Apprise Software Unveils Customer Profitability Analysis Tools for Consumer Goods Distributors

Furniture World Magazine

Apprise Software, a leading provider of integrated ERP and supply chain management solutions for consumer goods importers, designers and distributors, announced it has added a new customer profitability module to its popular ERP solution, Apprise® Distribution. Through these first-of-a-kind tools, distributors gain automated, on-demand access to bottom line profit results at the customer level in a matter of seconds. The improved visibility helps distributors better understand and manage business performance drivers. “Retailer chargebacks, allowances, freight, royalties, and other costs have a significant impact on a distributor’s bottom line,” said Jeff Broadhurst, president, Apprise Software. “To remain profitable, consumer goods distributors must be able to quickly analyze and respond to the impact of these and other costs of doing business. Our new profitability analysis tools automate the process and provide the margin numbers distributors need, with a few clicks of a mouse.” Apprise Distribution’s customer profitability tools integrate both above-the-line and below-the-line costs to give distributors an accurate view of profitability for each of their customers. The tools eliminate hours of manual number crunching and financial analysis, freeing up valuable resource time and improving productivity. The user-defined tools provide broad and granular margin analysis to help distributors understand the real impact of doing business with mass merchants and independent stores. Users can compare profit results of different stores, entire chains, departments within a store, and more. A trend view allows distributors to monitor and track profit results for any individual customer entity or grouping over time. Also included in the tools are visual alerts that automatically highlight positive and negative data trends when they rise above or fall below predetermined thresholds set by the distributor. “The development philosophy behind these tools, and all our software, is to keep the application as open and flexible as possible,” said Kevin Ryer, vice president, core development. “That allows consumer goods distributors to track profitability in ways that make the most sense for their business. So whether they want to compare profit centers or track profit trends on a broad or granular level, the tools put powerful financial information into user hands to help them make faster, better informed business decisions.” The new Customer Profitability module is a fully integrated feature that ships standard with recently released Apprise Distribution Version 7.2. Apprise Distribution is an enterprise-wide application offering industry specific functionality for consumer goods distributors. Among the software’s comprehensive, industry focused features are compliance management features, such as EDI and RFID, as well as chargeback management capabilities. Other features include demand planning, import management, light manufacturing, warehouse management, transportation and logistics, sales and service, eBusiness, financials, and extensive analytics and reporting. About Apprise Software, Inc.: Founded in 1984, with offices in North America and Nanjing, China, Apprise Software, Inc. is a leading provider of ERP and supply chain management software and services for consumer goods distributors. Leveraging the latest technologies - such as Microsoft® .NET, Progress® OpenEdge® 10, wireless warehouse solutions, and RFID – along with industry best-practices, Apprise Software provides consumer goods distributors with solutions that meet their unique business requirements while delivering reduced costs, improved efficiencies, enhanced revenues and profitability, and a quick return on investment. For more information about Apprise Software, Inc. please visit http://www.apprise.com