Global Leader in Analytic Solutions Driving Operational Excellence: Retail Solutions Inc.

Founded in 2003, Retail Solutions Inc. (RSi) started out by providing SaaS analytic solutions based on data created by the use of RFID (radio frequency identification) tags in the retail chain before moving into its current business. As part of a strategic business shift into the world of Point of Sale (POS) data, the company acquired the Retail Data Services (RDS) division of VeriSign in 2007. This shift helped create the foundation of the business as it exists today. RSi is a global company that processes billions of records from over 150 major retailers in more than 150,000 locations in 64 countries and turns this data into actionable insights for immediate, automated decision-making. From solving out-of-stocks to driving inventory down, and from optimizing sales strategies to determining marketing ROI, RSi improves operational excellence and drives sales for manufacturers and retailers.

“We are the global leader in Operational Excellence based solutions, having more market share than all our competitors combined. It is our strategic insight, deep knowledge base, global presence and continued ability to meet our customers’ growing needs that sets us apart,” said Jonathan Golovin, CEO

RSi, with offices in 8 different countries, works directly with more than 500 manufacturers and over 150 retailers worldwide to help increase operational efficiencies. Currently the company has several strong Retailer Collaboration programs in place with retailers such as Ahold USA, Safeway/ Albertsons Co, Delhaize America, Family Dollar, and Walgreens. They also provide point-of-sale data in near-real time to manufactures, along with over 60 use case templates and retailer-specific collaborative business processes. RSi’s proprietary algorithms have been developed in such a way to help their customers understand what is likely to happen tomorrow based on today’s data as well as historical data. Additionally their ad-hoc analytic tools, cutting-edge alerting solution and additional applications focus on serving customers with the data needed to optimize operational efficiencies. Instead of endless data-mining to find and solve issues, RSi’s processes are exception-based and prescriptive. While many business cases in the industry are viewed in silos, RSi is able to maximize their customers’ efforts and provide actionable insights across business functions and end-to-end processes.

“We have a fundamental strength in data management that we stress when speaking to customers. Our ability to consume, cleanse, harmonize and expose data to customers through our solutions is world class,” emphasized Golovin.

Proprietary domain specific ETL tools and the capabilities of the new RSi8 platform based on the Vertica database power those abilities. Beyond simply managing data and making it available to customers for analytics and reporting, RSi also brings extensive IP and business domain expertise to bear, helping customers to address a variety of business needs.“Not only do we develop and deploy highly complex algorithmic approaches to derive insights from data, but we have experts in supply chain and retailer execution that can enable collaborative business processes between suppliers and retailers, leveraging those insights to create real, measurable value,” Golovin added.

Transforming how the Industry views Retailer Data
RSi’s primary role is to work with their customers to achieve Operational Excellence, a corporate discipline bringing together all function areas to build and execute their plan as effectively as possible – at HQ, in the DC, in the store and in the multi-channel world. The company’s retailer programs are designed to optimize retail data and everyday business processes for the most efficient execution and measurement. RSi’s data, algorithms and applications feed a virtuous cycle, optimizing the use of every resource, in lockstep with the retailers and suppliers to provide smooth coordination – ensuring the right product is in the right store, at the right time.

As its customers’ needs change and grow, the company also continues to expand its product portfolio.
RSi has expanded its product suite to include solutions that work specifically for smaller suppliers, helping them to build efficiencies and provide insights into their growing businesses. Also, RSi has introduced Retail Execution Optimization (REO) for manufacturers. REO turns the status quo for understanding and reporting on field investments into a fact-based and systematic way to measure the performance of their investment. It enables better dialogue between headquarters and the field team, helping to justify the level of effort based on true sales growth, while offering a continuous improvement loop based on facts. Additionally, RSi has entered the Shopper Marketing arena with Ansa, a solution that maximizes the efficiency and impact of every marketing dollar through automatic store-level targeting, optimization and measurement. The company recently expanded that offering with an innovative, online,end-to-end workflow tool, Shopper Marketing Optimization (SMO) for Brands, empowering Shopper Marketers to plan, execute and evaluate all their shopper marketing events. Whether a campaign is run in partnership with an agency, an ad network or internally, RSi’s SMO suite of solutions allows one to make fact-based decisions on the best tactics, evaluate their respective effectiveness, and build the knowledge base to sustainably shape a competitive advantage.

Customer Base
The company works closely with multiple departments across manufactures, retailers, brokers and ad agencies based on their specific goals. More than 150 global retailers and 500 consumer packaged goods companies, including household names such as Colgate-Palmolive, Nestlé, the Procter & Gamble Company and Unilever trust RSi.

Customer Feedback
“RSi had been a key partner with Coca-Cola to help build total category volume and profits at Food Lion. What RSi provides is the data, analytical tools, and expertise to enable us to work with Food Lion to optimize promotions, merchandising, on-shelf availability, operations, pricing, and scorecarding.” – Jim Curl, Vice President, Delhaize Beverage Team, Coca-Cola North America.

RSi runs a global Customer
Satisfaction Survey four times a year. Here are some highlights from their latest survey:

• Customer Ticket Satisfaction – 98% Satisfied (sample size over 10K)
• Our Net Promoter Score is north of 25%, above the industry benchmark for B2B Software companies
• 95% of RSi customers would consider recommending RSi to their colleagues
• Customers give RSi products 4 out of 5 stars (average was 4 on a 5 point scale)
• 94.2% of customers claim that they are able to create value for their company using RSi’s products

Future Road Map
RSi has set the standard for years in the space of business analytics and insights based on retailer data. The company recognizes that customers expect constant innovation and for technology leaders to shift the paradigm. It sees an opportunity to drive the improvement of operational execution excellence by leveraging new sources of data coupled with new applications that provide not only insights on current problems, but solutions that are predictive and prescriptive in nature. As RSi continues to innovate and release new products, it expects to continue to be the leader that changes the industry paradigm.

For more information, Visit www.retailsolutions.com, www.ansainside.com and www.rsishopper.com

“Through the effective and efficient utilization of retailer shared data, we help suppliers identify actionable insights, implement them collaboratively with retailers and then measure the value they generate.”

Knowing the Key Executive

Jonathan Golovin, CEO, Chairman & Co-Founder
Jon is the Chairman, CEO and co-founder of RSi. He plays a key role in the development and implementation of the company’s strategy and direction. Jon leads the executive team – reporting to and soliciting advice and guidance from the Board of Directors. He oversees RSi’s day-to-day operations in accordance with the company’s mission and strategic plan. Previously, Jon was founder and chairman of Consilium Inc., (now Applied Materials), the world’s largest independent Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) company. He is also the founder and former CEO of Vigilance, a leading event management system. Considered “the father of MES,” Jon received the 2000 SEMI Award for his contributions. He holds a B.S. from Cornell University and a Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.