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Aforza Blog

Your go-to source for the latest industry trends, thought leadership and insights.

What is a Revenue Management Platform?

What is a Revenue Management Platform?

Discover what a Revenue Management Platform is from Aforza’s perspective. Learn how our omnichannel engines for pricing, promotions, and order management, combined with Trade Promotion Management, mobile access, and Ava Vertical AI, help consumer goods companies drive profitable revenue growth.

Making ServiceNow More Valuable To Your Frontline With Ava

Making ServiceNow More Valuable To Your Frontline With Ava

Discover how Ava, the industry leading Vertical AI Agent for Consumer Goods, makes ServiceNow more valuable for frontline sales teams. Learn how Ava enables instant ticket logging, real-time updates, and full 360 account visibility to boost productivity, reduce waste and strengthen retailer relationships.

The 7 Deadly Sins of Trade Promotion Management

The 7 Deadly Sins of Trade Promotion Management

Discover the 7 Deadly Sins of Trade Promotion Management (TPM) from Alex, an industry expert with 9+ years in CPG. Learn how Aforza and Ava, its Vertical AI, help consumer goods companies avoid costly mistakes, boost ROI and drive smarter, collaborative promotion planning.

Our Summer at Aforza: More Than an Internship

Our Summer at Aforza: More Than an Internship

Discover how Aforza’s summer interns turned expectations upside down — from real client meetings and software demos to leading innovative marketing campaigns for Ava. Hear first-hand from Carolina and Melayna on why this hands-on, three-month internship is more than just work experience.

What Is Trade Claims Processing In The CPG Industry

What Is Trade Claims Processing In The CPG Industry

Trade claims processing refers to the review, validation and settlement of deductions submitted by retailers after promotions. In the CPG industry, this often involves checking whether claims for discounts, displays or co-marketing are valid based on agreed terms and actual performance.

What is Commercial Excellence in the Age of AI

What is Commercial Excellence in the Age of AI

Discover how AI is transforming Commercial Excellence, enabling consumer goods companies to boost revenue, optimise trade promotions and enhance retail execution. Learn how automation, predictive insights and AI-powered decision-making help commercial teams work smarter, reduce costs and drive growth in an increasingly competitive market. Stay ahead with AI-driven Commercial Excellence.

Unlocking the Full Potential of CLM with Ava

Unlocking the Full Potential of CLM with Ava

At Aforza, our CLM capabilities deliver transformative value by automating, optimising and connecting contract processes end-to-end. Central to this is Ava, Aforza’s Vertical AI, who ensures smarter decisions and significant productivity gains at every stage of the contract lifecycle.

Aforza’s Extensible Enterprise Platform

Aforza’s Extensible Enterprise Platform

Discover how Aforza’s highly customisable, end-to-end platform empowers enterprise organisations in the consumer goods industry to drive growth, improve efficiency, and adapt to local market needs with ease. Built on Salesforce and Google Cloud, Aforza offers unparalleled flexibility across UI, mobile, workflows, Vertical AI and integrations.

Aforza’s Top 10 Highlights of 2024 – A Year of Milestones

Aforza’s Top 10 Highlights of 2024 – A Year of Milestones

2024 has been a transformative year for Aforza, filled with milestones that highlight our growth and innovation. From launching the industry-first Business Process Library to receiving 11 Best-in-Class distinctions in the POI Panorama Report, we’ve continued to lead the way in empowering Consumer Products companies. Here’s a look at our top 10 highlights of the year.

Ava Christmas Ad

Ava Christmas Ad

The Aforza Christmas Ad is out. See how Ava, Aforza’s Vertical AI, helps Santa supercharge his productivity and make smarter decisions.

Driving Profitable Growth this Black Friday with Ava

Driving Profitable Growth this Black Friday with Ava

Driving Profitable Growth this Black Friday with Ava Black Friday presents a pivotal opportunity for Consumer Goods companies to not only boost sales for the year, but also strengthen customer loyalty. Sales in 2024 are projected to reach $10.8 billion, a 9.9%...

Building Your Business Case for Vertical AI in Consumer Goods

Building Your Business Case for Vertical AI in Consumer Goods

Aforza Vertical AI (Ava) offers consumer goods companies a tailored AI solution to drive growth, reduce costs and increase profitability. This blog outlines the business case for Ava, showcasing its value across key personas and use cases while providing a simple, actionable framework to measure and maximise impact. Discover how Aforza’s industry expertise makes implementing Vertical AI a straightforward path to measurable results.

