Artificial Intelligence software specialists Complexica and The Arnott’s Group have reinforced their relationship, with the biscuit giant set to implement its trade promotions solution in 2022.
Complexica deployed is Promotional Campaign Manager (PCM) for Trade Promotion Optimisation and AI-based demand forecasting with Arnott’s earlier this year. This latest project will use its Decision Cloud platform for trade promotion management (TPM).
Arnott’s director Commercial & IBP Shannon Davidson said the scale of Arnott’s and the diversity of its sales channels adds complexity to its operations.
“Particularly when it comes to how we forecast and manage our trade spend, with customer sales data that is varied across sell-out, sell-in, and ex-factory,” Davidson said
“We run different product promotion combinations, promo mechanics, and frequencies across our accounts and channels, that’s why we turned to Complexica’s best-in-class system for end-to-end TPM and TPO.”
Complexica said, “PCM provides mission-critical functionality for planning and analysing retail promotional campaigns, as well as predicting and optimising their effectiveness. It uses internal and external data to provide practical decision support for promotional activities, as well as:
- replacing home-grown spreadsheets with a cloud-based system that provides multi-user access to centralised slotting boards, forward plans, and dashboard analytics;
- providing predictive capabilities to forecast and measure the value of plans based on volume, revenue, and margin predictions;
- provide optimisation capabilities to produce optimised promotional plans based on a variety of constraints and objectives (for example maximising margin in one territory while not decreasing revenue in others); and
- automating data loading, handling, and manipulation.
Arnott’s CFO Andrew Ridler added: “We’re looking to unify and streamline our promotional slotting, joint business planning, in-market execution and payments against different compensation models, which Complexica is delivering in this fully integrated TPM system.
“We’ve been very happy with the partnership we’ve developed and the results we’ve achieved with Complexica since January and look forward to the multiple go-lives scheduled for the coming months.”
Complexica launched in 2014 by Matt Michalewicz. AI had been part of his life since childhood, with his father Zbigniew Michalewicz recognised around the world as a pioneer in the field. Its first two clients were in the food and beverage sector and since then clients have included Costa Group, Pernod Ricard Wines, Metcash, and Treasury Wine Estates.
Its products are powered by its AI search engine Larry, the Digital Analyst which is based on the latest AI and machine learning.
Complexica director of business development Leonardo Arantes said there is a lack of robust TPM solutions in the market, which means most companies have to employ separate vendors for TPM and TPO needs.
“In response to that, we’ve enabled our Decision Cloud software platform with full end-end TPM and TPO functionality and will be deploying the complete feature set into Arnott’s operation.
“To accelerate adoption and benefits realisation, Decision Cloud software platform allows different business units – such as Revenue Management, Account Management, Field Sales, Commercial Finance, and Accounts Payable – carry out their own, individual workflows within a single, integrated environment,” Arantes said.
In May, Complexica was recognised as one of Australia’s Top 20 Tech Companies.
Complexia appoints FMCG director
Former CEO of Liquor Marketing Group and managing director of Lion Nathan International Doug Misener has joined Complexica as director of FMCG. The sector is one of Complexica’s key market verticals.
Misener was most recently executive general manager at international beverage trading company Kollaras. Prior to that he was CEO of Liquor Marketing Group (LMG), one of Australia’s largest alcohol marketing groups with more than $1 billion in turnover. At LMG he transformed the business by divesting the wholesaling division, overhauling systems and processes, and achieved a debt-free position.
He had joined LMG from Lion Nathan International, where he was managing director with responsibility for the US, Canada, Italy, Japan, and the UK.
“It isn’t often you get the chance to join a company where your belief in the product offering, the organisational capability, and their commitment to deliver on behalf of their customers, is so high. I look forward to building on Complexica’s success in the FMCG sector and further expanding its market footprint,” Misener said.
Michalewicz said, “Doug shares many of our entrepreneurial values, especially around building a customer-centric business where customer service and experience comes first. It will be a great pleasure working together in the years ahead as the company expands overseas and lists on the ASX.”
