The Kraft Heinz Company is the fifth largest food and beverage company in the world, operating in over 40 countries, generating over $26bn in net sales in 2020. A globally trusted producer of delicious foods, Kraft Heinz provides high quality, great taste, and nutrition for all eating occasions whether at home, in restaurants, or on the go. The Company’s iconic brands include Kraft, Heinz, ABC, Capri Sun, Classico, Jell-O, Kool-Aid, Lunchables, Maxwell House, Ore-Ida, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Planters, Plasmon, Quero, Smart Ones and Velveeta.
Initial Business Challenges and Deployment of BluePlanner
Japan retail and food & beverage restaurant environments are characterized by a mix of fragmented distribution networks and consolidated modern trade retail channels. Kraft Heinz Japan recognized this complexity and understood that they were operating under significant process and system constraints, and chose BluePlanner to replace an outdated legacy system and Excel-based workflows.
Kraft Heinz sought to increase visibility into Discounts and Allowances (D&A) and Advertising and Promotional (A&P) investments, as well as standardize supporting system infrastructure across several key but distinct markets in the Asia Pacific region.
Kraft Heinz Japan has with BluePlanner utilized a modern system that enables efficient promotion management, ROI-driven commercial plans, dispute-proof claim reconciliation, and insight analytic capabilities to optimize trade investments.
Subsequent to the initial deployment of BluePlanner, Kraft Heinz Japan has upgraded to the latest iteration – BluePlanner 5 – to gain the following advanced capabilities for enhanced Revenue Management:
Improved Visual User Experience
BluePlanner 5’s visual and dynamic user interface is intuitive, and vastly simplifies the user experience, thereby significantly improving efficiency for users to quickly gain maximum value from the application.
Smart Business Processes Drive User Efficiencies
Smart Business Processes embedded within BluePlanner 5’s Visual UX presents complex revenue management processes simply and intuitively, guiding the user to take the best possible actions in a highly efficient manner. Flexible, drag-and-drop report configuration makes it easy for a wide variety of users to quickly view and report on data with resulting in-context insights at the point of decision.
Industry-Leading, Cloud-Native Technology Stack
BluePlanner 5 brings an industry-leading, cloud-native technology stack including a database in the cloud in the back end, the latest UX development technologies in the front end, and 100% native cloud technologies that drive immediate and efficient deployment of solution enhancements, provide peace-of-mind security, real-time scalability, and low total cost of ownership for clients.
Machine Learning-Driven System Performance
Machine Learning algorithms embedded in the technology stack actively monitor client usage patterns to predict and provision required technology resources that match changes in user demand to vastly improve system responsiveness and performance.
Realized Business Value
BluePlanner’s versatility in addressing the specific needs of the Japan retail and restaurant environments allows Kraft Heinz to flexibly manage traditional trade routes-to-market as seamlessly as modern key account retail channels, drive trade incentives to achieve the highest ROI, replace manual claim settlement with a streamlined, paperless process through a distributor claim portal to remove the paper trail and gain deep analytical insights to discover hidden opportunities that drive revenue growth.
The capabilities introduced with BluePlanner and now BluePlanner 5 have enabled Kraft Heinz Japan to formulate distributor and consumer incentives that drive incremental sales, and design comprehensive sales plans that effectively cascade promotional activity down the value chain of distributors, trade partners, and retail outlets.
“Deploying BluePlanner has improved our trade promotion management capabilities and enabled us to manage pricing, deductions, and allowances across all routes-to-market and channels, ensuring that our iconic brands and much-loved products are always within reach of our customers.”
Adam Keller, Head of IT – Kraft Heinz North-East Asia
About UpClear
UpClear makes software used by Consumer Goods brands to improve the management of sales & trade spending. Its BluePlanner platform is an integrated solution supporting Trade Promotion Management, Trade Promotion Optimization, Integrated Business Planning, and Revenue Growth Management.
