LONDON & NEW JERSEY, April 9, 2024 – Aforza, the leading cloud and mobile solution specifically built for the Consumer Products industry that empowers businesses of all sizes to protect margins on every channel, today announced a strategic collaboration with Wipro to drive innovative CRM (Customer Relationship Management) & TPM (Trade Promotion Management) solutions across the Premium Beverage industry, globally.

This strategic collaboration brings together Aforza’s cutting-edge cloud and mobile technology with Wipro’s extensive expertise in digital transformation, offering next-generation CRM (Customer Relationship Management) & TPM (Trade Promotion Management) solutions to the Premium Beverage industry on a global scale.

The Wipro and Aforza collaboration will enable Consumer Products companies to:

• Enhance user productivity and adoption through intuitive user experiences.
• Empower field teams to operate seamlessly from anywhere with offline mobile.
• Foster consultative selling with integrated Digital Content Execution.
• Harness the power of AI in practical industry scenarios, such as order prediction.
• Drive profitable growth & safeguard margins with omnichannel pricing.
• Seamlessly integrate planning and execution to maximize trade ROI.

“We are excited to collaborate with Wipro to deliver next-generation CRM & TPM solutions for Consumer Products companies globally,” says Ed Butterworth, Chief Commercial Officer & Co-Founder of Aforza. “By combining Aforza’s innovative technology with Wipro’s extensive expertise in digital transformation, we are ready to drive significant value and empower businesses to thrive in today’s dynamic market environment.”

“At Wipro, we are committed to helping our industry clients deliver innovative solutions that address their most complex digital transformation needs.” said Ziva Hallaji, Vice President & Global Head of Salesforce, at Wipro. “Partnering with Aforza allows us to leverage our collective strengths and deliver transformative solutions that drive tangible results for Consumer Products companies worldwide.”

Aforza’s solution provides comprehensive CRM, trade planning, and field execution capabilities across various routes-to-market, including Field Sales, Key Account Management, Merchandisers, Distributor Management, Telesales, and B2B.

Combined with Wipro’s holistic approach to digital transformation and deep industry knowledge, this collaboration aims to redefine industry standards and empower Consumer Products companies to thrive in today’s rapidly evolving market landscape.

Aforza helps Consumer Product companies grow confidently & protect margins in uncertain times through a suite of cloud & mobile apps built for the industry. Aforza connects trade planning and field sales teams together to solve the problems of margin erosion, missed revenue opportunities and ineffective trade spend.

The Aforza product works out of the box and can be implemented in weeks. The mobile applications work offline and deliver powerful on-device intelligence across Apple iOS and Android devices. Aforza is built on the Salesforce and Google Cloud Platforms which means we can scale fast and deliver continuous innovation with 3 releases a year.

Customer success is Aforza’s top priority, and we are proud to be trusted by CPG companies in more than 40 countries; including leading breweries, food & beverage manufacturers, consumer healthcare companies and major distributors.

To learn more, please visit www.aforza.com

For any press inquiries or interview requests, please contact:

• Aforza: press@aforza.com
• Wipro Limited: media-relations@wipro.com

SOURCE Aforza Inc.

LONDON & MUMBAI, April 4, 2024 – Aforza, the leading cloud and mobile solution specifically built for the Consumer Products industry that empowers businesses of all sizes to protect margins on every channel, and LTIMindtree (NSE: LTIM, BSE: 540005), a global technology consulting and digital solutions company, today announced a strategic partnership to deliver digital transformation in CRM & TPM across the Consumer Products industry.

The partnership between Aforza and LTIMindtree is set to support the front office operations of Consumer Products manufacturers and distributors. This collaboration aims to empower businesses to grow profitably and safeguard margins through comprehensive omnichannel pricing control. It will enable access to real-time data insights, enhancing planning and decision-making capabilities.

Additionally, the partnership promises to boost field productivity throughout the value chain by delivering a world-class user experience. With industry-specific offline mobile apps, professionals can work from anywhere, ensuring flexibility and efficiency. The initiative will also focus on increasing distribution, availability, stock accuracy, and fulfilment rates. Furthermore, it will provide robust measures to manage compliance issues effectively and prevent fraud, ensuring a secure and compliant operational environment.

