Cisco Solutions for Consumer Packaged Goods

Cisco Solutions for Consumer Packaged Goods Technologies for the CPG Value Chain

In today s highly competitive marketplace, consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies are focused on finding new ways to respond to a turbulent business environment. Organizations need to develop products more quickly, increase profit margins through the manufacturing process, and distribute inventory efficiently around the world. To achieve this, many businesses are splitting off specific product divisions or completing acquisitions, a process that demands a coherent set of capabilities to support new strategic positions. Other businesses must add innovative products to inventory and streamline operations. Simultaneously, the CPG industry is facing its most dramatic technology transformation to date: the advent of the smartphone. According to a GS1 study, 62 percent of shoppers have used a mobile device to purchase physical goods, while 42 percent of shoppers have used a mobile device to access product information from within the store. As consumers become more mobile and brand-ambivalent, increased pressure is being placed on the supply chain to deliver attractive products on time, at the lowest cost. This rapidly changing world makes it critical for manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers to find new ways to improve market share and profitability. Analysts are predicting $163 billion in worldwide mobile sales by 2015, while $38 billion is projected to be spent on mobile ads in the United States and Canada during the same timeframe. The Cisco family of solutions for consumer packaged goods offers a portfolio of powerful capabilities to support the entire value chain, from the manufacturer to the consumer. Based on the endto-end network as an open, scalable, and secure platform, Cisco solutions combine mobility, industry-specific technologies, and sophisticated collaborative tools within a single, converged environment. Challenges Facing the CPG Industry In a rapidly changing economy, today s companies face a variety of challenges in achieving market share. Consumers are now the undisputed drivers of demand, deciding what products they want, when they want them, and how they want to buy them in the store, over the phone, or online. In response, CPG organizations are developing new ways to better defend share, maximize productivity and profit, and execute more quickly on opportunities all along the value chain. One common goal is constant: to deliver timely new products at the lowest possible price. Innovation Innovation is the lifeblood of the CPG industry, defining the company s brand, audience, and image. New products are driven by customer demand for specialized features, high growth in localized global markets, and the need to compete effectively with other global firms. Consumer packaged goods organizations need to create and effectively manage an environment that supports global R&D teams and acts on consumer input to help speed time to market. Mergers, Acquisitions, and Splits One of the most notable trends in CPG is the restructuring of assets due to expansion and acquisitions. Newly merged companies are often required to combine and optimize a range of assets that may be incompatible. Even more importantly, organizations are increasingly realigning portfolios and splitting off targeted products to focus their businesses or to execute based on different types of products, stock management goals, and market interaction. Supply Chain Visibility End-to-end visibility into the supply chain is critical to providing agility and responsiveness. From the supplier to the production line, from logistics management to the store shelf or mall kiosk, manufacturers rely on detailed information to help drive revenues and meet consumer demand. Managers are looking for ways to securely access this information to support real-time decision making. As consumers become more mobile and brand-ambivalent, increased pressure is being placed on the supply chain to deliver attractive products on time, at the lowest cost. 1 2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.

