How is your demand forecast like a tabloid psychic? Their record for accuracy is just about the same.

Analyst Insight: The corporate goal is to drive profitable growth. Growth happens through success in new products, capturing market share in emerging markets or brand building in existing regions. To make these initiatives successful, the supply chain matters more and more; however, the greatest success happens when companies shift from marketing-driven to market-driven value networks. In market-driven value networks, companies build the capabilities to listen, test and learn in vitro with zero data latency to maximize market opportunity. - Lora Cecere, Founder of Supply Chain Insights

How we love our information systems, our management theories, our best-laid plans. And how often they fail us. It reminds me of what the playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett once said about his work. "Each time one thinks one starts fresh, new," he mused. "Yet each time one reaches the same impasse. There are many ways to begin, many roads to it, but always the same impasse at the end."

An integrated point-of-sale IT strategy will help CPG firms gain valuable insight into consumption data that can pave the way for a positive impact in a number of important areas. They include new/improved product formulation, inventory optimization, supply chain optimization, trade promotion management and optimization, and demand/forecast optimization. Furthermore, an integrated POS strategy can create a win-win for all stakeholders involved, including the retail partners.