Supercharge Productivity with Vertical AI

Supercharge Productivity with Vertical AI

At Aforza, we recognize that the future of enterprise productivity lies in Vertical AI — AI solutions purposefully built to meet the unique demands of specific industries. This eBook serves as an executive briefing on the transformative potential of Vertical AI.

Aforza Summer of Vertical AI

Aforza Summer of Vertical AI

Welcome to Aforza’s Summer of Vertical AI, an exclusive showcase dedicated to exploring and demonstrating the cutting-edge use of artificial intelligence within the consumer products industry.

What is Vertical AI?

What is Vertical AI?

Vertical AI refers to artificial intelligence solutions tailored to specific industries, addressing unique business processes and challenges. Unlike horizontal AI, which provides general-purpose tools, Vertical AI leverages industry-specific data and insights to deliver more relevant and actionable outcomes.

What Is Planogram Compliance?

What Is Planogram Compliance?

Planogram compliance is an important concept in the consumer goods industry, ensuring that retail shelves are organised according to a predetermined plan. This strategy helps retailers and manufacturers optimise shelf space, improve product visibility, and ultimately drive sales.

What is Photo Automation?

What is Photo Automation?

From monitoring share of shelf and product availability to ensuring promotion compliance and identifying competitor threats, photo automation transforms a simple snapshot into impactful business actions.

What is Share of Shelf?

What is Share of Shelf?

Discover what share of shelf is, how it’s calculated, and its importance in retail success. Learn about leading image recognition vendors, how to use these insights to boost sales, and how Aforza Studio leverages these insights for optimal shelf performance.

What is Consumer Goods AI?

What is Consumer Goods AI?

In this blog, we explore the transformative impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the consumer goods industry, with a focus on front-office applications across sales teams. We’ll delve into the rise of generative AI, like ChatGPT, and the importance of industry-specific Vertical AI tailored to the unique challenges and use cases of consumer goods companies

What is Image Recognition in Consumer Goods?

What is Image Recognition in Consumer Goods?

Image recognition is a technology that allows computers to interpret and process visual data from the world around us. In the context of consumer goods, this means using AI and machine learning to analyse photos and videos of products, shelves, and retail environments.

Navigating the Pitfalls of End of Life (EOL) Software

Navigating the Pitfalls of End of Life (EOL) Software

In the fast-paced Consumer Products industry, software solutions play a pivotal role in driving business performance. However, not all vendors can keep pace with the innovation needed and you can find yourself trapped with end of life (EOL) software.

Getting Your IR Strategy Right

Getting Your IR Strategy Right

In a fragmented market of IR technologies, Consumer Product companies have to piece together solutions to get the retail insights they need. This approach is expensive, unreliable and doesn’t enable proactive action to address identified issues.

Drive Rapid Time to Value with Aforza Accelerate

Drive Rapid Time to Value with Aforza Accelerate

The Consumer Products industry demands fast time to value and a hybrid agile approach to transformation. The Aforza Accelerate Methodology is a fusion of our out-of-the-box industry capabilities, omnichannel engines & design-led implementation approach.

Introducing the Aforza Controls Library

Introducing the Aforza Controls Library

We are very excited to share Aforza’s Controls Library. In order to get the most value out of your sales teams, it’s important that you understand exactly what controls are available to you and how you can use them.

My Summer Internship at Aforza

My Summer Internship at Aforza

In this insightful blog post, Niha Kannan shares her experiences as a summer intern where she worked across the Business Development & Solution Consulting teams.

Unlocking the Power of SAP Integration with Aforza

Unlocking the Power of SAP Integration with Aforza

Aforza, being built on the Salesforce platform, emerges as a powerful solution tailored for the Consumer Products industry, enabling seamless integration with SAP. This blog explores why this integration is necessary, common use cases for the consumer goods industry, the challenges, and how Aforza uniquely addresses these challenges.

Consumer Goods Glossary

Consumer Goods Glossary

When it comes to working together, it’s important we are all on the same page and speaking the same language. What one company calls something can be different to another. To help with this, Aforza has produced this comprehensive Consumer Goods Glossary.

