The Answer: Constant Communication

After the basics are established, Collaborator arbitrates and manages a flow of planning information among Sainsbury's and its suppliers. Sainsbury's might prefer the promotion to be a three-for-one offer, while the supplier would rather offer a two-for-one offer. Collaborator acts as process manager so nothing is forgotten, and prompts for next steps through e-mail.
Once planning is complete, the system taps both Sainsbury's and the supplier's forecasting databases to see how they match up for that particular product promotion. Sometimes they're miles apart. Collaborator doesn't create a forecast but allows the two sides to share their forecasts and move them closer together. Sainsbury's might send its coffee promotion forecast to Nestlé, and Nestlé might ask why they are forecasting such a big uplift. Sainsbury's can tell them they are offering a chocolate promotion at the same time.
Collaborator also lets Sainsbury's and suppliers look at actual inventories and decide what product to move where. For example, they may concur that they need to move 10,000 cases of cola from northern to southern England during a promotion, due to increased demand in that particular region.
Once the promotion is underway, EQOS Collaborator lets Sainsbury's and its suppliers track its progress, in near-real time. "Most promotions last one to four weeks, but you can usually tell within 48 hours how a promotion is doing," Rowe says. "That 48-hour sales information wasn't usually available until months later. EQOS allows us to capture sales data and share it with suppliers as it's coming in. This is a tremendous help to us in adjusting or discontinuing promotions. And it has huge ramifications for customer satisfaction."