Instill Delivers Collaborative Planning Service Powered by Manugistics; New Service Leverages Instill's Patent-Pending Mapping Technology
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 12, 2001-- Instill(R) Corporation, a leading provider of supply chain solutions for the $391 billion foodservice industry, today announced the availability of a new collaborative planning service powered by software from Manugistics Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:MANU).
Instill, which is entering its ninth year in delivering foodservice technology solutions, will target its new collaborative planning service at the top 500 U.S. chain foodservice operators. The new service expands Instill's current supply chain offerings of procurement, purchase tracking and analysis to now include forecast demand planning and collaboration services. Core to the service is Instill's patent-pending mapping technology used to normalize data for effective supply chain collaboration.
According to a 1997 Efficient Foodservice Response (EFR) supply chain study, the foodservice supply chain is burdened with $14.3 billion in non-value-adding costs. The survey estimated that demand-forecasting initiatives alone could save the industry $2.9 billion each year.
"Combining the power of Manugistics and Instill will quickly transform EFR theory into practice," said Chuck Troyer, Partner, Computer Sciences Corporation's (NYSE: CSC) Consulting Group, and author of the EFR report. "Their integrated capabilities represent the shortest path to many EFR benefits quantified in our 1997 industry study. This will harness the value of intelligent information leading to unprecedented breakthroughs in the foodservice supply chain."
Instill's collaborative planning service encompasses two tools, demand forecasting and supply chain collaboration for better business management. Demand forecasting utilizes historical data normalized by Instill so corporate chain headquarters can develop more accurate forecasts to improve promotional and overall purchasing management.
The collaboration tool extends Instill's demand forecasting capabilities so that operators can share forecast data with its supply chain trading partners. The collaboration tool allows for improved communication flow and addresses problems associated with market uncertainty by allowing trading partners to share and monitor inventory levels, and manage demand and replenshment plans and schedules.
Chain operators, distributors and manufacturers benefit from these tools through more effective and profitable promotions, fewer out-of-stocks at all levels, lower inventory levels and more inventory turns, higher customer service levels and lower overall operational costs.
Central to the collaborative planning service is Instill's patent-pending data normalization process which maps more than 4 million unique product codes from major foodservice distributors around the country into a single, standard product catalog.
"Instill's data normalization capability that we've built over the past eight years is the key enabler in providing effective supply chain management services to our customers," said Mack Tilling, founder and CEO of Instill. "We believe that combining our core infrastructure with Manugistics' extensions will bring immediate, dramatic savings to foodservice operators and their trading partners."
"Combining our supply chain tools with Instill's normalization capability creates a unique and powerful business solution to the foodservice industry that, to date, has not been available," said Skip King, Manugistics vice president, eBusiness solutions and strategy. "Instill's collaboration planning service is designed to deliver real value in a short period of time to this industry, giving them access to services that have been a key to success for Fortune 1000 companies for more than 20 years."
Price and Availability
The Instill collaborative planning service is available immediately to multi-unit foodservice operators. Pricing is subscription-based. For more information, contact Instill at 1-888-INSTILL.
About Instill Corporation
Founded in 1993, Instill provides procurement, purchase tracking and analysis and collaboration planning services to the foodservice industry. The company services and links thousands of operators with their key distributors. Some of the operators using Instill services include Applebee's International, Delaware North Companies, Fine Host, Five Star, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, Marie Callender's and Sodexho Marriott Services. With over 160 employees, Instill is headquartered in Redwood City, California. Instill can be reached at 888-Instill or visit Instill's Web site at www.instill.com.
(c)2001 Instill Corporation. All rights reserved. Instill is a registered trademark of Instill Corporation. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective holders.
CONTACT:
Instill Corporation
Jaye Prosser, 650/551-5803
jaye.prosser@instill.com
or
Ketchum
Nhu-Y Canh, 415/984-6113
nhu-y.canh@ketchum.com
KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA
BW0383 FEB 12,2001
7:01 PACIFIC
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