UPM Raflatac, Seeonic™ and Alliance deploy first-of-its-kind RFID-enabled item-level inventory management system for retail promotions

UPM Raflatac, Seeonic and Alliance, a RockTenn company, announce the deployment of a new generation of Alliance’s MAXRPM™, an inventory management system for retail promotional items that uses RFID technology to provide retailers and manufacturers with real-time business insights of retail promotion performance at the item level.

The solution, an industry first, pairs a free-standing, RFID-enabled MAXRPM™ retail display, developed, built and sold by Alliance, with Seeonic’s SmartWatch™ service and UPM Raflatac UHF Gen2 DVD Spine tags, to create actionable intelligence that business users can use to optimize the manufacturing, distribution, management and marketing of high margin promotional inventory such as entertainment DVDs. The MAXRPM™ system will make its debut at the UPM Raflatac booth (#1804) at RFID Journal Live 2009, April 27-29, in Orlando, Florida.
 
While retailers have long used retail promotional displays to market entertainment DVDs and other promotional items, these units have never provided business intelligence, forcing staff to count inventory manually and increasing human error and labor costs. As a consequence, retailers have lacked access to accurate, timely data that would help them ensure stock availability, fine-tune ordering strategies and drive consumer products merchandising sales by making changes to product packaging or marketing strategies. Meanwhile, manufacturers have lacked data that would enable them to match production to consumer demand, anticipate demand spikes and distribute inventory efficiently, while reducing production and logistics costs.

The new MAXRPM™ inventory management system solves these challenges by providing real-time, web-accessible data and analytical and modeling tools retailers and manufacturers can use to optimize and evolve production and sales strategies on a continuous basis. In addition, the MAXRPM™ system provides leap-ahead benefits over disposable promotional displays. A free-standing, battery-powered and semi-permanent unit with intelligent shelves, the MAXRPM™ system functions autonomously, can be easily deployed in any retail environment and can be customized with new banners. As such, it provides retailers with a versatile, reusable and environmentally sustainable tool to showcase retail promotions, while measuring their success.
 
“RFID technology provides an unprecedented level of insight into consumer demand and behavior,” says Jan Svoboda, Sales and Marketing Director, Americas, RFID, UPM Raflatac. “The business intelligence provided by the MAXRPM™ system improves the ability of manufacturers and retailers to collaborate on forecasting demand, maximizing product sales and per-store revenues.”

The MAXRPM™ system contains an embedded inventory management system that uses SightWare™, an electronic module with an UHF Gen2 RFID reader to read RFID-tagged merchandise stored on display shelves. This data is captured in real-time and communicated wirelessly to a secure, web-accessible business intelligence service and relational database, SmartWatch™, hosted by Seeonic. SmartWatch™ provides powerful analytical and modeling tools, SmartPlan™, to help business users track and manage inventory and reduce out-of-stocks. The MAXRPM™ system can also be paired with RFID-enabled loyalty cards to motivate consumer behavior, such as visiting stores at specific times to receive special offers or merchandise giveaways.

“The MAXRPM™ system provides business users with resources that take the guesswork out of inventory management,” says Harley Feldman, President and CTO, Seeonic. “The Seeonic platform allows manufacturers and retailers to make informed decisions about production and ordering and adapt instantly to changing conditions.”
 
The MAXRPM™ display system is currently installed at the Sam M. Walton College of Business RFID Research Center at the University of Arkansas as part of the global leading retail test center. “Our research studies have demonstrated that retailers achieved a 16 percent reduction in product out-of-stocks with merchandise identified and tracked using RFID EPC technology,” says Dr. Bill Hardgrave, Director of the RFID Research Center and Executive Director of the Information Technology Research Institute. “In addition, RFID-enabled stores were 63 percent more effective in replenishing out-of-stock products than control stores not equipped with the technology. Essentially, this meant fewer total out-of-stock items and fewer occurrences of empty shelves when the merchandise was in the back room.”

“Manufacturers and retailers have long known that they have a short window of time to drive sales of new product releases before prices fall,” says Jim Einstein, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Alliance. “The MAXRPM™ system enables them to make the most of this ‘golden hour,’ delivering a superior customer experience and optimizing the sales of these important, high margin products.”
 
For further information please contact:
Mr Jan Svoboda, Sales and Marketing Director, Americas, RFID, UPM Raflatac
Tel. +1 805 312 4679
Mr Bill James, Vice President, Business Development, Seeonic, Inc.
Tel. + 1 763 383 9360
Ms Kathy McGowan-Carnes, Director of Marketing, Alliance, a RockTenn company
Tel. +1 973 610 2871

About Seeonic, Inc.
Seeonic™ is a leading provider of in-store Actionable Intelligence systems delivering real-time information driving sophisticated, decisive and effective action in the management and replenishment of store inventory, resulting in reducing stock-outs and increased revenues for manufacturers and retailers. Manufacturers, distributors and retailers gain competitive advantages through our combined SightWare™ and SmartWatch™ business intelligence offering. Our intelligent data service features item-level accuracy and provides real-time visibility of your in-store inventory. Utilizing the data gathered, real-time alerts are generated and predictive modeling algorithms are applied to initiate replenishment action to increase your return on promotion and store investments. This web accessible data originates with our SightWare system in the retail display and transmits information to our SmartWatch data portal via a cellular uplink. To be flexible and economical, Seeonic's system requires no upfront capital investment, no in-store IT infrastructure and is delivered on a monthly subscription basis. Seeonic is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

About Alliance
Alliance is a leading in-store marketing solutions provider that develops both promotional and permanent displays and packaging programs supported by innovative marketing services for major consumer packaged goods and services companies and retailers. Its parent, RockTenn Company is one of North America’s leading manufacturers of paperboard, containerboard, consumer and corrugated packaging and merchandising displays, with annual net sales of approximately $3 billion. The Company operates locations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Chilé and Argentina. Headquartered in Norcross, Georgia, RockTenn is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The Company’s common stock trades under the symbol RKT. Alliance can be reached on the web at www.alliancerocktenn.com.