Distributor Resource Management Inc. Unveils Trackmax-Mfg.

CAPE CORAL, Fla. -- New, Comprehensive Contract Management Solution for Manufacturers Builds On DRM's Popular Distributor Rebate-Tracking Program

Trackmax-Mfg(C), a system to help manufacturers efficiently track promotional trade spend dollars, is now available from Distributor Resource Management, Inc., Cape Coral, FL. Built on the same platform already used by more than 100 leading foodservice distributors to track and manage complex earned income programs, this latest addition to DRM's growing suite of allowance tracking solutions paves the way for a new era of seamless integration between distributors and manufacturers, in all activities related to reporting, verification, and payment of rebates, allowances, growth programs, and other manufacturer-sponsored distributor and end-user sales incentives.

The new manufacturer version of Trackmax is proven and fully operational. Norpac Food Sales, Oswego, OR, became the first manufacturer in the food industry to adopt the system last summer. Norpac has worked closely with Distributor Resource Management for nearly a year to help fine-tune and thoroughly test the program.

Trackmax-Mfg enables manufacturers to track all their distributor incentive programs in one integrated system, including group, corporate, and individually negotiated local programs. Its detailed reporting features allow companies to view and analyze all marketing funds paid to each distributor -- down to the invoice line detail. With Trackmax-Mfg, manufacturers can create detailed payable statements for each distributor and vastly reduce invoice deductions.

The program distinguishes distributor purchases by GPO, breaking out local programs, purchases through re-distributors, and private label products. Its flexibility allows manufacturers to manage operator-based exclusions, whether for national account-based pricing, non-profit pricing, or any other type of excluded operator program.

Trackmax-Mfg also offers manufacturer Field Sales Reps real-time access to the central repository of contracts and allowances through a web interface. This allows Reps to create contracts and local deals or incentives and submit them for approval electronically -- avoiding the time-consuming and error-prone process of paper submission, and ultimately improving customer satisfaction in the claim-to-payment lifecycle.

Created by the food industry's leading developer of Contract Management and Rebate-Tracking software, Trackmax-Mfg offers manufacturers enormous savings in administrative costs. It significantly reduces hours spent tracking contract performance. Also, by putting complex, accurate deal data at users' fingertips, the program virtually eliminates invoice discrepancies, relieving companies of the tedious exercise and resources that most manufacturers expend researching and resolving such discrepancies.

A New Era of Connectivity

Central to Trackmax-Mfg is the ability to collaborate with distributors and exchange contract information electronically among the established and growing network of Trackmax users. More than 100 foodservice distributors nationwide, including half of ID Access's Top 50 Broadline Distributors, already use Trackmax to provide detailed documentation down to line item level in reporting earned income to their suppliers. By installing their own version of Trackmax, manufacturers can leverage this existing customer base, representing billions of dollars in annual purchases, to rapidly ramp up their own electronic system for the seamless, automatic exchange of allowance information directly with distributors. For many manufacturers, the impact of such direct exchange capability on data entry costs alone will be enough to recoup their investment in Trackmax -- not to mention the host of other efficiencies and benefits the system provides.

In addition to its daily operational applications, Trackmax is also a powerful strategic tool. By giving users the ability to track and analyze incentive programs at virtually any level -- by customer, product category, line item, region, brand, purchasing group, contract, program type, or any combination thereof -- it provides manufacturers with the tools and hard data needed to understand which types of programs work best with different products, customers, or objectives. These insights can be used to create better, more effective marketing programs targeted to specific goals.

Data provided by Trackmax can assist in bigger picture strategies as well. "At the end of the day, manufacturers still struggle to understand which customers are really profitable," says Tom Rawson, President and founder of Distributor Resource Management. "When you need to take into account the combination of a distributor's purchasing group contracts, which may involve several purchasing programs, plus sales-based programs with multiunit customers, plus food show dollars, plus growth programs, and perhaps some locally-based trade spend dollars as well, it can be pretty difficult to determine which customers are actually profitable. Manufacturers know their raw costs, what they sell the product for, and what their gross profit is, but when you try to factor in all these other variables as well, the picture can become pretty clouded -- unless you have a tool that can automatically track and account for all these other pieces of the puzzle," he points out. Trackmax-Mfg is that tool.

About Distributor Resource Management (DRM)

Distributor Resource Management, Cape Coral, FL, is the food industry's leading provider of Earned Income Tracking software and Contract Management solutions. DRM's mission is to provide its customers, including distributors, manufacturers, brokers, purchasing groups and operators, with best of breed business intelligence tools that improve their ability to make critical decisions. Its data warehousing, integration, and earned income tracking technologies improve the speed, flow and quality of customers' data, to help companies reduce costs, improve execution, and enhance their strategic capabilities, while simultaneously relieving pressure on IT budgets.

Since introducing its first rebate-tracking system in 1996, DRM has continued to improve, update, and expand its growing suite of earned income tracking solutions including its latest products, Trackmax-Mfg for manufacturers, and Trackmax.NET, a supply chain integration tool.

Its original Trackmax program for distributors is currently used by more than 100 companies, including half of ID's Top 50 Broadline Distributors. Users range from small distributors doing less than $10 million annual sales, to large, multi-warehouse operations with over a billion dollars in annual volume, representing in aggregate over $14 billion in yearly foodservice purchases.

For more information on Trackmax Solutions(R), and Distributor Resource Management Inc., contact Tim Rawson or Mark Johnson at 239/540-9200; or visit http://www.trackmax.com.