of trade spending,
  2. 50% or more of the trade promotions do not meet objectives,
  3. 18% of CPG manufacturers admit they have no mechanism to measure effectiveness,
  4. over 40% of the trade promotion events are not ranked or analyzed,
  5. there are big capability gaps in critical areas of TPM products such as promotion planning, reporting and analysis, and account profitability.

The net result is that 70% of the CPG manufacturers surveyed indicate the number one area they want to improve is their trade promotion effectiveness.

What’s scary is that the majority of the companies in this survey are larger companies that have more resources in terms of people, time and applications than the typical small or medium sized CPG manufacturer.

So what does the smaller CPG manufacturer do? You need 2 things:

1 – A superior TPM System. The complexity of managing trade spending is just too hard to do with Excel, a 1990’s technology. Today the solutions have progressed significantly and with the advent of software as a service (SaaS) cloud technology it’s a subscription model where you just sign into an existing solution that is being used by multiple CPG manufacturers. Since it’s a common solution used by multiple CPG manufacturers the product improves with best practices at a faster rate. Also the implementation and integration into your ERP solution is also easier since it’s likely been done with your system before at another manufacturer. It’s simply a better, quicker, less expensive, and less binding process.
2 – But you need to go beyond just “managing” trade spending to maximizing trade promotion effectiveness. You need the expertise and resources to utilize the TPM product, integrate syndicated and SPIN data, and do thorough analysis of your trade spending by key retailers and key promoted groups. You will be amazed at how much money is being wasted or at best sub-optimized with some retailers. You can significantly improve your ROI. It comes down to finding people that are trade experts who worked at major CPG manufacturers with experience analyzing and managing trade spending. This is harder as the resources to do this are much less available, but they are out there.

Get the help you need: contact Fred Schroeder at 847-342-1095 ext. 4011 or fschroeder@adesso-solutions.com

Believe it or not – many small & medium size CPG’s are still using Excel to manage trade spending

At this point it’s tragic. Believe it or not – many small and medium size CPG’s are still using Excel to manage trade spending.

While the number of SMB CPG manufacturers using Excel has gone down from 2/3 in the mid 2000’s, some estimates have it as still more than 1/3 of the thousands of SMB’s are still on Excel – a 1990’s technology. Here’s the problem: Trade spending is just too complex. If you’re efficient and on top of it you can keep track of what you said you were going to spend by promotion by retailer. But once those deductions start coming in it’s a nightmare. Try to get a big picture perspective and you can’t aggregate anything meaningful. Cross your fingers and hope for the best when all the deductions are in then spend an enormous amount of time trying to find the variances. And that’s just deductions. Trying to do planning or getting reports with different views by retailer, or by brand, or by promotional event, or by region is impossible.

To add insult to injury – it’s no longer a big money issue or being locked into a long term custom solution that gets outdated. With a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution in the cloud it’s a small setup fee and a monthly subscription model. You don’t need to buy the house-renting is more cost effective and flexible. The setup is much quicker than the past – often less than 2 months since the solution is already up and running in the cloud so all your team has to do is log in. It is updated periodically throughout the year so it doesn’t become outdated. Finally, it’s based upon continually evolving and improving best practices so even training is easier because it’s not a custom solution it’s one that all the clients are using.

Adesso receives positive reviews from Gartner – again!

Gartner just released their “Market Guide for Trade Promotion Management and Optimization” report, and below are highlights in which Adesso was once again viewed favorably.

User Experience…

The user experience was rated as above average and cited as one that feels more like a community than a vendor offering, with an intuitive and user-friendly system, especially when it comes to administration capabilities.

Continue reading

You are not alone! If you are concerned about the cost and efficiency of your trade promotion spending you have company

Studies indicate that (1) 2/3 of CPG executives are concerned about the cost and efficiency of trade spending, (2) 50% or more of the trade promotions do not meet objectives (3) 18% of CPG manufacturers admit they have no mechanism to measure effectiveness, (4) over 40% of the trade promotion events are not ranked or analyzed and (5) there are big capability gaps in critical areas of TPM products such as promotion planning, reporting and analysis, and account profitability. The net result is that 70% of the CPG manufacturers surveyed indicate the number one area they want to improve is their trade promotion effectiveness. Continue reading

Your TPM Solution. Here Today. Gone Tomorrow?

With the consolidation of several Trade Promotion Management solution providers there is valid concern among clients about whether their version of the TPM solution will be around and supported in the near future.
The fact is it’s not just hard, it’s next to impossible to merge two different solutions. It’s also inefficient. The provider has to make a choice for which one they are going to support going forward. Several of the major TPM “influencers” in the industry have indicated that this problem is real and getting worse.Continue reading

Believe it or not – many small & medium size CPG’s are still using Excel to manage trade spending

At this point it’s tragic. It’s 2014, but believe it or not – many small and medium size CPG’s are still using Excel to manage trade spending
While the number of SMB CPG manufacturers using Excel has gone down from 2/3 in the mid 2000’s, some estimates have it as still more than 1/3 of the thousands of SMB’s are still on Excel – a 1990’s technology. Here’s the problem. Trade spending is just too complex. If you’re efficient and on top of it you can keep track of what you said you were going to spend by promotion by retailer. But once those deductions start coming in it’s a nightmare. Try to get a big picture perspective and you can’t aggregate anything meaningful. Cross your fingers and hope for the best when all the deductions are in then spend an enormous amount of time trying to find the variances. And that’s just deductions. Trying to do planning or getting reports with different views by retailer, or by brand, or by promotional event, or by region is impossible. Continue reading