Manage Sales Plans and Trade Investments with BluePlanner

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1 Manage Sales Plans and Trade Investments with BluePlanner BluePlanner is a Sales Planning, Trade Promotion Management, Analytics, and Optimization software solution built for Consumer Goods manufacturers. Developed in partnership with leading CPG companies, it provides a central place for planning, tracking, and analyzing sales and trade promotion plans. The primary users are Sales Managers, but it facilitates collaboration within Sales and with Finance and Operations. BluePlanner is a Web-based system. It can be deployed in a few weeks. It integrates with other Operations and Finance systems. BluePlanner Features Key Account Planning: Volumes, Revenue, Promotions Scenario Planning Promotion calendar planning Promotion ROI evaluation Invoice reconciliation, Deduction management Flexible workflows Embedded Analytics powered by Tableau software Optimization Marketing System Key Benefits BluePlanner clients benefit from greater control and visibility over their sales and trade spend: Streamlined cross-functional processes and integrated centralized information: no spreadsheets or s Systematic control over trade spending: rapid elimination of wasteful trade spend Account full P&L visibility: Forecast & Actual Sales Planning Trade Promotion Management Analytics Optimization Deployment Approach Time to benefit is immediate: deployed to end-users in weeks Transparent subscription based fees: monthly service fee and per user licenses ensure no long contracts Grows with your business: deployment can be done incrementally and is easily adapted to your needs Intuitive and user friendly to ensure quick adoption and limited need for change management

2 Background Lundberg Family Farms Deploys BluePlanner for Food Service Trade Promotion Management Lundberg Family Farms, based in Richvale, California, was started by the Lundberg family in They farmed rice and were early pioneers in ecologically sound agriculture. The Lundbergs were the first American farmers to market a brand of organic rice products. Lundberg Family Farms has successfully grown its land under management to 17,000 acres and is one of the United States top brands of organic food products. Challenges & Priorities Prior to the implementation of BluePlanner, Lundberg Family Farms Trade Promotion & Deduction process was managed through a highly manual process using spreadsheets with limited systems support. Lundberg Family Farms was looking for a low cost solution that would support their continuing growth. Their key priorities for a new TPM system were to: Provide for Easy and Quick Adoption Increase Trade Promotion Performance Visibility and Efficiency Increase Sales and the Ability to Measure Promotion ROI Support Promotion Collaboration Across Departments Introduce a Mobile Platform for Platform Management Integrate with Microsoft Dynamics NAV for Sales Forecast and Account Reconciliation Deduction Management Why Lundberg Chose BluePlanner Besides meeting all of its needs and supporting scalability, Lundberg chose BluePlanner for its pilot and eventual deployment thanks to its low risk offering. There was no long-term commitment and the month to month licensing included implementation. A low upfront cost was also extremely important for a company of Lundberg's status, minimizing deployment risk for a new process and minimizing hassle and effort that would be spent on Lundberg's expansion. Other reasons for deployment were: BluePlanner's Underlying Technology Supports Scalability and Future Company Growth An Intuitive User Interface and Layout Improves User Adoption BluePlanner Requires Limited Support From Lundberg IT Department RSM Centric with Improved Support for Customer Reconciliations We chose BluePlanner because they had the best overall score, including the most ready-to-use system features, functionality, promotion execution, reporting, and analytical tools. - Lundberg Inside Sales Manager Deployment After selecting BluePlanner as the TPM software of choice, Lundberg Family Farms and UpClear engaged in a standard deployment with the aim of deploying to internal sales users in 3 months and sales brokers shortly thereafter. UpClear was able to satisfy this timeline by beginning with a pilot implementation of the core BluePlanner features for the key project team members within the first month. BluePlanner Benefits Thanks to the implementation of BluePlanner, Lundberg Family Farms has greatly reduced the complexity and time involved with managing a manual Trade Promotion, Deduction, and Reconciliation process. This has been achieved by centralizing trade spend, promotional planning and deduction management in a single system while making spreadsheets redundant.

