We are seeing opportunities around the effectiveness of the trade investment and evaluating total account management.

Ed Toben Colgate, SVP, Global It & Business Services

The SAP Trade Promotion Management application empowers account and trade managers to improve control and visibility of the entire trade promotion process. The integrated end-to-end solution enables managers to accurately plan, increase brand presence, and maximize profitability with trade activities.

SAP Trade Promotion Management provides an integrated enterprise solution for these key areas:

• Trade funds management
• Manage the use of trade funds and optimize trade promotion activities.
• Close the loop on funding and settlement processes by integrating trade funds to trade claims.
• Accurately manage trade expenses to planned fund amounts.
• Centrally manage and monitor all trade funds, budget tracking, allocation setting, and utilization.
• Account planning
• Develop account volume and execution plans that are aligned with headquarters' plans and objectives.
• Gain insights into all relevant marketing and promotional activities through the marketing calendar.
• Develop the best account plans with promotion simulation analysis.
• Automate the approval process from the headquarters out to the field and to the customer.
• Manage promotion planning to indirect customers.
• Trade promotions
• Develop and execute effective trade promotions to drive sales volumes and brand awareness.
• Increase planning efficiencies with promotional templates, promotional guidelines, and agreements.
• Avoid stock outs by integrating the trade promotion planning process with the demand planning process.
• Sales execution
• Facilitate promotion sell-in efforts with historical data and insights.
• Efficiently capture all orders and collateral requests, and feed the information into the demand planning process.
• Manage field activities with activity management tools to plan customer visits and to perform surveys.
• Improve your in-store merchandising execution via follow-up store visits and analyzing in-store competition.
• Trade claims management
• Efficiently manage disputes according to agreed contracts.
• Centrally manage all claims with visibility into funds, promotion planning, and validation data.
• Accurately manage all deductions and payments, including charge-backs, write-offs, and period-end rebates.
• Validate retail promotion performance to ensure only valid claims are paid.
• Link claims to associated funds and promotions at payment for accurate accounting.
• Trade promotion analytics
• Make mid-course adjustments to trade plans based on on-going trade execution results.
• Gain insight into trade promotional effectiveness at multiple levels including brand, product, category, account, and segments.
• Understand total trade promotional spending and resulting volume, profitability, and ROI.
• Increase planning and forecasting accuracy with historical performance data and access to financial and demand planning data.