Coles Myer Launches GNX CPFR Program, Powered By Manugistics
Australia’s Largest Retailer Collaborating on the GNX platform with Procter & Gamble and Unilever to Optimize Promotions
San Francisco, CA. – June 4, 2003 –GlobalNetXchange (GNX) and Manugistics (NASDAQ: MANU) today announced the launch of the first Collaborative Forecasting, Planning and Replenishment (CPFR) program in Australia with Coles Myer Ltd, Australia’s largest retailer, using the GNX Supply Chain Collaboration Suite powered by Manugistics.
In the first phase of this innovative project, Coles Myer’s Coles and Bi-Lo supermarket chains are collaborating with consumer packaged goods giants Procter & Gamble and Unilever to manage promotions on P&G and Unilever brand products. Stage one involves 325 SKUs in four categories, with the potential to expand to 1400 SKUs of food, health, hair and personal care products, paper goods, detergents and cleaning supply products. The GNX solution facilitates the exchange of information and approvals for promotional plans and forecasts, and provides visibility into inventory, service levels, and replenishment. Collaboration occurs on multiple levels, with communication flowing between the Coles and Bi-Lo head offices and warehouses and their supplier counterparts. This deep collaboration on promotional planning augments the traditional CPFR process, leveraging the unique promotions-specific functionality of Manugistics NetWORKS Market ManagerTM embedded in the GNX solution. The solution also includes fully integrated web-based metrics tracking and reporting capability to enable all parties to monitor benefits.
"True to our innovative spirit, Coles Myer is proud to be the CPFR pioneer in the Australian market. Collaboration provides a measurable advantage in the highly competitive global retail industry, and we strongly believe in the business case for exchange-based collaboration," Coles Myer’s Emerging Business Managing Director, Mr. Jon Wood, said.
"We plan to leverage the GNX platform and experience to quickly scale the CPFR solution to as many as 15 suppliers by next March throughout the Coles Myer organization to benefit our businesses, the suppliers themselves -- and, of course, our customers -- by ensuring the on-shelf availability of our products.
In addition, GNX is providing complete data integration with retailer and supplier systems, serving as a single point of data entry for both parties and providing data synchronization with back-end planning and order systems. This capability is facilitated by automated data loading from the CPFR platform back into retailer and supplier legacy systems, in addition to automated data feeds supported by the GNX platform. The groundbreaking Coles Myer installation will provide an automated end-to-end planning process. Coles Myer expects to improve the execution of promotions by streamlining and improving the accuracy of the promotions planning process, which can result in increased availability of products during promotions and therefore, increased sales.
"The Coles Myer program brings the number of GNX collaboration customers to 29 – the largest CPFR user community in the industry – and we expect to have at least 50 customers collaborating on GNX by the end of the year," said Joe Laughlin, Chief Executive Officer of GNX. "Collaboration is no longer an experiment – retailers and manufacturers are leveraging CPFR as the way they will conduct business in the future. GNX has a proven solution in full production, and the experience and expertise to help retail business partners quickly implement and experience the benefits of collaboration. Through the remainder of 2003, we expect that retailers and manufacturers of all sizes will implement collaboration programs on a much larger scale."
29 customers are currently collaborating on the GNX platform, with CPFR programs covering nearly 120,000 planning items on four continents. Through GNX, leading global retailers, suppliers and raw material manufacturers are collaboratively managing promotions and replenishment planning processes for a wide range of products across multiple categories, including automobile tires, apparel, household paper goods, diapers, detergents, chilled spreads, canned grocery, hair care, small appliances, mineral water, personal hygiene, and household cleaning products.
About GNX
GlobalNetXchange, LLC is the retail industry exchange focused on customer success. GNX helps retailers and manufacturers streamline the processes at the core of their business and drive down costs across the entire supply chain. GNX partners include many of the world`s largest retailers: Carrefour SA; Coles Myer Ltd.; Karstadt Quelle AG; The Kroger Co.; METRO AG; Pinault-Printemps-Redoute SA; J Sainsbury plc; Sears, Roebuck and Co.; and Federated Department Stores. More information is available at www.gnx.com or +1 (415) 399-0990.
About Coles Myer
Coles Myer is Australia`s leading retailer with annual sales in excess of A$24 billion. More than 15 million customers shop at the company`s stores each week. It has Australia`s largest databases and is joint owner of Australia`s largest customer loyalty program - FlyBuys. The company operates more than 2,000 retail stores. More information is available at www.colesmyer.com
About Manugistics Group, Inc.
Manugistics is a leader in delivering innovative supply chain and demand chain optimization software solutions. Today, more than 1,200 clients trust Manugistics to help them reduce costs, increase revenues and enhance margins. The company provides comprehensive solutions for supply chain management, service and parts management, pricing and revenue optimization, and supplier relationship management. Manugistics has offices in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, The Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, The People’s Republic of China, the United Kingdom and United States. Its clients include industry leaders such as AT&T, Airgas, BMW, Boeing, Brown & Williamson, Caterpillar, Cisco Systems, Circuit City, Coca-Cola Bottling, Continental Airlines, Diageo, DuPont, Fairchild Semiconductor, Ford Motor Company, Harley-Davidson, Nestle, RadioShack, Smith & Nephew and Unilever. For more information, go to http://www.manugistics.com.
FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENT
This announcement contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, continuing economic and political uncertainty, the timing and degree of business recovery, anticipated losses, unpredictability of future revenues, potential fluctuations in quarterly operating results, unexpected competition, risks related to quarterly performance, risks of new business areas, international expansion, business combinations and strategic alliances, lengthening of sales cycles for software products and services, and the effectiveness of the cost reduction efforts undertaken by Manugistics and their impact on the company`s ability to operate its business. A decreased demand for enterprise application software due to weakened economic conditions could result in decreased revenues or lower revenue growth rates. More information about factors that potentially could affect Manugistics` financial results is included in Manugistics filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended February 28, 2003. Manugistics assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this announcement.
Manugistics is a registered trademark, and the Manugistics logo, the phrase "Leveraged Intelligence," Enterprise Profit Optimization and Manugistics NetWORKS are trademarks of Manugistics, Inc. All other product or company names mentioned are used for identification purposes only, and may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Contacts:
Melissa Gisler
GlobalNetXchange
mgisler@gnx.com
415.283.3804
Laura Janes
Manugistics Group, Inc.
ljanes@manu.com
301-255-5330
Gil Chorbajian
Ogilvy PR (For Manugistics)
gil.chorbajian@ogilvypr.com
202-721-9725
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