Aldata Introduces New Capabilities in Category Optimization 2012

DALLAS, May 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- FMI -- Aldata, a global leader in retail and distribution improvement software, today announced Aldata Category Optimization 2012 with new insights, modeling, shelf and store management features designed to benefit both retailers and manufacturers. Upgrades include a new dashboard-driven interface, the ability to determine cannibalization by SKU, planogram automation and macro store analysis capabilities.

A full suite of products designed to support each step in the category management process, Aldata Category Optimization (ACO) integrates category management, strategic and tactical assortment, retail execution through space planning to maximize category performance.

New features in Aldata Category Management 2012 include:

Dashboard-driven Insights: The easy-to-use dashboard-driven interface to Aldata Category Insights enables users to immediately identify opportunities for sales growth, profitability and distribution gaps from their data. Customizable for individual users, the new dashboards enable role-specific management of data by exception for everyone from the category analyst to senior manager.

Transparent Cannibalization by SKU: To help retailers and manufacturers understand the dynamics of products moving into or out of an inventory as well as the health of an existing assortment, Aldata Range Manager offers enhanced rationalization capabilities and provides users with the ability to determine cannibalization at an SKU level. Organizations can determine whether specific products are cannibalizing existing items or driving incremental growth to the category.

Enhanced Planogram Automation: Additional capabilities in Aldata's market leading automation solution dramatically reduce manual planogram creation tasks and easily enable strategic assortments to be translated into cluster or store-specific category plans. Leveraging strategic assortment data from Range Manager, planners can cluster stores by geography, demographics, physical size or fixtures. Planograms can then be generated and applied to multiple stores with similar attributes or created specifically for unique locations. Retailers can benefit from lower inventory levels of slow moving items and higher availability of in-demand products, which increases customer satisfaction.

Macro Store Analysis: The ability to design high performance retail stores translates into not just increased sales but also improved customer loyalty. Aldata's latest release of its Store Planning solution enables 3D modeling to optimize department and category performance, aisle adjacencies, align layouts to company strategy and highlight performance between multiple stores. The result is greater insight at the store level and the flexibility to drill-down to address opportunities and issues at the shelf.

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"Better access to product data is key to remaining competitive in today's retail environment," said Allan Davies, Aldata's Chief Marketing Officer. "ACO 2012 combines Aldata's category evaluation, merchandising and execution capabilities into an integrated suite that makes true strategic planning a reality while delivering rapid return on investment."

To learn more about Aldata Category Optimization 2012, go to: http://www.aldata.com/com/solutions/category-management-assortment-range-space-planning

To schedule a meeting or see a demonstration at FMI Booth # 4427, go to: http://www.aldata.com/com/about/events/fmi-2012

About Aldata

Aldata is a global leader in retail and distribution optimization. Our software and service solutions help retailers, distributors and manufacturers dramatically improve their business performance. We optimize categories, space, supply, logistics, and consumer engagement to increase our customers' revenue and margins, reduce time, cost and waste, and enhance on-shelf availability, service, and retention. Founded in 1988, Aldata has an unparalleled track record of delivering successful projects for the world's largest retail and consumer brands, national wholesale and distribution organizations, and regional store chains.  More at: www.aldata.com.

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SOURCE Aldata