Nachiket Deshpande, Whole-Time Director & Chief Operating Officer, LTIMindtree said, “We strongly believe in investing in our talent to stay ahead of the curve and to help our customers in the Consumer Goods space. With Aforza’s AI innovations and their digital content execution capabilities, the training for our consultants will add to their domain skills and elevate their advisory and implementation capabilities. We see this partnership grow and create an ecosystem of well trained and skilled individuals who will bring exceptional results to our customer.”

“This strategic partnership marks a pivotal moment in our commitment to empowering Consumer Product companies with cutting-edge digital solutions,” says Ed Butterworth, Chief Commercial Officer & Co-Founder of Aforza. “By combining Aforza’s industry-specific expertise and LTIMindtree’s digital transformation leadership, we will deliver unparalleled value to our customers, fostering growth, innovation, and sustainable success.”

LTIMindtree has established the Aforza Training Academy, with Aforza’s Customer Success Enablement team, to virtually train and certify a full practice of industry consultants. This is a key enabler to build customer success and trust. Collectively, Aforza and LTIMindtree will focus on key segments within the Consumer Products industry, including Beauty, Consumer Healthcare, Luxury Brands, and Food & Beverage.

Aforza helps Consumer Product companies grow confidently & protect margins in uncertain times through a suite of cloud & mobile apps built for the industry. Aforza connects trade planning and field sales teams together to solve the problems of margin erosion, missed revenue opportunities and ineffective trade spend.

The Aforza product works out of the box and can be implemented in weeks. The mobile applications work offline and deliver powerful on-device intelligence across Apple iOS and Android devices. Aforza is built on the Salesforce and Google Cloud Platforms which means we can scale fast and deliver continuous innovation with 3 releases a year.

Customer success is Aforza’s top priority, and we are proud to be trusted by CPG companies in more than 40 countries; including leading breweries, food & beverage manufacturers, consumer healthcare companies and major distributors. To learn more, please visit http://www.aforza.com

To learn more, please visit www.aforza.com

LTIMindtree is a global technology consulting and digital solutions company that enables enterprises across industries to reimagine business models, accelerate innovation, and maximize growth by harnessing digital technologies. As a digital transformation partner to more than 700 clients, LTIMindtree brings extensive domain and technology expertise to help drive superior competitive differentiation, customer experiences, and business outcomes in a converging world.

Powered by 82,000+ talented and entrepreneurial professionals across more than 30 countries, LTIMindtree — a Larsen & Toubro Group company — combines the industry-acclaimed strengths of erstwhile Larsen and Toubro Infotech and Mindtree in solving the most complex business challenges and delivering transformation at scale.

For more information, please visit www.ltimindtree.com

For any press inquiries or interview requests, please contact:

Aforza

press@aforza.com

LTIMindtree

Gitanjali.sreepal@ltimindtree.com

SOURCE Aforza Inc.

To learn more, please visit www.aforza.com

M&I Systems Group is a company founded on January 23, 1991, as Management & Information Systems Company. After more than three decades of business, it is considered a regional leader in business software and digital transformation within various business processes and industrial veins.

We are, first and foremost, a people-oriented company – our advice, solutions, and expertise are at the service of people and partners to help them develop their businesses. We are inspired by cutting-edge technology and driven by our desire to help – we want to be a long-term partner for success and growth. As such, we must deliver value at every level, making our partners feel supported and empowered – we are a collaborator in solving business challenges.

Our mission follows in the footsteps of our business strategy to put us at the forefront of innovation, growth, and transformation – we are an agile, dynamic, innovative, and visionary partner in the world of business technology.

M&I Systems Group is a partner for companies to transform and manage their business by discovering the value of a systematic approach, knowledge, experience, and technology. As a leading strategic partner to companies throughout the region, we have relied on our decades of experience, deep professional expertise in the industry, and mastery of rapidly evolving areas within technology, artificial intelligence, connectivity, software, and digital engineering, and have been continuously expanding our portfolio for over 30 years.

To learn more, please visit www.misystemsgroup.com

NEW YORK & LONDON, September, 2023 – Aforza, the leading cloud and mobile solution specifically built for the consumer products industry that empowers businesses of all sizes to protect margins on every channel, was today awarded five best-in-class distinctions by the Promotion Optimization Institute (POI) in its “2023 Enterprise Planning (EPx) Vendor Panorama Report”. The distinctions were for Analytics Visualization, Internal Collaboration, External Collaboration, Field & Analytics Insights, TPx for Tier 2 & 3 Markets &/or Other Tier 1 International Geos.

