Articles

Consumer goods companies adopt Trade Promotion Management (TPM) because they need better, faster visibility into business performance, greater control of trade funds, and more efficient execution of the process- from planning to deduction reconciliation.  Often, the goal is to start using TPM when planning for a new year starts.  However, competing priorities, and/or the preconception that implementing a new solution can be a cumbersome effort, tend to extend decision making.  This adds timeline pressure to lining up use of the new system to annual planning. 

UpClear’s deployment methodology and BluePlanner TPM beat this challenge.  First, while the software is flexible and can be configured for nuanced client needs, the platform is preconfigured with various TPM packages, by market, distribution channels, category.  This allows us to skip time-consuming setup required with other solutions.  Second, we break deployment into phases.  While full services may include things like add-on capabilities, analytic dashboards, and automated POS data integration (elements that add extend timelines), the phase that enables you to start planning is completed very quickly, with intuitive and out-of-the-box functionalities. 

The result is that your team can begin using BluePlanner TPM in as little as four weeks.  This enables several quick wins that include: 

• Ending the creation of planning/tracking spreadsheets with complex lookups and formulas 
• Eliminating spreadsheet collation for rollups 
• Avoiding the risk that spreadsheets get corrupted or broken 
• Seeing your team’s business plan as soon as it is created; reports give you fast access to sales, spending, and P&L data at your desired level of rollup or customer and product detail. 

We all seek better and better business performance.  This is accomplished by improving your knowledge of customer and product sales and spending habits…building expertise.  With the right priority, vendor partner, TPM platform, and expectations, you can achieve this.  And you can get started very quickly.