Manugistics Introduces Closed Loop Demand and Revenue Management Capabilities for Total Demand and Supply Chain Management
Synchronizing Demand Forecasting With Pricing, Promotions, and Trade Funds Planning Helps Boost Revenue and Improve Supply Chain Control
Washington, DC - October 28, 2003 - At enVISION2003 today, Manugistics Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: MANU), a leading global provider of demand and supply chain management solutions, announced its closed loop Demand and Revenue Management (DRM) capabilities, designed to help synchronize traditional demand forecasting with pricing, promotions, and trade-fund planning and optimization. DRM also helps enterprises simultaneously align their demand with supply, capacity, and inventory positions to better manage market share and enhance revenues and gross margin.
"Leading-edge companies are taking the collaborative demand planning process to another level by simultaneously analyzing and measuring the effects that promotions and pricing have on the larger supply chain. This ensures that changes in demand can be met by appropriate changes in supply without negatively impacting customer service," said Kosin Huang, Senior Analyst with the Yankee Group. "Manugistics is the first to market with a product that integrates price optimization with demand planning, marrying two key business processes."
Merchants, marketers and pricing analysts can combat the pressures of increased global competition, lowered trade barriers, unfavorable exchange rates, compressed product life-cycles, seasonality and customer loyalty erosion through the use of Manugistics DRM solutions. Manugistics DRM solutions, available today, are designed to help address industry-specific concerns with solutions such as:
Trade Funds Optimization: Enables consumer goods companies to create a more accurate forecast while considering consumer response to promotional incentives through the retail channel at the level of category, brand, key account, or store. This capability can help anticipate the effect of these incentives and analyze incremental volume and revenue lift, thereby helping shape consumer demand.
Markdown Optimization: Evaluates the impact of a retailer`s markdown plans prior to and during execution by analyzing trade-offs between excess inventory costs and margin. Markdown Optimization can access data required to individually manage hundreds of stores, thousands of items, and various seasons - helping maximize value from end-of-life and end-of-season inventory.
Promotions Optimization: Enables retailers and consumer goods companies to create, compare and evaluate promotion plans and options prior to execution - allowing for more thorough market response modeling and analysis of promotions on any product, category, or brand. Planners can also evaluate promotions by customer segment, distribution channel, and/or location helping them to build a precise, comprehensive view of potential consumer response and revenues.
Price List Optimization: Identifies optimal prices for products and services in markets or channels in any industry that struggles with pricing competition and continuous change. Appropriate prices are computed while incorporating enterprise and user defined objectives, as well as supply chain factors such as costs and available capacity or inventory. The result is optimized price lists and corresponding forecasts for each product and market/channel. In fact, the solution can optimize custom pricing of unique contracts per customer for configuration of products and services. Additionally, PLO is self-learning - the results of previous pricing actions and competitive actions are used to recalibrate forecasting and optimization models to reflect real-time data, helping drive higher levels of profitability and forecast accuracy.
"Many companies have begun to realize that shaping demand through revenue and pricing management offers one of the fastest and surest routes to growth and enhanced profitability," said Neil Hooper, Manugistics group vice president, Demand and Revenue Management. "DRM solutions use visibility into market dynamics and customer responses to scientifically recommend product pricing and promotion plans and analyze their effectiveness - continuously revising the corresponding demand forecasts, financial and marketing plans."
Manugistics` enVISION2003 conference brings together thought leaders from today`s most innovative organizations to explore the future of demand and supply chain management. The event is taking place this week in Washington, D.C., from Oct. 26 - 29, 2003. For more information visit www.manugistics.com .
About Manugistics Group, Inc.
Manugistics provides the industry`s most comprehensive, best-in-class demand and supply chain management solutions. Today, more than 1,200 clients trust Manugistics to help them drive profitable growth, unlock the value of their existing IT investments, and ensure the security and integrity of their global supply chains. Its clients include industry leaders such as AT&T, BMW, Boeing, BAE SYSTEMS, Continental Airlines, Fairchild Semiconductor, Harley-Davidson, John Deere, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Sikorsky, Smiths Aerospace and the United States Department of Defense. 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 and Quarterly Report on form 10-Q for the period ended August 31, 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 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:
Laura Janes
Manugistics Group, Inc.
ljanes@manu.com
301-255-5330
Kristine Gager
Edelman
kristine.gager@edelman.com
202-326-1747
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