The POI research team evaluated leading vendors to help their manufacturer and retail partners understand the technology and related service options that can help them improve promotional outcomes and drive profitable growth.

This year, POI were impressed with the advances that the vendor community has made; continuing to drive foundational technology to ease the burden of planning and drive promotion efficiency & effectiveness. They also noted how vendors have innovated with new technologies such as machine learning & generative AI in order to positively impact pricing, trade planning and deductions. This point was extremely timely for Aforza, given the highly anticipated “Summer of AI” campaign that took place earlier in the month.

In the report, the POI made specific observations on the fresh perspective Aforza brings to the market. They commented on how Aforza offers a fully integrated suite of Trade Promotion Management capabilities that connects planning and execution in real-time. They said that a key differentiator for Aforza is the ability to offer one true promotion-driven price on every channel and that having TPM & Retail Execution in one solution is unique and brings value. They also highlighted Aforza Studio and how the new platform helps Consumer Product companies to execute the most effective promotions at the lowest cost with the limitless use of digital assets.

One of the five best-in-class distinctions Aforza received was for TPx for Tier 2 & 3 Markets. This distinction highlights Aforza’s unique ability to templatise TPM processes and configuration for quicker implementations across Tier 2 & Tier 3 geographies. The POI noted that the sweet spot here is TPx capabilities that are fast to deploy and enable rapid time-to-value.

POI called out the strong roadmap for innovation and how they see Aforza continuing to grow their share in the market. They concluded the evaluation by sharing that they “see no reason to avoid Aforza”.

“This is our second year in the Enterprise Planning Vendor Panorama report and we are extremely proud to have received such strong endorsement with five best-in-class distinctions from POI, who we regard as a trusted partner for the industry.” says Dominic Dinardo, CEO & Co-Founder of Aforza. “The consumer products industry continues to battle with margin erosion, missed revenue opportunities and ineffective trade spend, but Aforza’s connected enterprise planning solution is designed to address these challenges head on. This recognition from POI really validates our connected approach and the value we bring to our customers.”

The POI recommends that manufacturers evaluate Aforza when they are looking for end-to-end capabilities including TPM, Advanced Analytics, Retail Execution and CRM.

2023 Distinctions: Analytics Visualization, Internal Collaboration, External Collaboration, Field & Analytics Insights, TPx for Tier 2 & 3 Markets &/or Other Tier 1 International Geos.

POI brings together manufacturers, retailers, solution providers, analysts, academics, and other industry leaders with the specific objective of collaboratively improving Enterprise planning and the promotion & distribution of consumer goods. This industry-wide effort of POI produces a roadmap on how trading partners can continuously improve their approach and profitability through real-time, relevant promotions.

To access the full POI 2023 Enterprise Planning Vendor Panorama report, receive complimentary passes to upcoming POI events (including the POI Fall Hybrid Summit, November 8-10 2023), have access to the quarterly POI Manufacturer Connect Share Group and much more, join POI as a member now: poinstitute.com/membership. For company/team membership, please contact Joanie Malin at jmalin@p-o-i.org. Teams receive a Certified Collaborative Marketer enrollment (value $5k) which is designed to develop the skills of leaders in the CPG Industry: poinstitute.com/certification-ccm.

The Aforza product works out of the box and can be implemented in weeks. The mobile applications work offline and deliver powerful on-device intelligence across Apple iOS and Android devices. Aforza is built on the Salesforce and Google Cloud Platforms which means we can scale fast and deliver continuous innovation with 3 releases a year.

Customer success is Aforza’s top priority, and we are proud to be trusted by CPG companies around the world; including leading breweries, food & beverage manufacturers, consumer healthcare companies and major distributors.

To learn more, please visit www.aforza.com 

London, United Kingdom – Aforza, the leading cloud and mobile solution specifically built for the consumer goods industry that empowers businesses of all sizes to sell more and grow faster, today announced a $22 million Series A funding round led by DN Capital and with further participation from Bonfire Ventures, Daher Capital, and Next47. Aforza plans on leveraging the funding to double its employee headcount over the next six months and establish new US headquarters in the Northeast to continue to democratize sales efforts within the consumer goods market and maximize results for businesses and consumers.

