Reporting for Duty

Infosys' New Product Introduction and Key Promotion software is designed to run on SAP's Auto-ID Infrastructure middleware. It generates alerts when, for example, read events indicate that a retail store hasn't received its first shipment of a new or promotional product on time or hasn't placed it on the sales floor on schedule. These alerts are sent to the manufacturer's brand promotions team so it can react quickly.

OATSystems' software has a proprietary consistency engine that fills in holes in RFID tag data, making the data to be analyzed more accurate, according to Anand Karasi, a senior engineer at OATSystems. The consistency engine uses a set of rules to infer the movement of goods in supplier and retailer DCs, or in the retail store's back room, even if interrogators don't read all the tags attached to cases or individual items.

TrueDemand's replenishment and forecasting tools can help prevent out-of-stocks by identifying the root causes. The software uses stock data generated from RFID infrastructures at DCs and retail stores, as well as current and historic sales data, and variable demand drivers, such as holidays and specific shopping seasons. Retailers can use the reports to tweak their ordering practices for individual stores and lower inventory levels. And the software can help suppliers optimize their manufacturing orders to avoid producing more items than they will sell. Kimberly-Clark is currently using TrueDemand's replenishment and forecasting tools.

TR3 Solutions' RFID data analytics tools are designed to mine business value from tag-read events and then present actionable information to customers, which include Chiquita Brands International and Malt-o-Meal, as quickly as possible so they can take steps to prevent out-of-stocks. "Our objective is to give our customers something that they can do something about," says TR3's president Tom Rauh, "and not to give them data they don't need."

T3Ci customizes its out-of-stock prevention and promotions management reports to meet the needs of various departments within a consumer packaged goods company. Reports, for instance, could be tailored for accounting personnel, marketers or the people who manage the company's supply chain.

Peter Rieman, executive vice president of T3Ci, says in 2006 the company doubled its customer base and tripled revenues. And if its recently opened office in Bentonville, Ark., is any indication, most of T3Ci's customers are Wal-Mart suppliers. "Our two best sellers are our out-of-stock management and promotion management software," says Rieman. "We're usually working with the Bentonville-based sales and logistics departments within [consumer packaged goods] companies that are using RFID, because those companies are finding that using reporting and analytics software to get information they could not get before is where the strongest business case is with RFID."

Who's Who in Reporting and Analysis Software
Infosys
www.infosys.com

OATSystems
www.oatsystems.com

TR3 Solutions
www.tr3solutions.com

T3Ci
www.t3ci.com

Illustration by James Steinberg