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ConAgra Commercial Products Extends Relationship with Blacksmith Applications to Improve Visibility into Operator Profitability
Bay Valley Foods Selects Blacksmith Applications for Foodservice Trade Spending Management
Lawrence, MA (August 9, 2007) –
Blacksmith Applications, Inc., the leading provider of contract, trade, and deduction management solutions for the foodservice and consumer goods industry, announced today that Bay Valley Foods, a leading provider of private label goods in North America, has selected Blacksmith Applications and its suite of applications to manage its trade spending.
"We're looking forward to working with Bay Valley Foods to help them eliminate their current disparate systems and provide standardization around their contract and deduction management processes," said David Thorne, Vice President, Business Development, Blacksmith Applications. "It will be much easier for them to strategically go to market, execute effective deals, and reduce outstanding deductions with their sales force having automated tools and centralized, easily-accessible data."
"From a sales standpoint, Bay Valley will have much-improved sales reporting and analytics to not only help them better understand post-promotion profitability at a customer and product level, but also provide the business intelligence they need to evaluate the profitability of proposed deals," said Paul Wietecha, President, Blacksmith Applications. "Using Blacksmith's entire suite of solutions to manage programs, deductions, and overall trade spending will clearly enable them to gain better control of their spending and grow their bottom line."
About Blacksmith Applications' Trade Spending Solutions
Blacksmith's FORGESM application streamlines and standardizes the contract and trade management lifecycle, from contract creation, approval, and notification to billback validation, payment calculation and reconciliation to reporting and analysis. Utilizing standardized program templates, profit-based program approvals, and line-item billback validations, manufacturers can increase their speed to market, execute strategic, profitable deals, and gain the necessary visibility into their trade spending, while eliminating "double-dipping", overspending, and inefficient manual processes.
Blacksmith's SHIELDSM application automates the entire deduction resolution process for manufacturers by integrating with FORGESM and by utilizing a centralized deduction repository, resolution workflows, scorecards and reminders, and correspondence templates. SHIELDSM allows manufacturers to prioritize, investigate, follow up on, and clear deductions more quickly and efficiently, thus providing a more accurate account of trade spending and profitability.
Blacksmith's GAUGESM reporting application centralizes all field sales reporting for direct sales forces, brokers, national accounts, and sales management. By utilizing standardized and customizable report templates, it allows users to quickly and easily access and download sales volume and financial performance data for distributor trade deals, operator programs, and national account and regional chain account contracts. GAUGESM enables users to view sales information across customer, company, and product hierarchies for a wide range of time-based and volume-based metrics.
Blacksmith's VANTAGE ANALYTICSSM enables sales management, marketing, trade planning, and finance to easily view, report on, and analyze timely and reliable sales, trade, and financial information in a secure data warehouse to better assist them in making key business decisions that drive the profitable growth of their companies. It provides foodservice manufacturers with the relevant data and insight required to maximize sales and marketing efforts. VANTAGE ANALYTICSSM allows users to access, format, and deliver accurate trade spending information throughout an organization. Via the internet or through a company's intranet, users will be able to query, view, and distribute critical information such as operator and distributor profitability, net price integrity by distributor, category and SKU profitability, and workflow key performance indicators.
About Bay Valley Foods
Bay Valley Foods is a leading provider of shelf stable foods, including pickles, relish, non-dairy coffee creamers, cheese sauces, puddings, syrups, egg substitutes, and special sauces. For more information about the company, visit www.bayvalleyfoods.com.
About Blacksmith Applications
Blacksmith Applications is the leading provider of contract, trade, and deduction management solutions for the foodservice industry. The company's solutions enable foodservice manufacturers to more effectively and profitably manage national account contracts, operator deals, distributor trade programs, and deductions. Blacksmith helps eliminate expensive, inefficient processes and reduce contract and deduction management costs, complexities, and overspending. The results are increased speed to market, improved visibility into customer and product performance, and controlled trade spending - all enabling increased revenue, more strategic and profitable decision making, the appropriate deployment of resources at all levels of sales and marketing, and greater overall profitability. Blacksmith provides solutions for companies such as ConAgra Foods, H.J. Heinz, Flowers Foods, Pactiv Corporation, and McCain Foods. Blacksmith Applications is headquartered in Lawrence, Massachusetts. For more information, visit www.blacksmithapps.com or call 1-866-572-9299.
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