FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Multichannel Retailer USI Inc. Selects Taurus Software’s Manage Metrix for Proactive Business Performance Management

Redwood City, Calif. – Taurus Software, a premier provider of data warehousing and business intelligence solutions for multichannel retailers, announced today that USI Inc., a leading supplier of lamination equipment and office accessories, has decided to implement Taurus Software and F. Curtis Barry & Company’s Manage Metrix solution in their strategic environment. An Ecometry client, USI is excited about the combination of Taurus’ retail industry expertise and F. Curtis Barry & Company’s knowledge of best business practices coming together in a unique business performance management solution. USI and Taurus will be working together on streamlining business efficiencies in the Inventory department, where USI’s goals are balancing inventory, reducing backorders, and maximizing customer satisfaction.

USI selected Manage Metrix because of several factors, including the dynamic Taurus/FCBCO partnership, the solution’s valuable functionality, and the long-standing relationship that USI and Taurus have enjoyed throughout the years of Taurus developing specialized solutions for Ecometry customers.

“Over the years, we have been working with multiple Taurus Software solutions,” states Peter Frega, Director of Operations at USI. “We have been completely satisfied with their valuable products, ease of use, and superb functionality. Even still, we are more excited about implementing Manage Metrix since we have never seen anything quite like this.”

USI will be monitoring their Inventory pulse by using the Manage Metrix Inventory analytics, which yield insight on how to reduce Pick/Pack/Ship costs, free up dollars in unproductive inventory, minimize backorders and lost customers, ensure Purchase Orders are only being issued for needed products, and automatically prioritize the most productive and valuable tasks. In addition, the consultants at F. Curtis Barry & Company will be working closely with USI to establish best business practices. Key performance indicators (KPIs) illustrate what areas in Inventory are excelling and proactively alert Executives and Managers to possible areas of concern.

“Managing inventory is so important because it’s one of the largest assets we have,” says Peter Frega. “Inventory impacts our other departments as well as our customers, and managing inventory is a challenge since inventory levels change hourly. We used to spend 80% of our time generating reports, and 20% of our time strategizing. With Manage Metrix, we expect to spend 20% of our time generating reports, and 80% of our time strategizing.”

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 About Taurus Software
 
At Taurus Software, “making data liquid” means helping turn data into business intelligence, smart decisions, and competitive advantages – the lifeblood of your company. Taurus products include a variety of applications developed to help clients get more from their data by allowing them to Move, Map, Measure, and Manage data regardless of where it resides within business systems. To learn more about Taurus Software and our offerings designed for various data platforms and applications, call 650-482-2022 ext. 1, or visit http://www.taurus.com.

For more information
 
Zaki Hussain, Taurus Software Media Contact
Phone: 650-482-2022, ext. 407
Fax: 650-482-2010
zaki@taurus.com

Description:

* Are you able to plan thoroughly and in advance for the upcoming cycle?
* Are you in your post-mortems able to understand what factors contributed to a product being a winner or a loser?
* Do you have visibility into products that are not profitable?
* Have you decided what to do with items that are not moving?

A successful Merchandising strategy requires proper planning and visibility into key areas of your business. Our Merchandising Metrix Webinar will highlight utilizing a combination of performance management and industry best practices, showing managers and executives a deeper overview of the Merchandising department!

In this exciting 30-minute webinar, Taurus will provide examples of challenges businesses face, key metrics that companies need to measure, and visual examples of HOW these critical metrics are measured.

Items to cover:
- Determining how the merchandise mix is performing
- How to effectively pick winners
- Replacing under-performing items
- Building the brand from the product mix perspective

Analytics that determine:
- Item profitability
- Channel profitability
- Price range profit/loss analysis
- Performance vs. plan

Register now for this upcoming webinar and get a head start on merchandising for the upcoming cycle!

Webinar Date:
Thursday, December 10th @ 2pm EST / 11am PST

We look forward to your participation! Please email sales@taurus.com with any questions.

Description:

At our last webinar, Curt Barry and Kathleen Schultz highlighted the steps managers should take in order to improve their Fall/Holiday merchandise results.

Our NEW Merchandising Metrix Webinar will highlight utilizing a combination of performance management and industry best practices, showing managers and executives a deeper overview of the Merchandising department!

In this exciting 35-minute webinar, Taurus will provide examples of challenges businesses face, key metrics that companies need to measure, and visual examples of HOW these critical metrics are measured.

Items to cover:
- Determining how the merchandise mix is performing
- How to effectively pick winners
- Replacing under-performing items
- Building the brand from the product mix perspective

Analytics that determine:
- Item profitability
- Channel profitability
- Price range profit/loss analysis
- Performance vs. plan

Register now for this upcoming webinar!

