2014 Readers' Choice Survey: Editors' Pick
Each year, CGT’s editorial staff spotlights technology solution and service providers that are poised to make a substantial impact on the consumer goods industry with innovative and necessary tools. These companies — some new and some familiar — often don’t fit snugly into CGT’s larger Readers’ Choice Survey categories due to their smaller size or niche focus. Nonetheless, they have been strongly endorsed by consumer goods executives in conversations with our editorial team throughout the year and deserve to be recognized for their contributions to the industry.
Download the 2014 Editors' Pick Report
1010data
www.1010data.com
Specialty: Big data discovery and data sharing platform that helps consumer goods companies and retailers become analytical, data-driven organizations that are better able to collaborate on go-to-market activities based on a shared understanding of data about joint sales, merchandising, promotions, inventory and more.
Big Win in 2013: Formally launched a vendor portal and on-shelf availability initiatives, which grew 1010data’s user base to more than 250 consumer goods companies.
1WorldSync
www.1worldsync.com/web/us
Specialty: 1WorldSync drives efficiency, profitability and competitive edge by giving businesses the ability to share trusted product information with each other as well as with consumers.
Big Win in 2013: 1WorldSync registered its 10 millionth item in the Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN), making it the largest provider of product data in the GDSN to more than 15,000 customers in 54 countries.
buzz Solutions
www.buzzsolutions.com
Specialty: buzz Solutions provides a cloud-based mobile retail execution product, applying its industry expertise. buzzRetail offers features and functionalities unique to the consumer goods industry.
Big Win in 2013: 2013 saw the launch of buzzRetail mobile, allowing sales team to seamlessly work either connected or disconnected.
CenturyLink Technology Solutions (formerly Savvis)
www.savvis.com
Specialty: Provides consumer packaged goods companies with hosted IT solutions through a global data center and network footprint.
Big Win in 2013: In October 2013, the company launched a fully managed Apache Hadoop stack designed to help CPGs glean the most value from their data.
dunnhumby
http://dunnhumby.com/
Specialty: dunnhumby is a customer science company that analyzes data and applies insights from more than 400 million customers across the globe to create better customer experiences and build loyalty.
Big Win in 2013: The company launched ConvenienceShop, which allows CPG companies to access POS data from C-store households across all categories; acquired Standard Analytics LLC to accelerate innovation in data science and machine learning; and dunnhumbyUSA was included on the Great Places to Work list. Also, Kroger Rewards was named the highest-rated loyalty program in the grocery sector.
Enterra Solutions
www.enterrasolutions.com
Specialty: Provides CPG organizations the cognitive computing platform and know-how to bring big data to life through advanced digital marketing and cognitive value chain solutions.
Big Win in 2013: Signed multi-year contract with McCormick & Company to bring its Cognitive Computing Platform to McCormick’s industry-leading food, sensory and culinary science capabilities to enable innovation and growth.
EY
www.ey.com
Specialty: EY is a global company in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services, with a global consumer goods network of more than 16,000 professionals who can share insights and deep sector knowledge with businesses.
Big Win in 2013: Launched The 3E Collective (The Enterprise, Entrepreneur and EY), a concept to bring together consumer goods companies and entrepreneurs in collaborative think tanks to engage in dynamic problem solving and ideation of some of the industry’s biggest challenges.
Exceedra
www.exceedra.com
Specialty: Simplifies and enables improved capability in integrated business planning and insight, covering trade promotion management, customer business planning, joint business planning, demand signal repositories and demand planning.
Big Win in 2013: Started and completed projects with four global consumer goods companies and continued strong international growth through global consulting partners.
GENCO
www.genco.com
Specialty: GENCO specializes in Product Lifecycle Logistics and reverse logistics solutions designed to maximize value and reduce costs for its customers.
Big Win in 2013: Formalizing Contract Packaging capabilities into a new business unit to provide customers with large-scale packaging execution throughout North America.
Gladson
www.gladson.com
Specialty: Gladson helps CPG manufacturers create, maintain and distribute high-quality product images and information across channels.
Big Win in 2013: Gladson signed several new clients for its recently launched Gladson myBrands Solution, which offers CPG manufacturers an efficient and scalable solution to meet the diverse product content needs of retail partners, consumers and internal constituents.
GT Nexus
www.gtnexus.com
Specialty: Enables CPG companies, retailers, suppliers, financial institutions and logistics providers to collaborate on a common cloud platform to improve supply chain visibility, speed and margins.
Big Win in 2013: Merged with TradeCard to become the largest cloud supply chain platform of its kind, with more than $100 billion in goods managed annually and more than 25,000 trading organizations across all major industries.
iGATE
www.igate.com
Specialty: Helps CPG and retail clients that are at an inflexion point embrace digital strategy while leveraging existing IT investments to solve problems in TPM, supply chain management, shelf stock management and consumer engagement. iGATE has an ROI-driven approach to rapidly deploy new-age solutions.