Global Emerging Markets Today, large new populations of consumers are emerging on the world stage. Regions such as Africa, India, and China will yield a predicted one billion consumers over the next decade. CPG companies are expanding significantly through acquisitions and mergers, but they face significant challenges in localizing products, defending against counterfeits, and making products and customer support services available. Direct to Consumer The mobile transformation has opened the door to new technology capabilities that give companies direct access to consumers. Kiosks, shelf help, and other examples of SoLoMo (social local mobile) technologies allow consumer packaged goods organizations to define and target specific consumer audiences, both augmenting and testing relationships between retailers and manufacturers. Sustainability Under pressure from both regulators and consumers, manufacturers are increasingly going green. Factories use much of the energy consumed around the world, with critical equipment often in operation 24 hours a day. Companies must find new ways to monitor, assess, and manage energy consumption to reduce costs and meet sustainability goals. Cisco Solutions for Consumer Packaged Goods Cisco delivers a family of solutions for the CPG industry to address these business imperatives. Based on the openstandards Cisco network, Cisco CPG products support both powerful manufacturing systems and innovative new selling concepts around the world (see Table 1). platform provides a social media-like environment where engineers can comment and compare notes to help build consensus on prototypes. Team members may share consumer feedback and requests for changes to products. They also use Cisco business video to monitor and store the results of consumer testing. Once designs are complete, test production runs can be observed via video by remote experts and developers, giving them direct access to the factory floor and enabling more rapid resolution of design issues. Management and Realignment of Business Assets Managing the integration of business capabilities following a merger, acquisition, or split-off of a division requires a great deal of collaboration. Executives, managers, and consultants rely on Cisco s face-to-face conferencing systems such as TelePresence and business video to support personnel working together to make critical, timely business decisions. To recombine IT assets for reorganizing entities, Cisco networking supports a complete cloud-computing infrastructure that allows rapid provisioning, virtualization, and integration of existing business networks and systems. Based on our open standards-based, secured networking platform, the new entity achieves optimal ROI by using current assets and reintegrating them as business needs change. Companies that are more agile can execute better than the competition, supporting collaboration, people, knowledge, technologies, and processes on a single Cisco foundation. Collaboration to Enable Innovation Cisco provides a variety of collaboration technologies to support today s increasingly distributed and heterogeneous R&D teams, speeding time to market while making the companies more responsive to consumer demands. Using our sophisticated videoconferencing solutions, today s developers are able to meet face-to-face without setting foot on an airplane. Technologies such as Cisco TelePresence System and business video are proven to reduce travel costs by up to 30 percent for manufacturers. Robust whiteboard and information-sharing also allow engineers to rapidly collaborate and modify designs while speeding the review process. In addition, the Cisco Quad 2 2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.

Table 1 Cisco Consumer Packaged Goods Solutions CPG Solutions Cisco Unified Voice Portal Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Cisco TelePresence System Cisco Collaboration Applications Cisco WebEx Cisco Quad Virtual Remote Expert for Manufacturing Manufacturing Active Collaborative Space (MACS) Distributed R&D with Parametric Technology (PTC) Manufacturing Business Video Manufacturing Mobile Video Collaboration Cisco Digital Media Suite Cisco Digital Signage Cisco Cast and Cisco Show and Share Cisco Context-Aware Solutions Cisco Converged Plantwide Ethernet with Rockwell Cisco Industrial Wireless Video Surveillance Cisco Physical Security and Physical Access Control Solutions Cisco Virtual Concierge Cisco Secure Wireless Plant Cisco Unified Data Center Cisco Smart+Connected Buildings Solutions Cisco EnergyWise Manufacturing Sales Optimization Cisco RFID Solutions with AeroScout Cisco Retail Warehouse Voice Picking with Datria Cisco Interactive Services RetailConnect with VoiceRite Out of Stock Solution with SCOPIX Mobile Field Merchandising with Cisco Cius Tablet with RMB Innovation Mergers Supply Chain Global Emerging Direct to Consumer Sustainability 3 2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.

