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Demand-Driven Leaders Focus on Organizational Responsiveness, Process-Improvement Initiatives and Enabling Technologies NEW YORK, Jan. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- NRF 95th Annual Convention & EXPO -- According to a recent national survey of consumer goods executives, a majority of respondents believe that their organizations are well on the way to becoming demand-driven with enterprises within the consumer packaged goods, consumer electronics/high-tech manufacturing and apparel / footwear / textile sectors leading the way. The National Survey of Consumer Good Professionals: How Your Peers Prioritize Demand-Driven Initiatives -- Tactics, Technologies, and Successes was produced by webMethods, Inc. in partnership with GXS and Consumer Goods Technology magazine. "How to become more demand-driven is a question that is constantly being asked by our readers," said Steve Rosenstock, publisher, Consumer Goods Technology magazine. "While becoming demand-driven is of the utmost importance to these audiences, consumer goods executives have lacked data showing how the industry leaders are approaching the challenge. This survey addresses this point by serving as a real-world roadmap of initiatives that they can use to replicate others' successes. In doing so, it shows explicitly the initiatives needed for harnessing technology to boost business performance and increase responsiveness to customers." The benefits of becoming more demand-driven are quantified in recent findings by AMR [The Handbook for Becoming Demand Driven (July 19, 2005) by Lora Cecere, Debra Hofman, Roddy Martin and Laura Preslan of AMR Research]. According to AMR, "the most advanced demand-sensing companies have 15% less inventory, a 17% better perfect order performance, and a 35% shorter cash-to- cash cycle time. We have also found that DDSN (demand-driven supply network) leaders have 10% higher revenue and 5% to 7% better profit margins than their competitors." "Demand-driven enterprises are defined as those that not only identify real-time changes in demand, but are also organizationally prepared to profitably respond to these opportunities," said Deborah Rosen, executive vice president, worldwide marketing, webMethods, Inc. "What we found in our analysis was a clear path that consumer goods companies were following to become demand driven. For enterprises within these sectors that need to compete in hyper-competitive markets, this type of actionable insight provides invaluable best practices for becoming demand driven, and ultimately, more successful and profitable." The National Survey of Consumer Good Professionals indicated that creating electronic processes with customers, partners and suppliers, synchronizing data with these partners and securing a company-wide view of product data were the top three initiatives undertaken to date by companies seeking to become more demand-driven. Among demand-driven initiatives currently being planned for the next 18 months, creating unified and monitored sales & operational planning (S&OP) processes; monitoring of outsourced manufacturing and distribution relationships; and implementing integrated, company-wide product launch processes were the three leading responses. Key inhibitors cited by respondents to becoming demand-driven included unaddressed inconsistencies within their existing processes, the widespread incompatibility of corporate data and the lack of appropriate IT resources with these concerns underscored by the specific projects most commonly undertaken to date. "Demand-driven enterprises have taken a concerted approach to more closely link processes and operations with demand triggers, said Bobby Patrick, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, GXS. "These companies are seeking to improve process-centric initiatives, enhance operational visibility and optimize customer-facing business. The real payoff for this approach is in the ability to simultaneously improve responsiveness while lowering costs. Demand-driven enterprises looked beyond cost savings alone as their key business objective as they recognize the significant financial benefits inherent in becoming demand-driven." Based on the discrepancies between industry leaders and laggards, the report was able to identify a number of emerging Best Practices for becoming demand-driven: * "Respond more efficiently" versus "improve cost efficiencies" -- For the demand-driven audience, "responding efficiently to changes in demand with real-time changes to product, price and promotion" was listed as their primary business goal followed closely by "getting new products to market faster" and "understanding inventory levels to avoid stock-outs." * Focus on business process improvements versus data quality only -- Demand-driven enterprises indicated they had already undertaken the steps necessary to realize this objective with specific initiatives in place to implement external electronic processes, synchronize data with partners and secure a