Big Win in 2013: One stop solution for Digital Engagement that is designed to help CPG companies with dynamic customer profiling and facilitates omnichannel personalized interactions. The solution empowers companies with a decision support system to identify the right message and channel to engage with the customer based on the stage in the customer engagement value curve.
Kony, Inc.
www.kony.com
Specialty: Provides a multi-channel application development platform for companies to develop mobile apps that engage customers at the “moment of value” and employees to increase efficiency and improve service.
Big Win in 2013: Launched the Kony Multi-Channel Experience Cloud; was named a “Leader” in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for MADPs; added The Coca-Cola Company as a customer.
Market6
www.market6.com
Specialty: Provide grocers and their suppliers with analytic insights to drive better joint business planning, improve execution of promotional events, reduce out of stocks, accelerate new item introductions and optimize inventory levels.
Big Win in 2013: Market6 more than doubled the number of Kroger’s suppliers to 475 who use daily shared analytics and reports with the retailer to track sales, forecast demand and collaboratively plan their business. This allows suppliers to grow their business with Kroger and helps extend Kroger’s industry leading record of revenue and profit growth.
Mindtree Ltd.
www.mindtree.com
Specialty: Mindtree partners with global CPG enterprises, including four of the top 10, in delivering superior IT solutions. These solutions help customers improve collaboration with their partner ecosystem and bring them closer to end consumers.
Big Win in 2013: Mindtree won the SAP 2013 Retail Mobile App Challenge for its mPromo solution at SAP TechEd in Las Vegas. mPromo enables real-time insight into performance of promotions and provides proactive analysis to help make real-time decisions.
Sparta Systems, Inc.
www.spartasystems.com
Specialty: Sparta Systems provides enterprise quality management solutions, helping customers prevent recalls before they happen, while protecting brand reputation and customer loyalty.
Big Win in 2013: CPG customers accounted for 30 percent of all new Sparta accounts, while 2013 released products included TrackWise Analytics, which turns quality management data into actionable insight.
StayinFront
www.stayinfront.com
Specialty: Provides SaaS mobile retail execution solutions that enable consumer goods manufacturers to conduct in-store activities more efficiently, proactively address store conditions and uncover opportunities to influence and drive sales.
Big Win in 2013: StayinFront signed a number of multi-year global partnerships, including one with Mondelez International to deliver StayinFront TouchCG to more than 45,000 employees and distributors worldwide.
Stibo Systems
www.stibosystems.com
Specialty: Creates accurate product, partner and customer information and manages complex workflows so CPGs can achieve product and cross-channel consistencies that optimize the customer experience.
Big Win in 2013: Three industry analyst firms named Stibo customers as award winners or finalists for their innovative use of Stibo’s MDM solution.
TIBCO Spotfire
http://spotfire.tibco.com/
Specialty: Spotfire Analytics empowers CPG companies to discover hidden insights and make decisions on brand performance, consumers, stores, marketing campaigns and inventory optimization by delivering self-service dashboards, interactive drill-down, guided workflows and predictive analytics, all in one platform. This drives analytics maturity, leading to competitive strength and profitability.
Big Win in 2013: Acquired location analytics and mobile KPI technologies, delivering mapping capabilities to act on customer loyalty, transportation and supply chain efficiency opportunities, and to monitor up-to-the-minute changes in business performance via mobile devices.
ToolBox Solutions
www.toolboxsolutions.com
Specialty: By combining data integration expertise, a comprehensive knowledge of retail business process and market leading insight solutions, ToolBox Solutions is unique within the industry.
Big Win in 2013: A number of new retailer and manufacturer customer wins, including AcuSport, Unilever and Federated Co-op, continues ToolBox’s growth in the market.
ToolsGroup
www.toolsgroup.com
Specialty: ToolsGroup’s market-driven demand analytics and supply chain optimization software helps companies leverage quantitative and qualitative data to deliver predictive demand signals and accelerate business performance.
Big Win in 2013: ToolsGroup’s Demand Sensing implementation at Costa Coffee won the 2013 European Supply Chain Excellence Technology Award.
Tribridge
www.tribridge.com
Specialty: Tribridge is a technology services firm specializing in business applications and cloud solutions.
Big Win in 2013: Customers, like Kawasumi, Jadak, Samsung, Heely’s and ShockDoctor, have helped Tribridge be Microsoft’s Partner of the Year for the third time in five years.
Visicom
www.visicom.com
Specialty: Visicom is a provider of innovative mobile sales force automation (SFA) and direct store delivery (DSD) solutions for consumer products companies for Android and Windows 8.
Big Win in 2013: Visicom continued its expansion with new implementations with the No. 1 food company in the world. With major projects completed in North America, Europe and Asia this year, Visicom is now in more than 35 countries worldwide.