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Press release for immediate distribution London, 3rd October 2012

Discovering Integrated Business Planning and Next Generation Sales & Operational Planning UKs leading Consumer Goods companies discuss how to overcome the challenges of implementing an S&OP process and how to see a real return on investment
Last month, Exceedras 2nd Annual Integrated Business Planning Seminar was held at the prestigious offices of the Royal Exchange (Bank of England) in London, courtesy of Arrow ESC and IBM, with over 60 sales, finance and supply chain professionals from some of the leading Consumer Product Goods companies attending. Delegates from all over Europe came to discuss and learn more about overcoming the challenges of implementing S&OP and Integrated Business Planning into their organisations. Exceedra Sales Director, Richard Nicholas, hosted the event and provided background information about the company and its modular offerings, an overview of various stages of S&OP maturity and how Exceedras scalability and focus on best practice help to support organisations and enable them to maximise their returns from investments in the areas of Trade Promotion Management, EPOS analytics and Integrated Business Planning. Vimto Soft Drinks Operations Manager, Sally Doran, and Bernard Matthews Sales Operations Manager, Julia Guy, then presented the journeys their respective organisations had taken developing their S&OP processes, integrating their systems and business processes to bring together their sales, forecasting and financial processes. With both companies previously relying on spreadsheets and unrelated databases to control forecast and budgeting, they decided they needed to improve systems in order to support their desired growth. The challenges of bringing cultural changes to an organisation as well as best practices for implementing new business systems where discussed. After looking at various options, they both decided Exceedras offering best matched their requirements. The benefits of changing previously static unrelated budgets into live Commercial forecasts ensured it was rapidly accepted within both companies by Sales and Demand teams, who could now work collaboratively to improve forecast accuracy. Working to one true number has allowed individuals to concentrate on their competencies rather than administrative tasks of inputting and often duplicating information. Both presentations produced strong interest from the audience, demonstrating that many companies are looking to improve capability in integrated business planning. Afterwards, a demonstration of the Exceedra software gave the audience further insight into the modular offerings and how Integrated Business Planning encourages collaboration and improves efficiencies in sales, demand, and finance teams. Being cloud-based or on premises also makes it a flexible, cost effective valueadded solution. In the afternoon, Guest speaker Aidan Bocci, Chief Executive at consultants Commercial Advantage, provoked much discussion amongst teams in a game which aimed to stimulate their thinking behind trade promotions and what are the most effective strategies.

The last presentation of the day by Lee Nicholls, Commercial and Operational Planning Director at United Biscuits, another Exceedra client and the UKs no.1 biscuit manufacturer with brands such as McVities and Jaffa, was again enthusiastically received and provided an overview of the sometimes difficult journey United Biscuits (UB) went through in establishing their S&OP process. Lee shared the key success factors as well as pain points and talked of the substantial bottom line benefits gained through integrated business planning at UB. By restructuring and simplifying their S&OP process, heavily marketing it within the organisation and providing the right tools to give clearer visibility, the business finally began to see the S&OP process begin to take root and become embedded in the UB culture. They are now experiencing greater operation efficiencies and costs savings, while clearer visibility of capacity and improvements in forecasting have significantly improved their ability to meet demand, reducing the chance of lost sales. United Biscuits aim to evolve their S&OP further with plans to further improve collaboration and risk management, and increase clarity and choice, and so improve creativity. Were delighted from delegate feedback with 100% of delegates saying they would recommend the event to their colleagues said Richard Nicholas, Sales Director at Exceedra. The delegates today have heard how these companies have successfully implemented their own S&OP integrated with Trade Promotion Management and are now benefitting from balanced and dynamic processes that ensure they can react quickly to events and stay ahead of demand. It has been great event for networking and benchmarking S&OP maturity in the Consumer Goods sector. The clients presenting today are leading UK companies and are reaping the benefits after ensuring their sales, supply, and finance teams are working in an integrated manner. During these difficult financial times, theyre seeing sustained growth in the UK and were pleased to play a part in their success. We believe its important to keep people up to date with latest thinking and success stories, so well be holding another event in February 2012 About Exceedra: Exceedra provide on-demand commercial and supply chain insight and planning solutions for manufacturers, distributors and retailers that help improve margins, cash flow and productivity. Our market leading solutions enable greater control and return on investment for our customers. Our solutions support business in the area of Trade Promotions Management, Sales and Operational Planning, Integrated Commercial Planning, Demand and Supply Chain Planning, Demand Sensing and EPOS Analytics and Demand Signal Repositories. Solutions can be deployed in the Cloud or on premise. From our headquarters in the UK, with representative offices in the USA and Europe, we work with many leading global companies including Heineken, Revlon, EMI, Twinings, Vision Express, Hozelock and G. Find out more: http://www.exceedra.com Contact: Erica Coulehan Exceedra Marketing Manager +44 (0)1628 484820 Erica.coulehan@exceedra.com

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