company-wide of product data already completed or underway. As a result, they were more likely to pursue over the next 18 months additional initiatives specifically designed to further optimize these processes. * Different priorities placed on underlying technologies -- While it is intuitive that demand-driven enterprises are more aggressive in their overall adoption of technology, their use of trading partner management, real-time business integration, business activity monitoring and product information management was significantly -- 50 percent or more -- above the norm set by companies identified as "sitting on the sidelines." * Evolutionary strategy for becoming more demand-driven -- Industry leaders exhibited three key stages in the process of becoming more demand-driven. They included a data quality phase marked by initiatives to create electronic processes with third-party partners, synchronizing external data with these audiences and securing a company-wide view of product data. This is followed by a process visibility phase marked by creating unified, monitored S&OP processes, monitoring outsourced manufacturing and distribution and securing company-wide access to real- time demand signals. Lastly, there is a business optimization phase during in which companies strive to develop customer "scorecards" across S&OP processes, improve promotions processes and perform integrated, company-wide product launches. * Higher prioritization of projects associated with being demand-driven. Among the projects already completed or currently underway in demand- driven enterprises were the following: Unified, Monitored S&OP Processes 95% Electronic Processes with Customer Base 92% External Data Synchronization With Customers 90% Company-wide View of Product Data 78% Monitoring Outsourced Manufacturing/Distribution 78% Company-wide Access to Real-time Demand Signals 70% Customer "Scorecards" Across S&OP Processes 70% Integrated Company-wide Product Launch Process 57% Integrated Promotions Management 49% The National Survey of Consumer Good Professionals: How Your Peers Prioritize Demand-Driven Initiatives -- Tactics, Technologies, and Successes was conducted by DRC Group, an independent market research firm, in September and October 2005 with 107 consumer goods professionals responding. To download a free copy of the survey results, please visit http://www.webmethods.com/CGsurvey. About GXS GXS is a leading global provider of B2B e-commerce solutions that simplify and enhance business process integration and collaboration. Organizations worldwide, including more than 75 percent of the Fortune 500, leverage GXS Trading Grid(SM) to achieve the perfect balance between supply and demand. Active in the global standards arena, GXS solutions enable customers both large and small, to connect with global partners, synchronize product information, optimize inventory levels and demand forecasts, and accelerate the execution of supply chains. Headquartered in Gaithersburg, Md., GXS provides sales and support to businesses and their partners worldwide. For more information visit our Web site at http://www.gxs.com/. About Consumer Goods Technology CG Executives rely on Consumer Goods Technology magazine to demonstrate how information technologies improve business performance and help generate greater responsiveness, productivity, and competitive advantage. Through each issue of Consumer Goods Technology and its exclusive research and other topical supplements, readers learn how to gain market share in their B2B and B2C operations, stay competitive, understand the needs of customers and supplies, and pull more value from their supply chains. About webMethods, Inc. webMethods (NASDAQ:WEBM) provides business integration software to integrate, assemble and optimize available IT assets to drive business process productivity. webMethods delivers an innovative, enterprise-class business integration platform that incorporates proven integration technology with next generation capabilities into one interoperable set of tools that delivers a unique combination of efficiency, agility and control. webMethods combines industry leadership with a zealous commitment to customers to deliver tangible business value to more than 1,300 global customers. webMethods is headquartered in Fairfax, Va., with offices throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia Pacific and Japan. More information about the company can be found at http://www.webmethods.com/. The webMethods name and logo are registered trademarks of, and webMethods Fabric is a trademark of, webMethods, Inc. All other marks mentioned are trademarks or service marks of their respective companies. DATASOURCE: webMethods CONTACT: John Conley, webMethods, +1-703-980-8259, , or Brianna Boyle, +1-703-460-6034, , both for webMethods; or Allison Tobin of GXS, +1-301-340-4988, , for webMethods Web site: http://www.webmethods.com/ http://www.gxs.com/ http://www.webmethods.com/CGsurvey http://nrfannual06.expoexchange.com/

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