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New Space Planning Product From IRI Revolutionizes the Space Planning Process

Posted on: Wednesday, 19 October 2005, 12:00 CDT

Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), the leading global provider of enterprise market information solutions for the consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail and healthcare industries, today announced a new member of its space planning product family, IRI Apollo Designer Workstation(TM). Intended for use by manufacturers, brokers and retailers, Designer Workstation is critical to achieving the long-held goal to optimize the performance of retail shelf space.

Designer Workstation is an easy-to-use desktop product that leverages rules-based automation to revolutionize the retail space planning process. It combines assortment, capacity and merchandising rules to generate hundreds of unique planograms per planner per day and makes true consumer-centric merchandising possible. In addition to productivity improvements of between 60 and 90 percent, Designer Workstation generates planograms that result in improved inventory turns, more balanced days of supply, assortments that meet neighborhood demand, while being easy to shop and aesthetically pleasing. It is an important ingredient in managing local in-store inventories, ensuring optimal in-stock positions and facilitating precise local execution.

"When you make it easy for consumers to find what they need, you put yourself in position to win at the shelf, and as a result, grow revenue, profit and share," said Bill Nowacki, president, Business Process Solutions Group, IRI. "Until now, building planograms has been largely a manual process. Designer Workstation forever changes the space planning landscape with an easy-to-install and use desktop product that will put the right products in the right place on the shelf - with enough inventory to ensure adequate stock between deliveries."

Designer Workstation addresses the need of manufacturers, brokers and retailers to increase planogram relevance while decreasing development time. Recognizing that critical factors such as income, education and ethnicity drive purchasing habits, and that addressing space planning at the regional level is no longer adequate, it makes cluster- and store-level space planning a reality that was not attainable with manual or one-size-fits-all approaches. Designer Workstation gives space planners the ability to rapidly model and evaluate merchandising and assortment rules, eliminate unproductive inventory, select optimal planograms and generate higher revenue and profitability. Unlike other space planning offerings, Designer Workstation users report that they can install and begin using the product productively in just a few days.

Designer Workstation is a component of the widely used Apollo system, a de-facto standard within the CPG and retail industries, and can be used with other space planning programs as well. Additional detail on the product can be found at: www.infores.com/public/us/productsolutions/product_spotlight.htm

About Information Resources, Inc.

Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) is the world's leading provider of enterprise market information solutions and services, empowering its clients to grow their business profitably in a complex marketplace. Driving the transformation of the consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail, and healthcare industries, only IRI provides a unique combination of real-time market content, advanced analytics, enterprise performance management software, and professional services. The company's portfolio of services, solutions, and technology enable leading retailers and their suppliers around the globe to see what they are missing, act faster with greater confidence and win at the shelf. Ninety-five percent of the FORTUNE Global 500 in CPG and retail leverage IRI to power their business. For more information, visit www.infores.com.

Source: Business Wire

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