Webinar Date:
Wednesday, November 11th @ 2pm EST / 11am PST

We look forward to your participation! Email sales@taurus.com with any questions.

Catalogs are in the mail and the season will be in high gear.  This FREE 45-minute webinar will review what you can and should be doing now to ensure your goals are met, and who you need to team with to make it happen.

In this webinar, the following topics will be covered:

• What are you doing to ensure on-time delivery from your vendors?
• Is your customer service team ready to “make the sale”?
• How are you using the Web to maximize sales?
• What is your markdown strategy?
• How are you using add-ons, specials, and best-sellers?
• Should FREE shipping be used?
• What is needed qualitatively to plan the next season?

Attend this webinar and gain insight on how to lay the foundation to ensure successful merchandise results!

Webinar Date:
Wednesday, October 28th @ 2PM EST / 11AM PST

We look forward to your participation! Email sales@taurus.com with any questions.

Best-in-Class Performance

Aberdeen used three key performance criteria to distinguish Best-in-Class companies.  That performance relative to their peers was as follows:

• A 24% average year-over-year increase in operating profit, compared with a 3% increase for the Industry Average and a 27% decrease for Laggards
• An 8.3% average year-over-year improvement in customer service, compared with a 2.3% improvement for the Industry Average and a 1.0% increase for Laggards
• An 8.4% average year-over-year improvement in sales performance, compared with a 2.3% improvement for the Industry Average and a 0.6% decline for Laggards.

Competitive Maturity Assessment

Survey results show that the firms enjoying Best-in-Class performance are:

• 2.8-times more likely than Laggards to have clearly defined business unit performance metrics
• 1.7-times more likely than the Industry Average to have a process for prioritizing data for user access
• 60% more likely than all other companies to leverage performance reporting dashboards

Required Actions

In addition to the specific recommendations in Chapter Three if this report, to achieve Best-in-Class performance, companies must:

• Create a training program to educate end-users on dashboards
• Develop the ability to track the utilization of dashboard tools
• Examine the use of outward-facing customer dashboards

The key to unlocking double digit profit to us is the missing piece from the study and one of the most critical in order for companies to recognize the benefits listed above.  So what’s missing? It’s what to do with the all the data, metrics and results.  Corporate dashboards, KPI’s and BI tools can tell you so much about your business, but if you don’t know what to do with the data or how to develop a strategy to improve the business, then you can never benefit from the investment.

The difficulty is that many of these software vendors are very good at developing best in class software but traditionally fall short in being able to assist companies with how to analyze the results, understand what the numbers are saying, and in assisting you with what to do next.

This is a significant reason why F. Curtis Barry & Company decided to partner with Taurus Software – it’s about bringing together not only best-in-class dashboard, key performance indicators and business intelligence, but also to deliver world-class consulting to assist you with not only how to utilize the application but what to do with the results.  This unique approach we feel will benefit each implementation and allow companies to maximize the investment and realize all the benefits.

We encourage you to register and read the full Aberdeen Study http://www.aberdeen.com.

Brian Barry is a Senior Consultant with F. Curtis Barry & Company, a multichannel operations and fulfillment consulting firm with expertise in multichannel systems, warehouse, call center, inventory, and benchmarking; learn more online at: http://www.fcbco.com.

5 Critical Inventory Measurements for Running a More Profitable Business
Presented by:  Brian Barry, Sr. Consultant at F. Curtis Barry & Company

Description:
This FREE 30-minute webinar will cover the metrics and measurements critical to understanding inventory from a financial perspective. With inventory being one of the largest assets in most multichannel companies, effective and efficient use of inventory is a key success factor to driving profits in your business.
In this webinar, F. Curtis Barry & Company and Taurus Software will cover topics including:

• Inventory aging and maximizing the investment
• Inventory status and developing disciplined processes
• Inventory turns
• Gross margin return on investment and how to apply it in your company
• Backorders and what they really cost your company

Webinar Date:
Wednesday, August 26th @ 2PM EST / 11AM PST

We look forward to your participation! Email sales@taurus.com with any questions.

U.S. retailers are trying to stimulate sales now as merchandise is arriving in stores for Fall and back to school.  U.S. retailers don’t want to be burned like they were last year, so inventory levels will not be purchased anywhere to the extent that they were last year. 

According to Commerce department, inventories are down 8% through May from last year at this time.

Here is a sample of what our clients are saying about their Christmas inventory planning:

Hard Goods Catalog

Limited initial buying.  Going to read sales forecast after the catalog is in the field and then place larger re-orders.  Willing to sacrifice some early backorders to limit over inventory exposure.  We can not have excess inventory on hand at the end of December.  

