WEBM Webmediabrands (MM)

Greatly Enhances Demand-Driven Initiatives for Retailers and Consumer Packaged Goods Companies NEW YORK, NRF 95th Annual Convention & EXPO, Jan. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- webMethods, Inc. (NASDAQ:WEBM), a leading business integration and optimization software company, and Blue Agave Software, a provider of software solutions for improving replenishment, demand management and fulfillment execution, today announced a new partnership to help enterprises become more demand-driven. The partnership brings together the S&OP (sales and operations planning) monitoring capabilities of the webMethods for the Demand Driven Enterprise solutions with Blue Agave's Retail Channel Execution(TM) suite of demand-driven business applications. By combining webMethods' ability to provide real-time enterprise-wide access to store sales information with the timely interpretation of store/SKU-level POS (point-of-sale) data from Blue Agave, retailers and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies can elevate their speed and ability to sense and respond to changes in demand. This enables customers to more effectively resolve store-level stock outs, excess inventory and forecasting issues. "Throughout the retail industry value chain, companies are under tremendous pressures ranging from shrinking margins to fierce competition to capturing and keeping a customer's loyalty," said Arnold Huffman, vice president, global strategic business solutions, webMethods, Inc. "These enterprises are looking to be more responsive to changes in demand; however, continuous access to meaningful sales data has been a key inhibitor until this point. Our partnership with Blue Agave allows us to jointly deliver an integrated solution that provides these companies with the ability to better sense customer demand, and then transform those demand signals into actionable data, ultimately putting these organizations one step further down the road to becoming fully demand-driven enterprises." While the need for continuous access to POS data is clear, most retailers and CPG companies lack 24x7 visibility into sales data information as updates become available. Beyond that, these enterprises are challenged with the age- old need to convert data into information, and information into knowledge that can be used in an actionable manner to guide decision-making. The partnership between webMethods and Blue Agave enables business users to rapidly convert customer demand signals into actionable data. As such, the partnership provides a granular view into demand, including the ability to identify and predict business exceptions at the store and product level, such as an impending out-of stock-situation. In order to speed and simplify decision-making for line-of-business, results are presented via an intuitive dashboard that provides comprehensive access to key performance indicators along with the ability to drill-down on specific areas of interest. As a result, users can more readily address numerous demand-based challenges, enabling them to more effectively: -- Gain access to actionable POS information -- Enable more rapid organizational response to avoid out-of-stock and overstock situations -- Maintain targeted in-stock levels at stores, warehouses and distribution -- Maximize promotion effectiveness -- Expose incorrect retailer settings used to calculate sales forecast -- Divert inventory to most appropriate locations -- Identify and manage the impact of canceled orders "We're thrilled with the possibilities presented by partnering with an industry leader like webMethods," said Jim Morganstern, vice president, Blue Agave Software. "The combination of webMethods' expertise in business process integration with our superior business execution and monitoring software provides what is truly the most complete package on the market today for actionable POS intelligence." Contact webMethods and Blue Agave for pricing information. About Blue Agave Software Blue Agave Software enables consumer products companies to improve replenishment, demand management, and fulfillment execution with their retail customers. Its Retail Channel Execution(TM) suite of integrated applications delivers real-time, store/SKU-level insight into demand-driven operating issues. These applications anticipate problems, present the issues in an intuitive visual environment, and guide timely, informed resolution. Blue Agave's customers have fewer stock-outs, less excess, better forecasts, more successful promotions, and a more satisfied & profitable retail channel. Blue Agave applications are quickly deployed, delivering measurable benefits within 8-10 weeks. Blue Agave is a privately held company headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. and can be reached at http://www.blueagavesoft.com/ or (617) 621-3400. 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. First Call Analyst: FCMN Contact: DATASOURCE: webMethods, Inc. CONTACT: John Conley, +1-703-460-5996, or , or Brianna Boyle, +1-703-460-6034, or , both of webMethods, Inc. Web site: http://www.webmethods.com/ http://www.blueagavesoft.com/

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