ATLANTA, Sept. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Atlanta-based Data Profits (www.data-profits.com) announced that iKIS, its unified forecasting solution, enabled Pamida, an Omaha-based regional operator of general merchandise stores and pharmacies, to achieve market leading results. With Data Profits, Pamida increased its total health department sales by 3 percent while decreasing related inventory costs by 25 percent during the first quarter of 2011.

“The inventory forecasting provided by iKIS is affording Pamida better inventory productivity and working capital advantage, allowing us to bring new inventory and better prices to our valued customers,” said Pamida’s CEO John Harlow.

Unlike other enterprise software and systems that focus only on the products that are in-stock, iKIS’s unique mid-market solution looks at the broader measurement of customer service level goals, purchase orders and replenishment levels. Through iKIS’ unique combination of data modeling, vendor collaboration tools and accurate forecasting, Data Profits ensures that the right inventory is available at the right location when a customer is ready to purchase.

“The results provided by iKIS are unlike any previously available from legacy retail systems or other business intelligence software on the market,” said Data Profits’ CEO Stuart Dunkin. “By decreasing inventory, we are providing retailers with increased capital to spend on better-selling products that customers want while ensuring higher service levels.”

Retail health departments have a large number of products and vendors, making the use of iKIS style forecasting imperative to determining which products have the highest customer demand and ensuring the right products are available on the shelf. The high stock keeping unit (SKU) counts within these departments makes this inventory category a critical focal point for management control. iKIS’s superior unified forecasting helped Pamida meet its replenishment and service goals on the large variety of health and beauty products required to support their customer needs, while requiring fewer investment dollars.

“Tighten the links in your chain™” by contacting Data Profits today and achieve similar results. iKIS is delivered as a web service to retailers, wholesalers, and their supply chain partners allowing retailers to see deeper into the supply chain than ever before. The platform neutral software sits on top of existing legacy systems, saving retailers considerable time and money. iKIS can be installed and running in 30 days with typical return on investment (ROI) period of 90 days or less.

About Data Profits:
Data Profits, Inc. provides business intelligence and supply chain collaboration software delivered as a web service to retailers, wholesalers, and their supply chain partners. Data Profits’ vision is to enable customers to find profit in their data by tightening the unwieldy supply chain. Its flagship product, iKIS 5.2 delivers sales, inventory, unified forecasting, replenishment and planning tools in a customizable format. Management dashboards, executive scorecards, and vendor collaboration tools provide unique opportunities for each customer to ‘tighten the links in their chain™.’

About Pamida:
Pamida is a regional retailer focused on bringing value and convenience close to home in small communities. Headquartered in Omaha, Neb., the company operates more than 190 stores throughout 17 states, primarily in the Midwest. Pamida carries a wide variety of merchandise including apparel, home electronics, domestics, seasonal items, toys, housewares, and grocery offerings, and features top-quality name brands.

CONTACT: Jean Creech Avent, +1-770-574-4100 x 220, moc.stiforp-atadnull@RPgnitekram

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Game-changing forecasting technology with Market Trend Indicator lowers inventory investment dollars

ATLANTA, GA (February 1, 2011) — Today Data Profits (www.data-profits.com) announced that its patent-pending, business intelligence software, iKIS, enabled Pamida, a Midwest retailer, a net decrease in inventory while experiencing a positive sales trend. Data Profits’ iKIS software made it possible for Pamida to lower its inventory investment dollars so that the 185-store retailer could reallocate a portion of the capital saved toward meeting customer demand. ROI was realized in the first 30 days.

Randy W. Buffon, Pamida’s Vice-President of Planning & Inventory Management indicated: “It was imperative that we have the right products on the right shelves to satisfy our customers. Data Profits’ iKIS software proved to be a game-changing forecasting solution for Pamida during these tough economic times. This solution provided a low-cost vehicle for Pamida to accurately forecast demand for the distribution centers we utilize; this was new concept for our users and the interface made it easy to jump on-board and use the system to its fullest capacity.”

“When a retailer, like Pamida, lowers its inventory dollars, in essence, it’s breeding capital to supply the better-selling products that consumers want and do buy,” said Stuart Dunkin, founder and CEO of Data Profits. “To make bottom-line impacting moves like that, retailers need to have business intelligence tools like iKIS, which can react immediately to dynamic market trends and connect supply chain partners with real-time data and real-time actions.”

RESULTS

Results for Pamida were positive; highlights include:

• Reduction of available inventory
• Improved In-stock Service Level Attained
• Reduced Lost Sales COGS,
• Increase in Forecast Accuracy

“iKIS did what it was designed to do,” Dunkin explained. “It cut Pamida’s inventory investment, cut the number of orders and increased forecast accuracy. When a retailer’s inventory dollars collecting dust on the shelf are strategically reduced, better returns and GMROI soon result, providing additional profits for the retailer.”

Inventory management has two sides, stock and customers. Simultaneously, it’s imperative to keep customers happy while managing inventory levels, overstock reduction, and availability. Dunkin said: “At the end of the day, Pamida’s inventory was working harder and better and satisfying customers by having the right stock on the shelves at the right stores.”

After a successful pilot program during the busy 2009 Christmas holiday sales season, Pamida rolled out Data Profits’ iKIS business intelligence software in February and March 2010. Results reported here are based on data collected between February and October 2010.

