Alliance Offers Value-Chain Optimization Via Price Response

Compiled ByTraci Purdum A.T. Kearney, a global management consulting firm, and Manugistics Group Inc., provider of Enterprise Profit Optimization and Pricing and Revenue Optimization (PRO) solutions, have teamed to deliver increased value to their clients through PRO solutions. The joint offering initially will be targeted at the companies' existing client bases, as well as new prospects in the automotive and consumer-packaged-goods industries among others. The solutions can help optimize a company's value chain by balancing trade-offs between profits and other strategic objectives. They are designed to forecast the response of different customer segments to prices of products and services throughout their life cycle. The solutions factor in different variables such as product availability, customer demand, competitor price actions, production costs, inventory, market-share objectives and customer buying behavior to produce specific price recommendations. "Manugistics PRO solution will provide our clients with a powerful tool designed to optimize profitability at a time when it's needed most," says Dietmar Ostermann, CEO of A.T. Kearney. "Our research shows that a 1% increase in top-line price can translate into as much as 8% increase in the bottom line."