Spring 23 Release Overview

Spring 23 Release Overview

The Aforza Spring ’23 Release is out now and packed full of exciting new innovations that help Consumer Product Companies to control margins in uncertain times.

What is the Deposit Return Scheme?

What is the Deposit Return Scheme?

Lets explore the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) and its impact on drinks manufacturers in terms of costs, operations, and sustainability. We’ll also take a look at the role of technology in supporting the scheme and ensuring compliance.

Celebrating Our Customers This Valentine’s Day

Celebrating Our Customers This Valentine’s Day

While there is no single secret to a successful relationship, at Aforza we constantly strive to fulfil one of our core values: Customer Success. This Valentine’s Day, we want to share the love and celebrate some of our favourite customer stories.

Introducing the Aforza Consumer Goods KPI Index

Introducing the Aforza Consumer Goods KPI Index

We are very excited to share Aforza’s Consumer Goods KPI Index. There has never been a more important time to track, review and understand every aspect of business performance in real-time, which starts by knowing exactly what to measure.

What Is Margin Protection Management?

What Is Margin Protection Management?

The sales landscape has undergone significant changes with evolving customer expectations, shifting buying behaviours and new technology. To keep up, even the more traditional channels, like telesales, will have to modernise to survive.

Aforza 2022 Hackathon

Aforza 2022 Hackathon

Hot on the heels of our landmark 10th release, we held Aforza’s inaugural Hackathon. The day was jam-packed with innovative projects that pushed the creativity of our team to the limit!

Aforza Release 10 Overview

Aforza Release 10 Overview

The Aforza Summer ’22 Release is out now and packed full of exciting innovations that help Consumer Goods companies accelerate their time-to-value, from sales planning to execution.

Celebrating International Women’s Day

Celebrating International Women’s Day

This International Women’s Day (IWD), we sat down with 3 inspirational female leaders at Aforza and discussed their career paths, motivations, views on gender bias and recent experiences attending the Women of Silicon Roundtable.

What Is Joint Business Planning?

What Is Joint Business Planning?

Joint Business Planning (JBP) helps Consumer Goods suppliers and retailers build winning relationships that benefit both parties and improve the commerce experience through clear insights into the other’s needs and recognition of mutual interests.

What is Digital Asset Management?

What is Digital Asset Management?

Digital Asset Management (DAM) is the process of collating, storing, organizing and distributing a company’s digital assets in a centralized location in order to enable a consistent brand and user experience.

What is Trade Promotion Optimization?

What is Trade Promotion Optimization?

With Trade Promotion Optimization (TPO), businesses leverage a wide range of commercial data sources, including the performance of past promotions, to inform and enhance the effectiveness of future strategies.

What is Modern Telesales?

What is Modern Telesales?

The sales landscape has undergone significant changes with evolving customer expectations, shifting buying behaviours and new technology. To keep up, even the more traditional channels, like telesales, will have to modernise to survive.

What is Modern B2B eCommerce?

What is Modern B2B eCommerce?

B2B eCommerce (Business to Business Electronic Commerce) is the online order process between businesses, such as selling to organisations, resellers and wide-scale distribution relationships with large retailers.

A Thanksgiving message from Aforza CEO Dominic Dinardo

A Thanksgiving message from Aforza CEO Dominic Dinardo

With the 400th anniversary of Thanksgiving Day around the corner, many families are preparing to gather and celebrate being together. Rich in history, legend and symbolism, the annual national US holiday is based on a 1621 feast celebrating the harvest.

What is Van Sales?

What is Van Sales?

Van Sales is a type of distribution method whereby a manufacturer will deliver and upsell stock directly to retailers. It’s important to keep this process streamlined with an end-to-end platform.

What is Total Experience?

What is Total Experience?

Total Experience (TX) is the key to bringing together distributed customer and employee channels into a singular, consistent experience. But why is it necessary right now and what are the strategies to adopt it immediately?

Hot New Innovations with the Aforza Summer 21 Release

Hot New Innovations with the Aforza Summer 21 Release

At Aforza, innovative growth is one of our core values and we deliver 3 seamless releases each year; all available automatically across both our online & offline mobile applications. While a more comprehensive account of these new capabilities will be available in our Summer ‘21 Release Notes, we’ve pulled together a summary of the key highlights we’re most excited about here.