About Data Profits

Data Profits, Inc. provides business intelligence and supply chain collaboration software delivered as a web service to retailers, wholesalers, and their supply chain members and partners. Its flagship product, iKIS 5.2, delivers management dashboards that provide scorecards, user customized sales and inventory forecasting tools, planning, allocation, cross-dock, seasonal and market trend sales indexing, along with custom business rules with workflow actions, exception management and notification management. iKIS provides recommendations by analyzing and tracking sales, lost sales, in-stock service, inventory, day-of-week sales and promotion filtering and analysis. Data Profits delivers results to retail and wholesale operations via fast setup, low cost, and use of leading inventory management algorithms. Data Profits’ vision is to enable customers to find profit in their data by tightening the unwieldy supply chain.

About Pamida

Pamida is a regional retailer focused on bringing value and convenience close to home in small communities. Headquartered in Omaha, Neb., the company operates more than 200 stores throughout 17 states, primarily in the Midwest. Pamida carries a wide variety of merchandise including apparel, home electronics, domestics, seasonal items, toys, housewares, and grocery offerings, and features top-quality name brands. For more information, please visit www.pamida.com.

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Contact: Jean Creech Avent
moc.stiforp-atadnull@RPgnitekram
770-862-7978

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More than $1 million in savings realized

ATLANTA, GA (August 25, 2010) — Data Profits, a national SaaS-based company focused on the sales and supply chain space, announced today the release of the next version of its award-winning iKIS software solution.

Already companies are experiencing tremendous cost and time savings, utilizing Data Profits’ iKIS 5.2 software, which is the only solution on the market today that allows for near real-time collaboration. A Midwest Tier 1 retailer with over 200 stores experienced more than $1 million in savings upon completion of its pilot project using iKIS version 5.2.  In fact, the iKIS 5.2 solution reduced the Tier 1 retailer’s working capital by almost one week of inventory while increasing “in stock” performance by two percent.

“The pilot project took place during the hectic eight weeks of the 2009 pre-Christmas holiday inventory surge,” said Stuart Dunkin, founder and CEO of Data Profits.  “The savings from the pilot test alone paid for iKIS 5.2 to be deployed throughout the retailer’s entire supply chain. And as of today, we’re on track of seeing savings amount to about $1 million annually for this client, which is a typical result.”

Retailers utilizing iKIS 5.2 increase vendor collaboration, improve in-store performance yielding higher sales, and generate positive customer satisfaction. The SaaS model allows iKIS to operate with low set-up costs, no per-user fees, no hardware costs, and rapid implementation enabling faster payback via reduced inventory and improved “in stock” service.

“The results of the Data Profit iKIS pilot are outstanding and exceeded my expectation,” said the Midwest Tier 1 retailers’ Director in charge of the supply chain. “Using iKIS, I can see my forecast and where things are going well or where improvements need to be made based on company directives using the Action Alerts custom wizard.”

A recent survey of retailers by the Global Supply Chain Council documented the need for iKIS type solutions by identifying the biggest supply chain challenge for 2010 as a “Lack of visibility and poor forecasting” by more than a two-to-one margin.

A study posted in the December 28, 2009 edition of RIS titled “Fearless Retail Predictions‟ demonstrates the need for this product: New investments in BI [business intelligence] are becoming critical for retailers to understand how best to target assortment, price, promo and services, as well as optimize operational processes to redirect efforts toward a more localized service and selection.

Data Profits’ SaaS model eliminates the traditional time and costs for hardware, software licenses, and in-house IT support. The iKIS 5.2 solution focuses on the inventory and supply chain professionals, providing ease of use with seamless integration.  iKIS 5.2 allows department planners to utilize and link together disparate data sources such as actual sales, current inventory stock levels and warehouse and logistics capabilities– along with suppliers– into one system to analyze, forecast and recommend actions needed, while monitoring events. iKIS 5.2 provides direct visualization of the forecast for in-stock, service-attained, lost sales and promotional affects on the market while enabling various “what-if” conditions to be evaluated and easily adjusted by the user.

The unique iKIS 5.2 customization and collaboration features allow the right mix of user and computer to be applied to inventory management problems. This allows the planner to place the forecasting display in a chosen location on the iKIS 5.2 webpage. The Action & Alerts business rule and workflow system allow the retailer to set event exceptions on sales and inventory to measure accuracy and goals, keeping attention on the important “payback” events without getting lost in 1000s of SKUs.

About Data Profits

Data Profits, Inc. provides business intelligence and supply chain collaboration software delivered as a web service to retailers, wholesalers, and their supply chain members and partners. Its flagship product, iKIS 5.2, delivers management dashboards providing scorecards, user customized sales and inventory forecasting tools, planning, allocation, cross dock, seasonal sales indexing, along with custom business rules with workflow actions and exception management. iKIS provides recommendations by analyzing and tracking sales, lost sales, in stock service, inventory, day of week sales, and promotion filtering and analysis. The Data Profits iKIS 5.2 delivers results to retail and wholesale operations via fast set up, low cost, and use of leading inventory management algorithms. Data Profits‟ vision is to enable customers to find profit in their data by tightening the unwieldy supply chain.

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Contact:  Jean Creech Avent
moc.stiforp-atadnull@RPgnitekram
770-574-4100 x 220

Data Profits Completes Successful Software Trial