With the global market for consumer packaged goods (CPG) applications expected to reach upwards of $15 billion by 2024, consumer goods companies around the globe are demanding tools that will help support their digital transformation. Unfortunately, companies using outdated platforms lost at least 5% of sales due to the lack of in-store availability and 70% of money invested into trade promotion programs was unprofitable. In the face of constantly changing regulations and fluctuations, consumer goods companies need to be able to scale and respond quickly, and Aforza’s agile AI predictions are helping customers worldwide drive sales and retain customers.

“Aforza is on a mission to help consumer packaged goods companies get ahead of competition with our cloud and mobile solutions designed specifically for their industry – so they don’t have to cobble together outdated, generic legacy tools,” said Aforza CEO & Co-Founder Dominic Dinardo. “CPG companies around the world are facing challenges like never before, and with Aforza, they can accelerate their growth regardless of what may come next.”

Aforza’s suite of cloud-based and mobile applications provides real-time insights to help CPG companies digitally transform their route to market. It connects commercial planning and field sales teams together to solve the problems of unprofitable promotions, declining market share and lack of revenue growth. With Aforza, business users can quickly launch targeted promotional campaigns in hours versus days without the need for any technical support. Industry cloud-native, Aforza is built on Salesforce and Google Cloud and uses leading technology in CRM, cloud software and AI to deliver a solution that is secure, agile, scalable and able to seamlessly integrate with the tools its customers are already using.

“Building on top of 2 world-leading cloud platforms, Salesforce and Google Cloud, Aforza is transforming the Consumer Goods industry in the same way Veeva and Vlocity transformed the Pharma, Telco and Energy sectors.” said Thomas Rubens, Partner at DN Capital. “Aforza is the only cloud platform that seamlessly connects trade planning to field execution in real-time with the most intuitive user experience. This improves the return on trade promotions to a level competing legacy solutions just cannot match. We are extremely excited to partner up with the Aforza team and lead their $22 million Series A round.”

Aforza is easy to install and use immediately without significant training or technical experience – even an eight-year-old can use it. The solution also operates offline and on-device without internet access, giving sales users the flexibility to do business on their own terms in any location.

“Addressing a need ignored by traditional cloud solutions, Aforza’s modern cloud and AI technology is digitizing the consumer goods industry like never before,” said Bonfire Ventures Partner Brett Queener. “Aforza is that secret weapon behind the smartest companies in an industry that supports an estimated 20 million American employees — more than 10% of U.S. jobs — and uniquely empowers them to adapt to changes in real-time and build emotional connections with their end customers.”

Distell, a globally-recognized producer of alcoholic beverages with a presence on several continents, needed to transform their commercial organization and create a step change in scale that was not possible through organic growth. True to the company’s customer-centric values, Distell is implementing Aforza to digitize the sales team with new tools for effective retail execution, trade promotions management, and marketing campaigns. With these capabilities in place, Distell’s sales team will have in-the-moment insights about where to best focus to maximize revenue growth.

“Success of this transformation is measured by revenue growth across our priority segments. This can only be achieved through a real-time platform that connects marketing, planning and sales execution together across all channels with new levels of execution, control and visibility” said Craig Price, head of sales centre of excellence at Distell. “It is the ability to execute the perfect visit, every time, with Aforza that will take our business to the next level.”

Another Aforza customer, international distribution company Photos Photiades Distributors (PPD), who distribute for leading brands including Carlsberg and Diageo, seeked to transform their execution standards by introducing real-time sales planning, execution and order capture. With Aforza, PPD can better serve their business users, partner community, and customers by helping them understand consumer behaviour and optimizing their approach to revenue growth. “The legacy way of working was no longer sustainable with an over-reliance on spreadsheets, manual reporting and ongoing sales training” said Constantinos Andreou, group business systems manager at Photos Photiades Distributors. “Partnering with Aforza gave us the capabilities to transform our sales execution processes with the confidence that they will keep on innovating to address the evolving needs of the industry.”

Aforza serves customers in five continents and in a variety of CPG sectors, including: food and beverage, alcohol, beers and spirits, consumer healthcare, household products, tobacco, pet care, and consumer electronics. Aforza offers a tiered subscription model for customers to pick and choose services that work best for their business needs.

One-third of the world’s spending on consumer goods is in North America. Aforza plans to establish a United States headquarters in the Northeast to aggressively capture the North America market while building out its US-based team. Research and development will also be an area of focus for the company as it looks to advance its solution into e-commerce, payments and digital asset management.