LONDON, September 30, 2024 – Aforza, the leader in Vertical AI, Cloud and Mobile solutions for the consumer products industry that empowers businesses of all sizes to drive profitable growth, was today presented with eleven best-in-class category distinctions in the Promotion Optimization Institute’s (POI) 2024 Consumer Goods Enterprise Planning & Retail Execution Vendor Panorama Report. The POI research team evaluated 18 leading vendors and over 35 platforms to help manufacturer and retail partners understand the technology and related service options that can help them improve promotional outcomes and drive profitable growth.
This year, POI was impressed with the advances the vendor community has made across both foundational elements and into new technologies like AI and Machine Learning, to positively impact every aspect of trade planning and retail execution. Aligned with these areas of innovation, Aforza received five best-in-class category distinctions for Enterprise Planning (EPx) and six best-in-class category distinctions for Retail Execution (RetX).
Aforza received five Best-in-Class Category Distinctions for EPx across TPx UX, TPx for Tier 2 & 3 Organisations, Tier 1 International Geos, Field & Analytics Insights, Collaboration – Internal and Collaboration – External.
Aforza received six Best-in-Class Category Distinctions for RetX across Mobile UI/UX, Connected Enterprise, Data Management, Data & Analytics Visualization, Analytical Insights and Internal Collaboration.
After eight years of publishing two separate Vendor Panoramas, the POI has combined the EPx and RetX reports, highlighting the importance of connecting the front & back office into one. The Aforza solution was designed this way from the start, providing an end-to-end solution from trade planning to field execution. We are particularly proud of POI’s acknowledgment here with our “Connected Enterprise” best-in-class category distinction.
In the report, POI specifically commented on Aforza’s Vertical AI innovations, including perfect store visit recommendations, 1-click order prediction and promotion optimization. They reference the new Aforza Vertical AI (Ava) assistant and how it seamlessly embeds conversational AI into critical areas of trade planning and sales execution, providing valuable insights and recommended actions throughout the process. The Aforza Vertical AI assistant also works against photos and can understand the share of shelf, stock availability, and promotion compliance.
A key differentiator was called out with Aforza’s new Studio Marketplace, which is a vibrant collection of apps & services that plug into its Photo Automation solution. These apps support both photo analysis and the services triggered by the insights gained. For example, Aforza Studio may use an image recognition vendor like Neurolabs or ParallelDots to understand the share of shelf space in a retail photo, schedule a meeting with Salesforce, and update the sales team via Microsoft Teams.
POI also called out Aforza’s new Business Process Library, a collection of out-of-the-box business processes that cover all front office personas. Example processes include executing a new customer onboarding process, creating a new account contract and capturing a promotion compliance claim. Built using the Aforza Guides capability, these process flows can be designed and executed in the field, even when offline. These out-of-the-box process flows can be shared across multiple markets and provide a strong starting point for any implementation that can then be tailored by the customer to meet their exact requirements.
“This is our third year in the Panorama report and we are proud to receive eleven more best-in-class distinctions from POI, a leading analyst and trusted partner for the consumer goods industry,” says Dominic Dinardo, CEO & Co-Founder of Aforza. “We have always thought about Enterprise Planning and Retail Execution as an end-to-end solution, and we are particularly proud to receive the Connected Enterprise distinction to acknowledge our leadership here. This is now more important than ever as we work with global leaders to enable the power of Vertical AI across all front office roles.”
Aforza’s connected solution has rapidly become an international standard for consumer products leaders around the world. Esteemed brands such as L’Oréal, Suntory Global Spirits, Edrington, Heineken, and many others partner with Aforza to drive profitable growth across their global operations.
POI suggested manufacturers evaluate Aforza when they are looking for an end-to-end solution, including TPM, Advanced Analytics, Vertical AI, Retail Execution, Photo Automation, and CRM. Also, to leverage Aforza’s connected suite of applications to manage and continually improve promotion execution.
About POI
POI brings together manufacturers, retailers, solution providers, analysts, academics, and other industry leaders with the specific objective of collaboratively improving Enterprise planning and the promotion & distribution of consumer goods. This industry-wide effort of POI produces a roadmap on how trading partners can continuously improve their approach and profitability through real-time, relevant promotions.
To access the full POI 2024 Consumer Goods Enterprise Planning & Retail Execution Vendor Panorama report, join POI as a member. See membership details here. Reach out to Joanie Malin, jmalin@p-o-i.org for more information and questions regarding POI membership.
About Aforza
Aforza helps Consumer Product companies grow confidently & protect margins in uncertain times through a suite of vertical AI, cloud & mobile apps built for the industry. Aforza connects trade planning and field sales teams together to solve the problems of margin erosion, missed revenue opportunities and ineffective trade spend.
The Aforza product works out of the box and can be implemented in weeks. The mobile applications work offline and deliver powerful on-device intelligence across Apple iOS and Android devices. Aforza is built on the Salesforce and Google Cloud Platforms which means we can scale fast and deliver continuous innovation with 3 releases a year.
Customer success is Aforza’s top priority, and we are proud to be trusted by CPG companies in more than 40 countries; including leading breweries, food & beverage manufacturers, consumer healthcare companies and major distributors.
To learn more, please visit www.aforza.com
For any press inquiries or interview requests, please contact press@aforza.com
SOURCE Aforza Inc.