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Planalytics and Retail Systems & Services Announce Seminar Series on Optimizing Planning Processes for Retailers and Consumer Products Companies

Posted on: Friday, 9 January 2009, 12:37 CST

WAYNE, Pa., Jan. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Planalytics Inc. and Retail Systems & Services (RS&S) today announced a jointly hosted seminar series - "Integrating Weather Intelligence into Your Planning Processes" - with dates scheduled for five North American cities during the month of February. The seminars will highlight how retailers, distributors and manufacturers of consumer products can improve planning processes and optimize existing planning systems and infrastructures with weather-based demand intelligence.

"The poor economic outlook has companies pulling back and instead looking for ways to get more out the processes they have in place and the information technology investments they have already made," stated Terry Donofrio, President of RS&S. "Incorporating weather intelligence into planning activities offers companies a fast, low cost way to capture measurable improvements in areas such as markdowns, replenishment and inventory management."

Planalytics' Chief Operating Officer Scott Bernhardt commented that "the ability to plan well has never been more important. Companies cannot afford to forego sales because they do not have enough product in place, nor can they afford to absorb the increased costs and reduced margins that result from having too much product. We are very excited to partner on this program with Terry Donofrio, a leading retail industry consultant and recognized expert on helping companies improve planning processes and implement related technology solutions."

Seminars are scheduled for the following cities and dates:

• Wednesday, February 11: New York, NY
• Tuesday, February 17: Dallas, TX
• Wednesday, February 18: Los Angeles, CA
• Tuesday, February 24: Columbus, OH
• Wednesday, February 25: Toronto, ON

Each half day seminar will start at 9:00 AM and cover how companies can effectively factor weather into a variety of planning processes including merchandise planning, store planning, assortment planning, allocation and replenishment. The seminars will also show how Planalytics' Deweatherization process improves plans by quantifying weather's impact on demand. "Deweatherizing historical sales data takes weather's influence out of results, giving companies a normalized baseline to begin planning," said Donofrio. "The benefits of doing so are substantial. Weather repeats itself less than 25% of the time on a year-to-year basis, so planning off the previous year - without deweatherizing the data - greatly increases the likelihood that plans will be off target."

Planalytics and RS&S will present a preview of the "Integrating Weather Intelligence into Your Planning Processes" topic during the National Retail Federation's (NRF) Annual Convention in New York on January 12, 2009. For more information on the NRF session or to register for one of the seminars, please visit www.planalytics.com.

About Retail Systems & Services

RS&S are retail industry consultants specializing in merchandise planning systems, procedures and training for discount, department and specialty stores around the world. The company is an industry specialist in Merchandise Planning providing Planning Process Reengineering, Planning Training Programs, Planning Organization Development, Planning System Implementation and Planning System Selection. The company has developed a complete methodology for planning process and system implementation as well as a complete training package.

About Planalytics

Planalytics Inc. (www.planalytics.com) is the singular global source of Business Weather Intelligence(R) - the actionable information companies need to understand and optimize the impact of weather on their business. Weather is the most volatile of all external factors affecting business performance and Planalytics helps companies proactively manage this risk. Powered by an unparalleled database of weather's financial and volumetric impacts, proprietary modeling technologies and market-specific expertise, Planalytics' Business Weather Intelligence is essential to any company, in any industry, looking to effectively shape strategies, pinpoint opportunities and make more profitable decisions.

SOURCE Planalytics, Inc.

Source: PR Newswire

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