River Logic and Synectics Group Form Strategic Alliance to Provide Industry Leading Trade Promotion Optimization Solution

    DALLAS, TX, August 18, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- River Logic, Inc., the leading provider of Integrated Business Planning (IBP) and advanced business modeling software, today announced its business alliance with the Synectics Group, a leading provider of Trade Promotion Management (TPM) solutions. Together the companies will deliver a closed loop Trade Promotion Optimization (TPO) solution that will help enterprises optimize, plan, execute, and evaluate promotions to significantly increase the return on trade spending. With this TPO solution, CPG manufacturers can focus on improving the effectiveness and efficiency of trade dollars to drive greater return from their trade marketing plans. In addition, this TPO solution allows users to compare events that maximize net income or profit to trade promotion events that maximize sales volume. The ability to use differential analysis helps managers make balanced decisions that will meet corporate objectives.

"Integrating promotion planning with optimization to help users initiate the right promotion from the outset to improve outcomes, while reducing efforts involved in the process, represents a critical unmet need in the marketplace," stated Dale Hagemeyer, Research Vice President, Gartner. "The benefits of continuously optimizing trade campaigns to profit or minimum cost are particularly valuable in current economic times; companies of all sizes should be evaluating how to improve their trade promotion effectiveness."

"I am excited to integrate the power of optimization into the CPG trade promotion planning process. TPO will provide a dynamic and strategic road map for trade spending that will meet corporate objectives, while incorporating customer-specific constraints," states Alex Ring, President, Synectics Group. "Strategic TPO insights will augment and help improve the tactical field sales execution of trade spending."

The solution will be built on River Logic's advanced modeling application and will integrate seamlessly with Synectics Group's Account Review application for closed loop trade promotion management. The tool--which will be built on Microsoft infrastructure--will enable users to manage real business constraints and to optimize the solution to various objective functions, including minimum cost, maximum revenue, and maximum volume at the click of a button.

"Trade promotion optimization is an area that CPG companies have been attempting to master for years," stated Kevin Howe, CEO for River Logic. "Now there is a better way to manage and optimize trade spending. This solution will turn insight into action by providing accurate and timely information, delivering support for analytical and predictive capabilities, and perhaps most importantly, providing integration within the organization and across operating areas. Now managers can take a uniform collaborative approach to promotion planning."

About Synectics Group
Synectics Group is a leading CPG industry provider of Trade Promotion Management solutions. Its Account Review system features an all-inclusive database that connects syndicated and shipment data with trade promotion spending data. This enables clients to conduct pre- and post-promotion analysis, develop standardized plans, and evaluate budgets in relation to planned, actual and projected trade spending. The system also allows users to process payment requests electronically, increase the accuracy of demand-planning forecasts, and electronically reconcile deductions to the specific planned event and products - which improves the accuracy of historical P&L analyses. To learn more visit www.synecticsgroup.com.

About River Logic
Based in Dallas, Texas, River Logic, Inc. (www.riverlogic.com) provides Integrated Business Planning (IBP) and advanced business modeling solutions. River Logic's award-winning software, Enterprise Optimizer (EO), helps companies increase financial performance by connecting strategic and operational planning directly to financial outcomes. EO uses advanced constraint-oriented reasoning to holistically model an enterprise with every conceivable constraint, opportunity, and interdependency. EO users quickly build integrated models without writing code or managing formulas. EO is faster and more accurate than alternative solutions, enabling businesses to break down silos, communicate effectively, and execute the best decisions. With EO, true enterprise-wide decision-making becomes a reality.

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