Performance Analytics: Solution Description

Definitions:

Supplier Performance Analytics provides customers with visibility into their products performance across all of their sales channels. The SPS cloud-based service provides a comprehensive view of the business, so customers can refine forecasting, identify which retailers and products need the most attention and pinpoint risk of stock-outs or oversupply before they become costly problems.

Functionality:

Supplier Performance Analytics provides the Customer with a suite of retail industry best-practice analyses with capabilities to develop, explore and distribute analytics to optimize your company’s retailer relationships.

Performance Analytics:

functionality includes User Experience, Analytics Warehouse and Supplier Data Sourcing and Storage.

Optional Features:

In addition to all of the standard features that are included in Supplier Performance Analytics, the Customer has access to add optional features to the service for an additional fee.

Retailer Data Sourcing and Storage

SPS will manage the end-to-end process to collect and prepare the Customer’s POS (Point of Sale) information for consumption by Supplier Performance Analytics. The capabilities include:

• Data Sourcing: SPS will collect the Customer’s POS data from the retailers listed in the SPS Services Order Form. Data acquisition may include EDI and flat files and can be transmitted via a variety of means including VAN, FTP, SFTP and AS2. In some cases sourcing the data will require the Customer’s involvement that will be determined by the retail setup process.
• Quality Assurance: SPS will provide a number of industry best practice tests to validate the retailer supplied data.
• Resolution and Re-Transmittal: If SPS identifies an issue with the data being received directly from a retailer it will request resolution from the retailer and notify the Customer of the status. In cases where the data is being provided to SPS by the Customer, the Customer will work with the retailer directly to resolve the issues and retransmit the data. Once resolved, SPS will re-test and
  retransmit the data to Supplier Performance Analytics.
• Monitoring: SPS will monitor for the receipt of new data and the normalization and quality assurance processes 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.
• Data Storage: SPS will store all of the historical retailer supplied data for the Customer so long as the Customer continues to subscribe to the retailer.
  SPS will make retailer data available as soon as it has successfully passed quality control and has been prepared for delivery. Timely delivery of retailer data to the Customer is contingent upon each respective retailer providing SPS with complete and accurate data. SPS will not be held liable for late or missing retailer data due to issues beyond the control of SPS.
  In the event that retailer data is not received by SPS or retailer data fails an SPS quality control check, SPS will use good faith efforts to resolve the issue with the retailer or the Customer expeditiously. If the retailer can provide SPS with complete and accurate retailer data before 3:00 PM New York time on Wednesday, SPS will process and deliver said data to the Customer within twenty-four (24) hours. If the retailer provides complete and accurate retailer data after 3:00 PM New York time on Wednesday, the Customer may not receive said data until the following week.
  Some retailers do not provide inventory values in their regular data transmissions. For these retailers, the Customer may elect to have SPS calculate an estimated inventory value, which may incur additional fees. These estimated calculations are not intended to represent or replace the Retailers actual inventory values.
  Incomplete, inaccurate, and/or delayed delivery of retailer data does not constitute a material breach of this Agreement unless due solely to the failure of SPS to perform its obligations contained herein, and the incomplete, inaccurate, and/or delayed reports substantially impair the value of the Services.

User Licenses and User Types:

The Customer will receive an allocation of two user types (Power Users; Dashboard and Alerts Users) as specified in the Scope and Proposal document for the fee states therein. Additional users of each type are available for an additional monthly fee.

Power Users:

These users have access to all of the functionality of Supplier Performance Analytics.

Dashboard and Alerts Users:

These users have access to all of the pre-built or Customer specific dashboards and can receive email subscriptions and alerts that are configured by a Power User.

Admin User:

Customer can identify one or more Power Users that it wants to designate as an Administrator User.

Training:

SPS provides online resources for Supplier Performance Analytics that are available anytime for the Customer’s use. Public training sessions will be made available to the Customer and other SPS customers each month.
SPS will provide up to five (5) hours of complimentary web-based training for Supplier Performance Analytics Users.
The Customer may request on-site training. Travel costs for the trainer, including airfare or mileage, lodging, meals and local transportation, if needed, are the responsibility of the Customer. A daily rate for onsite training will apply.
The Customer may order additional Supplier Performance Analytics training for a fee. Pricing is available upon request.

Service Levels for Analytics:

SPS will use good faith efforts (but does not guarantee) to make Analytics available twenty-four (24) hours a day, seven (7) days a week. SPS shall not be held responsible for the unavailability of Analytics caused by: (a) planned downtime or (b) circumstances beyond the reasonable control of SPS, including (but not limited to) extraordinary elements of nature or acts of God; acts of government; flood; fire; earthquakes; civil unrest; acts of terror; strikes or other labor problems (other than those involving SPS employees); Internet service provider failures or delays; and electrical failures (collectively, “Force Majeure Events”). Such Force Majeure Events shall excuse SPS from performance of its affected obligation(s) for as long as such circumstances exist.

Supplier Performance Analytics Functionality and Features*

Supplier Performance Analytics:

provides actionable insights into a number of high-value areas of analysis including retailer sales, inventory position, product sell-thru, out of stock warnings all at the store and UPC level. Supplier Performance Analytics includes a breadth of features that are included in the standard service that is made up of a User Experience, Analytics Warehouse, Retail Data Sourcing and Storage, Supplier Data Sourcing and Storage and other Optional Features.

