Kineticsware Delivers Best-in-Class, Integrated TPM
Kirkland, WA - October 7, 2008 - Kineticsware announced today that it has acquired Flintfox International Ltd., a leading provider of trade promotion management (TPM) solutions headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand. The acquisition will enable Kineticsware to provide a new generation of full lifecycle TPM solutions to consumer goods companies delivered both directly and through selected partners globally. The combined company will have 141 customers and operations in 12 countries across North America, Asia Pacific and Europe.
“Significant margin impact from skyrocketing raw materials costs such as wheat and oil have driven consumer goods companies of all sizes to explore ways to protect their margins in the contractual trading relationship with their retailers.” said Jeff Sampson, CEO, Kineticsware. “With this acquisition, Kineticsware increases the breadth of its functionality to support the entire lifecycle of a trade promotion from budgeting, planning, execution and settlement to monitoring and analysis. Our customers can take control of fragmented trade promotion processes and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of trade spending without requiring them to replace their existing ERP platform.”
“Flintfox has a proven track record of providing practical trade promotion management solutions to consumer goods companies over the past 15 years,” said Flintfox CEO Mike Ridgway, who will become the Managing Director of Asia Pacific for Kineticsware. “Joining forces with Kineticsware gives us the resources to accelerate our advantage in the TPM market in areas such as advanced pricing and predictive analytics and extend service, support and delivery on a global scale for both new and existing customers.” Customers such as Gorton’s, a leading provider of seafood products, are optimistic about the advancements in the product line, new offerings and support that will come with investment and energy from Kineticsware.
Increasing to over $120B annually in the United States, trade spend typically represents between 8 to 15% of net sales for consumer goods companies, yet less than 30% of trade promotions demonstrate a positive return on investment. Commenting on the announcement, Sahir Anand, Senior Research Analyst of Aberdeen Group, said, “Aberdeen data shows that 64% of manufacturers face internal fragmentation when it comes to trade marketing data, performance metrics, planning objectives and retail compliance guidelines for sales, marketing, and finance organizations. CPG companies lack adequate insight into the key transaction management, deduction evaluation, and trade spend analysis that enables them for effective retail execution. This acquisition further bolsters Kineticsware’s position in providing a synergistic platform for end-to-end trade promotion management, from budgeting to analysis.”
Flintfox software will become core to Kineticsware Trade Promotion Management which includes the following, integrated components:
- Collaboration: shared role-based workflow management of promotion plans, customer acceptance, open deductions/fees/payments processing, and reporting;
- Planning: definition and analysis of promotional plans, budgets, and funds across multiple dimensions;
- Execution: detail representation, monitoring, and fulfillment of individual events;
- Settlement: efficient processing of deductions, claims and fees, including approval and exception management workflows;
- Analysis: multi-dimension performance reporting, including shipments, point-of-sale, and syndicated marketing data to compare target goals to actual performance and profitability;
- Advanced Pricing: multi-level and rules-based configuration based on list price, promotional pricing, and related adjustments, tracking complete waterfall pricing across all brands, customers, and geographies.
The solution is developed using the Microsoft .NET Framework and leverages the latest business intelligence, workflow, reporting and collaboration technology from Microsoft to ensure high ease of use, low total cost of ownership and painless integration with multiple ERP systems such as SAP and Oracle. The Kineticsware Trade Promotion Analysis solution also integrates data from point of sale, third-party syndicated marketing data and scan-based operational systems. In addition, the Kineticsware solution runs natively within Microsoft Dynamics AX out of the box. “For consumer goods customers that are running their business on, or evaluating Microsoft Dynamics AX, Kineticsware's TPM solution should be a priority consideration,” commented Hal Howard, General Manager for Microsoft Dynamics.
“Recent research by TPMA demonstrated the biggest area for trade promotion process improvement was to maintain the same levels of spending while driving more volume. Core to delivering on this benefit are solutions that support the entire lifecycle of a trade promotion. These benefits will improve the overall collaborative planning process and deliver value to the end consumer in the form of better pricing and promotions,” said Mike Kantor, Managing Director of Trade Promotion Management Associates, the industry’s leading TPM/TPO trade organization.
The expanded Kineticsware TPM solution will be distributed through a mix of channel partners including Microsoft Dynamics partners, system integrators, and specialized consulting firms that focus on solutions for the consumer goods industry. Initial market coverage includes United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Poland, Germany, and Italy.
About Kineticsware
Kineticsware is a rapidly growing provider of trade promotion management software for consumer goods manufacturers and distributors. Kineticsware’s full lifecycle TPM solutions address top priorities for improving profitability such as increasing operational efficiency, improving customer profitability, effectiveness of trade spending, reducing deduction liability, and lowering transportation costs. For more information, visit www.kineticsware.com.
Contact:
Brian Shelver
+1.425.968.4291
Kineticsware, Inc.
E-mail: brian.shelver@kineticsware.com