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.”

–

 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.

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, September 30th @ 2PM EST / 11AM PST

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

Establish the proper data relationships so that you don’t come to incorrect conclusions or erroneous relationships. 

Let me give you an example.  In a multichannel business that has catalog and e-commerce, at a high level, the Internet channel may receive 50% or more of the sales.  But without getting behind the numbers, we don’t really know the “sales drivers”.  Here’s what I mean by sales drivers:

• What portion of the sales resulted because the new catalog was active and the customer used the Internet as a convenience? 
• How many sales came from affiliate marketing? 
• How many from paid versus organic search, etc.?   

When we measure the click stream data and understand this better, are we measuring and giving credit to the catalog in an accurate way?  If we don’t measure this correctly, we might conclude that the catalog  – with its high costs - is not worth the expense.  And if you discontinued the catalog, you might also suffer the decline in sales that the catalog represents to your total business.

In my opinion, the BI team has to have a lot of strategic experience to set up those proper relationships in order to help grow the business and find new directions in those data “tea leaves”.

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.