3 Background BluePlanner's "Start Simple" Approach Helps Danone Germany Reach Trade Promotion Management Goals The Danone Group is the global leader in dairy products with international brands, such as Actimel and Activia. Germany is a top 20 market in terms of highest dairy products consumption per capita. Following BluePlanner s successful deployment at other Danone subsidiaries, Danone Germany decided to implement BluePlanner in Challenges & Priorities Danone Dairy Germany was looking for a low cost solution that would improve data management and collaboration between Sales and the Supply Chain. Their key priorities for a new TPM system were to: Supply Chain: Decrease workloads, and increase visibility on volumes as a result of promotions leading to higher forecast accuracy Sales: Provide more visibility on overall promotional plan and volumes, and improve promotion efficiency measurement Global: Have one common tool with reliable information, provide more anticipation, and self-learning BluePlanner met these needs, all while providing scalability (later giving the ability to extend scope to other BUs, Austria and Switzerland), an intuitive user interface and configuration module, a low upfront cost and minimalized hassle and effort spent on implementing a TPM system. Deployment Danone Dairy Germany and UpClear had the aim of deploying to Supply Chain and Sales users in 3 months, amongst our fastest projects. This project was designed with our "Start Simple" principle. In this case, this approach consisted of two phases (shown below). Volume Management Phase 1 Financial Mechanics Phase 2 Workflows and reporting adjustments implemented during entire process The project team could become familiar with the system during the first phase, which made the discussions around the challenges of the second phase much more efficient. The configuration was then adjusted during the second phase while the project team tested the system. This agile approach has shown itself to be fast and successful. BluePlanner Benefits Thanks to the implementation of BluePlanner, Danone Dairy Germany has greatly reduced the complexity and time involved with managing a manual Trade Promotion process. This has been achieved by centralizing demand planning and promotions planning data. This was a critical first step for improving the collaboration process between supply chain and sales. This improvement paved the way for better anticipation of volumes to be purchased. BluePlanner was instrumental in helping DGE achieve this and its overall goals.

4 Videos Benefits cards Posters Danone Waters China depends on BluePlanner for Trade Spend Management Background Danone Waters China is the maker of Chinese bottled-water brands Mizone, Health and Yili. Its parent company and world leader in bottled-water, the Danone Group has been using the BluePlanner software to manage sales planning and trade promotions since 2005 in several business units worldwide. In January 2012, after a 6-month pre-assessment of possible systems for trade spend management, Danone Waters China decided to deploy the web-based BluePlanner software identified as the best solution to adapt to local requirements. To help the deployment in China and support its growth in Asia, UpClear opened a new office in Hong Kong in early 2012 Challenges Deploying BluePlanner in China brought several new requirements associated with the complex Chinese market. Danone Waters China operates through a wide network of 1500 distributors, serving tens of thousands of retailers. It was also required for the system to be available in Chinese. Thanks to the flexibility of BluePlanner, UpClear was able to configure the system to match these requirements with very limited development. This enabled cost-effective and rapid deployment while maintaining a consistent application across Danone business units. Thanks to UpClear s professional consultancy, flexible solution, and great technical support, we have been able to deploy BluePlanner as a standard solution in China, which is never easy! - Zoe Ye, Finance Information systems Change Management This project had to overcome multiple obstacles linked to change management: the cultural gap, the complexity to reach a user base scattered across China and finally, the deployment of a system that would impose more control to users. Because of those constraints, client project champions took charge of the Change Management execution, and UpClear provided assistance on the strategy and necessary support material. Below are some examples of the communication tools that were used. Communication Tools

5 Our Guiding Principles Single industry focus Continuous client collaboration Ease-of-use and flexibility Software as a Service Our Client Collaboration Approach Global Presence 3 offices strategically located for our clients: NYC, London, Hong Kong 38 clients in 18+ countries 24/7 support backed by a global support team Support continuity Consistent account management team from pre-sales to deployment Continual feedback loop and ongoing client service support Some of the Brands We Work With Client Testimonials BluePlanner addresses the key functional needs of a manufacturer in the CPG arena from customer distribution, to forecasting, to financials, to promotional activity and deduction management. H.K., Sales Broker BluePlanner is a fantastic tool that allows you to view your promotional calendar with your broker's and identify promotional events that show a less than desirable outcome, thus allowing us to communicate with the retailer in making adjustments to the promotion, making it a more desirable promotion for both the company and the retailer. J.M., Regional Sales Manager We are glad we chose the BluePlanner system by UpClear. This tool performs better and was put in place much faster than any other solutions, more costly and rarely truly adapted to your needs. Y.K., VP and Managing Director About UpClear UpClear has a proven track record of successful BluePlanner deployments to consumer goods manufacturers ranging from independent brands to international business units. UpClear collaborates with clients in North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa to optimize sales revenue, trade promotions, and profit on brands such as Activia, Danone, Equal, Evian, Cow & Gate, King Arthur Flour, King s Hawaiian, Lay s, Lundberg, Nutrilon, Orangina, Warburtons, and Zest. Since 2003, BluePlanner has proven its benefits to Consumer Goods users, whether these are improvements to processes and collaboration, increased visibility on customer profitability or greater insight on promotion effectiveness. We are passionate about what we do and committed to our principles: industry focus, client collaboration, and efficiency through our SaaS model. Thierry Soudee, Founder USA UpClear Inc 1133 Broadway, Suite 720 New York, NY United States Tel EUR UpClear Ltd 242 Acklam Road, Studio 104 London W10 5JJ United Kingdom Tel ASIA UpClear HK Ltd Rm 1206, L. Plaza Queen s Road Central Hong Kong Tel