Children’s Catalog

Ours is really business as usual, we have ramped up with a few more drop shippers than we have in the past, but we still continue to grow our import business and rely a little bit less each year on domestic shipments. 

Hobbyists

Just in time as much as possible and attempt to carry less inventory Holiday 2009 vs Holiday 2008.

Home Catalog

Our plan is flat with Holiday 2008 actual demand.  Less decorative and gift items, more focus on functional products which tend to carry over from campaign to campaign so a better exit strategy.  In addition, we are ordering within lead-times, thus closer to demand.  This has been a shift from the past when the need get your orders into the production cycle was critical.  Consequently, our open receipts are significantly down from last year and even budget.   We are finding that Chinese vendors, in particular, are turning orders very quickly.    

Inventory is the biggest balance sheet asset in most businesses.  Slow selling, discontinued and obsolete inventory can build up reducing inventory turns, cash flow and space in the distribution center. 

Will consumers have the deals they had last year?   I don’t think so. Scaled back inventory levels will sell out with fewer sales events leaving some consumers without much of a selection the closer we get to December. 

U.S. Retailers touting “Christmas in July” are looking for consumers to commit on electronic and large ticket items now while they may have a few extra dollars or through the utilization of layaways to secure there Christmas gifts.

Is your inventory at the right level for this Fall selling season?  Have you adopted the best practices for forecasting and managing inventory?  Have you implemented vendor compliance policies?  Do you need to upgrade your systems?

Contact us today to learn more about managing inventory profitably.

• How many backorders were caused by the vendor?
• What are the gross sales for the vendor?
• How many RTV’s or defective products for the vendor?
• How many early deliveries and late deliveries for the vendor?
• What is the overall net contribution to profit for the vendor after all expenses? 

But how often do you set the same goals and objectives for your merchants and inventory managers and create an internal scorecard?  Often times we find that companies have rigid standards for their vendors and goals in terms of margin and profit, but often times they don’t measure their staff in a similar way.  By not doing so, you leave the door open for problems that could erode your margin.

Develop a similar list of metrics that are important to your business.  Convey your goals to each person and measure the actual performance against their individual goals.  What are some that companies use?

• Category sales
• Gross margin and percent
• Return percent
• Cancellation percent
• Adherence to vendor compliance
• Turnover
• Vendor coop
• Net contribution to profit
• “Markdowns”

Curt Barry is the President of F. Curtis Barry & Company, a multichannel operations and fulfillment consulting firm with expertise in multichannel systems, warehouse, call center, inventory, and benchmarking; learn more online at: http://www.fcbco.com.

This company is now working to develop a strategic merchandise plan to improve the average price points over time.  This is something that cannot be done overnight, or you will alienate the existing customer base.  In addition, they have opted to avoid taking backorders on low dollar and low margin products to avoid the additional costs.  You can decide if the items are essential to customer service to order larger quantities.

It is extremely important for companies to analyze merchandising results, taking into account not only whether or not an item covered the marketing expense, but also the cost to take and process orders and the general and administrative expenses.  By doing this, you essentially create a Profit and Loss (P&L) at the item level as well as the sub-category and category level.  This allows you to truly understand what your best sellers are and whether or not they are delivering positive dollars to the bottom line.  Use this same model of analyzing profitability and sort the products by price ranges and I am sure you will find some interesting trends.  Review this on a regular basis and make changes accordingly.

Brian Barry is a Senior Consultant with F. Curtis Barry & Company, a multichannel operations and fulfillment consulting firm with expertise in multichannel systems, warehouse, call center, inventory, and benchmarking; learn more online at: http://www.fcbco.com.

This is a classic example of where most small to mid-size companies are from an inventory management perspective and using KPI’s.  In the above case, by choosing to focus in on inventory as it hits 20 weeks on the average and older, you are really aiming to only do 2.6 turns annually.  Take 52 weeks in a year and divide it by the age in weeks that you deem “aged”, in this case 20 weeks and you get 2.6 turns annually. 

In order for this client to be hitting 4 turns annually, they need to be concerned with inventory as it hits 11-13 weeks in age, and develop a strategy to move the inventory to achieve their goals.  It is important for companies to develop the long term strategies followed up by the actions or tactics to achieve those goals.  It is also important to understand the goals, agree to how they will be measured and report on them regularly.

Brian Barry is a Senior Consultant with F. Curtis Barry & Company, a multichannel operations and fulfillment consulting firm with expertise in multichannel systems, warehouse, call center, inventory, and benchmarking; learn more online at: http://www.fcbco.com.