Visibility throughout the Value Chain Cisco offers a wide variety of solutions to support CPG manufacturers, allowing them to manage and control all the material goods, people, and products created within and throughout the supply chain. This end-to-end visibility from the manufacturing floor to the retail shelf helps CPG manufacturers to reduce costs, streamline processes, operate more profitably, and respond rapidly and flexibly to new demands. Cisco s family of solutions includes a full range of wireless capabilities for office, factory floor, and distribution environments. In the plant, Cisco offers an RFID solution with partner AeroScout that permits manufacturers to accurately track material, products, crates, and equipment throughout the production process. Industry-specific solutions such as Warehouse Voice Picking with Datria allow warehouse workers to increase order accuracy, reduce redundant labor steps, and improve productivity. In the store, out-of-stocks analytics with Cisco partner SCOPIX supports timely inventory management. In addition, Cisco provides a wide variety of video and digital media signage solutions that enable live, secure, enterprise-class collaboration and notification between remote employees, including plant floor and field service personnel; colleagues in other plants or business functions; and external partners, suppliers, expert consultants, and customers. Expanding into Global Markets Cisco solutions support global expansion with powerful wide area networking (WAN) capabilities. Supporting management of manufacturing, logistics, and distribution processes, these solutions allow even the most remote retailers ready access to product information, delivery capabilities, and customer service. They also help to protect companies against counterfeiters with a globally accessible repository of product specifications, patent information, and other critical data. One of the challenges of selling into emerging markets is the need to localize products to meet language, cultural, and regulatory requirements. Cisco solutions allow managers to oversee the design and development process to help the company move more quickly into new markets. Redevelopment of existing products may also call for rapid access to remote experts and consultants, who can advise via video, TelePresence, Cisco WebEx, or phone. Cisco s streamlined call center capabilities, such as Cisco Unified Contact Center Express, support global markets by allowing companies to move into new, sometimes underserved areas with a localized call center in a box. Additional remote sales opportunities may be driven by direct to consumer kiosks that sell products right to the customer. Selling Directly from CPG to Consumer One of the most exciting transformations taking place in the CPG industry is the trend toward more targeted direct to consumer selling. Considered a high priority for this rapidly changing industry, SoLoMo offers a mobile-centric way to find product information on demand. Shoppers use their smart phones to interact with kiosks or in-store shelf help technologies to help them decide and buy. CPG companies cost-effectively support this service with centrally managed content, applications, and maintenance. Cisco offers an advanced interactive services solution that unites multiple digital media endpoints to create a rich SoLoMo 4 2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.

experience. Through a kiosk or Cisco Cius tablet located in a mall, store shelf, train station, or other public area, users can search the web, interact with applications, view videos, and download information onto mobile devices. They may interact with the system using touch screens, cameras, speakers, microphones, or credit card scanners. Our Interactive Services solution uses secured Cisco networks that support 3G and Wi-Fi, with access from remote locations back to a central data center. Solution hardware and peripherals are ruggedized for demanding public environments. The CPG Industry: Going Green Cisco supports the CPG industry s green initiatives and helps to cut costs with powerful energy management. Cisco EnergyWise technology promotes company-wide sustainability by reducing consumption across the facility. Cisco EnergyWise uses the network to monitor and manage energy use and greenhouse gas emissions of networkattached devices. Information from network-aware building systems such as wireless, lighting, HVAC, and other plant system controls is centralized within the EnergyWise solution. By unifying physical infrastructure and plant automation devices via the network, managers can proactively understand and remediate energy usage spikes, rather than reacting to reports after the fact. This capability can be implemented across large campuses and widely distributed facilities. Cisco EnergyWise is part of Cisco s Smart+Connected Buildings initiative, which addresses the growing demand for sustainable energy to meet the needs of increasingly urbanized populations. Cisco s Smart+Connected Communities initiative provides a blueprint for networkenabled smart cities that run more efficiently on a cohesive body of information. The Benefits of Cisco Solutions for CPG Cisco s solutions for the consumer packaged goods industry integrate processes and communications to support faster decision making, better service to customers, and profitability. Cisco gives CPG companies the ability to: Execute more quickly on new business opportunities anywhere, at any time Realign business portfolios and subsidiaries to take maximum advantage of market change Defend market share with rapid product development and production Streamline operations and take full advantage of employee effectiveness Maximize productivity with more efficient and effective business capabilities Respond more quickly to customers and improve customer satisfaction Next Steps To learn more about the Cisco solutions for CPG, contact your customer representative or visit: www.cisco.com. Americas Headquarters Cisco Systems, Inc. San Jose, CA Asia Pacific Headquarters Cisco Systems (USA) Pte. Ltd. Singapore Europe Headquarters Cisco Systems International BV Amsterdam, The Netherlands Cisco has more than 200 offices worldwide. Addresses, phone numbers, and fax numbers are listed on the Cisco Website at www.cisco.com/go/offices. Cisco and the Cisco Logo are trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco s trademarks can be found at www.cisco. com/go/trademarks. Third party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. (1005R)