The Best Possible Combination: Jim Coleman, Accenture

As consumer demographics change, a store aisle will need to look and function in dramatically different ways. Consumer demands will become even greater aided by further developments in technology. This changing and challenging landscape is driving Accenture's (www.accenture.com) focus on software to supplement its industry offerings and to better serve consumer packaged goods (CPG) clients. Here, Senior Executive Jim Coleman explains how the company's recent acquisition of CAS builds on that intent.

 

Coleman: Ever-increasing consumer demands are changing the landscape of the consumer goods and retail industries at a dramatic pace. Consumers will continue to be more diverse in demography, socioeconomics, product preferences and expectations, and behaviors. While the explosion of new technologies and the growing reliance on social networking and real-time information sharing is giving consumers virtually unlimited product insights and choices, the store will continue to play a critical role.

 

Coleman: CAS' integrated platform allows manufacturers to plan an optimized set of trade activities as well as the associated demand forecast, and then implement those plans at the headquarter and store levels. Leveraging insight to better promote and merchandise while improving the in-store experience for the shopper is key. Imagine a future where differentiated store-level promotion and demand plans could be generated and tracked through to execution on a store-by-store basis from a management cockpit, and where decisions on how to deploy field support services to execute the in-store mission most effectively can be made. A future where shoppers can interact and participate in the evolution of the retail mission by answering a survey in the aisle, or snapping a photo of a product or display, triggering a set of on-demand services to respond more effectively to the needs of the shopper.

 

Coleman: We see a marriage of software excellence, industrialized integration and deep insights through the use of advanced analytics between our industry services and Accenture CAS software. We expect to operate as both an enterprise, as well as a managed service for our clients, and we aim to expand the scope of CAS by adding to our other relevant industry offerings, such as digital merchandising, demand sensing and trade optimization.   

 

We believe that CAS's offering in the mobile space is truly unique -- an industry-specific packaged solution that supports the full life-cycle of field activities, including DSD. Integrated with headquarter customer management processes, the software closes the loop between planning and execution, and can provide instant information about changing in-store trade promotion needs.

 

Having the flexibility to fine-tune promotions and sales scenarios provides the greatest potential for the CPG company, retailer and consumer. With Accenture's capabilities in mobility, we expect to be able to scale and evolve rapidly to continue to meet growing consumer demands.