Analytics Functionality

1. User Experience

• a. Pre-Built Dashboards Access to (4) pre-built dashboards including Business Overview, Retailer Overview, Business Details and Retailer Availability Dashboard.
• b. Report Authoring Power Users can leverage the two pre-built wizards (To-Date; Time Range Analysis) for simplified report creation with ‘drag and drop’ report and filter authoring. Reports can include results up to 350,000 rows that can be easily exported or shared with users.
• c. Email Subscription Distribute Reports and Dashboards to all users via email. The content in the email can be delivered in html or pdf for dashboards or in html, pdf, xls, csv for reports.
• d. Alerts Thresholds can be set on critical business drivers to automatically notify specified users via email if a condition is met. The email notification can include a notice or attached report or dashboard with similar options of delivery as the email subscription.
• e. User Created Dashboards Power Users can create, share and distribute any number of custom developed dashboards using the SPS dashboard authoring capability.
• f. Online Administration The Customer’s Administrator has access to an easy to use interface to manage user profiles and configure data security.

2. Analytics Warehouse Provides storage and access to a pre-built analytics warehouse that includes up to three (3) years of available history to analyze the Customer’s business. Users will have access to the rich analysis of all subscribed retailer data through the User Experience components.

• a. Metric Library Supplier Performance Analytics includes more than 800 best practice metrics to analyze the business.
• b. Calendars The Supplier Performance Analytics Warehouse uses a standard NRF 4-5-4 Restated and Non Restated calendars or the calendars provided by the retailer. The Customer can also provide their own calendar to be integrated in Supplier Performance Analytics.
• c. Retailer Defined Item Attributes Certain retailers provide SPS with retailer specific item attributes for the Customer’s products. If made available to SPS by the retailer, these will be included for use in analysis.

3. Supplier Data Sourcing and Storage SPS will manage the end-to-end process to collect and prepare the Customer’s provided Item and Location information for use with the service. The capabilities include:

• a. Item Master Inclusion of a single Customer provided item master that contains the product attributes that the Customer would like to use in the analysis. The Customer will map their attributes to the standard SPS Item Master Structure and the contents can be updated by the Customer weekly and shared with SPS via an FTP upload.
• b. Location Master Inclusion of a single Customer provided location master that is provided in the standard SPS location master format. The location master can include the Account, Store Number, Store Name, Address1, Address2, City, State, ZipCode, Open Date, Close Date and Mall. The Location Master can be updated by the customer weekly and shared with SPS via an FTP upload.

*Supplier Performance Analytics Functionality and Features are subject to change as SPS continues to enhance the product.

Optional Features

In addition to all of the standard features that are included in Supplier Performance Analytics, Customers have the option to add optional features including the following:

Customer Specific Dashboards (Professional Services Fees (variable))

SPS will work with the Customer to develop one or more custom dashboards to address a Customer specific use cases. The Customer Specific Dashboard will use the standard metrics and attributes that are included in the standard Supplier Performance Analytics service. The dashboard will consist of one dashboard page and can be linked to other Dashboards that a Customer may optionally purchase. These dashboards will be upgraded with new releases of Supplier Performance Analytics. Customers that require custom metrics or attributes will need to purchase the creation of the Customer Specific Metric feature separately (see below).

Customer Specific Metrics (Professional Services Fees (variable))

In addition to the robust set of standard metrics SPS can develop new metrics for the Customer based on the existing data available in the Customer’s Supplier Performance Analytics Warehouse. SPS will quote the creation of these metrics on a per request basis.

Customer Specific Reports (Professional Services Fees (variable))

While Power Users can author reports directly in Supplier Performance Analytics, some Customers may elect to use SPS’s expertise in authoring complex reports. SPS will quote the creation of these reports on a per request basis.

Item Master Consolidation (Professional Services Fees (variable))

This service is for Customers that have more than one Item Master and require consolidation of these to meet the business need to roll-up all of the analysis into one view, often across different brands or divisions. SPS will quote the creation and ongoing support of an Item Master Consolidation project on a per request basis.

Item Master by Retailer (Professional Services Fees (variable))

This capability provides Customers with the ability to provide different item attributes per retailer partner. As an example a supplier might have a different MSRP that they want to include in the analysis that differs per retailer.

Supplier Data Sourcing Mapping (Professional Services Fees (variable))

If the Customer is unable to map its Item or Location Master files to the standard provided by SPS then SPS may do so on behalf of the client. The cost to setup and maintain any changes to the mappings will be quoted based on the Customer specific configuration and required mappings.

Direct to Consumer (Professional Services Fees (variable) for setup and Additional Monthly Fees)

Customers can provide SPS with sales made directly to a consumer including e-commerce transactions, retail owned stores or representatives. This sales information can be added to the retailer channel information to provide a Customer with a consolidated view of its sales.

Customer Dashboard Performance Enhancements (Additional Monthly Fees and Professional Services Fees for Setup)

While SPS Supplier Performance Analytics service has been designed to deliver quick analysis it is possible for Customers to create dashboards that use large amounts of data and require optimizations. For this optional service, SPS will analyze the dashboard and implement performance improvements for the Customer.