By Javed Jahangir
For large CPG companies (Consumer Packaged Goods), managing the process of innovation is possibly the most critical part of their business. And to do it right, a full 360 view of the process is required, i.e. the integration of a large variety of data sources, that need to correlate amongst themselves. [See a customer testimonial here] To tackle the problem of making sense from the diverse data, forward looking enterprises are enhancing decision-making by taking advantage of the new sources of data such as:
-Dynamic
-Near real-time
-Structured/Unstructured
-SoMoLo (Social, Mobile & Locational)
Data, coming fast and furious, from these sources, can now be blended with traditional ERP or Datawarehouse sources to provide answers to new questions previously not considered useful to ask. For example, real-time customer preference trends gathered from combination of social listening posts, with other social and location data aggregated across demographic data can be used to make both short-term and long-term predictions regarding strategic decisions for investing in one new product over another. What-if analytics in addition to rigorous statistical modeling techniques become more readily available without the same costly infrastructure required previously.
Integrated Dashboards brings analytics to diverse sources of data to manage innovation.
For CPG companies, the process of innovation begins with a thorough analysis of the current product landscape. [See a case study here] A variety of data elements, such as the company’s retail POS systems, blended with sales data from competitors start to become highly valuable. Product category health statistics becomes a starting point for their innovation lifecycles. Because developing new products are expensive and complex processes, requiring large varieties of information to prioritize new product concepts become necessities. Visibility into marketplace movement with respect to both its own and its competitor’s products help the business prioritize and streamline new concepts in the development pipeline. Only once new products have been selected for production development, come the details of the product lifecycle management (PLM). Decision makers can begin their cost-benefit planning required for the development of their new product lines.
Along with break-through innovation investments, enterprises also need to consider products in the renovation and maintenance categories – i.e. products that might be languishing and in need of new strategies. Decisions behind strategic product line management require a rigorous understanding of the enterprise’s current state with respect to its full portfolio. The analytics required here again draw from a number of sources of data that can paint the picture for other projects into 2-3 year horizons with accurate predictive break-even analyses, Cap-Ex and Op-Ex outlays given what else in currently being invested in.
Finally, once visibility into the full portfolio execution is provided through rich dashboards, decision makers can start to see effectivity of their sales and marketing campaigns, as well as requirements of support from all partners, vendors and retailers and take appropriate action.
For more information on Oracle’s Big Data Analytics solutions, check out: www.oracle.com/bigdata.
For more information on Oracle Innovation Management solutions, go to:
http://www.oracle.com/us/industries/consumer/solutions/index.html