Project Description
Evaluation and selection of an advanced pricing system to support a global grocery retailer’s transformation initiative
The Client
A multi-billion dollar discount grocer with divisions in countries across Europe and Asia, as well as the United States
The Challenge
The retailer was in the middle of a multi-year global transformation project. Within the organization, countries had different corporate cultures, market conditions, and pricing strategies, as well as disparate processes for gathering competitive data.
After seeing the successful results of a Parker Avery-led regular price optimization selection and implementation for their U.S. division, the client decided to pursue a similar project internationally. This effort focused on evaluating regular price optimization (RPO); markdown optimization (MDO); promotions planning, management, analysis and optimization (PMO); and competitor price management.
Because the U.S. project started several years prior to this initiative, and the scope of functionality was expanded, the client wanted to perform a thorough review of available solutions to evaluate whether the U.S. selection was still the best fit.
The Parker Avery Solution
The Parker Avery team conducted 50+ remote interviews with teams representing eight countries to understand the current state and gather system requirements. After developing and evaluating a request for proposal and while overseeing the software demonstration process, the team developed a robust financial model and used it to help evaluate alternate implementation plans across modules and countries. As part of this effort, Parker Avery performed the following key activities:
- Evaluated current state (country specific) pricing practices and competitor data gathering processes
- Educated the client team on advanced pricing concepts and key functionality
- Documented system requirements, issued an RFP, and assisted in the evaluation of the responses
- Assisted the client in shortlisting eight RFP responses to five vendors for demonstrations
- Drafted detailed demonstration scripts for RPO, PMO, MDO, and competitor data gathering
- Developed a multi-faceted scoring assessment and reviewed findings with stakeholders
- Conducted vendor customer reference calls
- Developed a rollout strategy by module/ country that would take place over five years
- Drafted a detailed business case with costs and benefits by country, year, and module with expected ROI
The Result
Like the U.S. project, the client successfully selected an advanced pricing solution and concluded negotiations with the recommended providers with support from Parker Avery. In addition, The Parker Avery Group was contracted to support the implementation phase of the initiative, leading business process design, change management, training, and testing efforts.