04/20/2004 - Secant
Joins TDLinx Network
Wilton, CT (April 20, 2004)
To better fulfill the needs of three-tier distribution system
manufacturers, and more specifically alcohol beverage industry
manufacturers, Secant and TDLinx have announced an alliance to
establish a new customer depletion data cleansing and coding process.
Secant has built TDLinx into their core distributor depletion
data transformation routines. Customer data that comes in from
distributors will be coded with TDLinx, the universally accepted
store, outlet and account coding structure and premier source
of off/on-premise channel information. The TDLinx Code provides
the link between the distributor data that Secant collects and
the location data attributes from TDLinx. Suppliers and manufacturers
will benefit through this seamless process of data coding and
cleansing, and from accurate customer information that follows
industry-standard definitions and provides account hierarchy visibility.
“Every distributor assigns a different number to their customer
accounts and maintains names and addresses differently,”
said Anne Carlson, Secant Managing Partner. “While this
might not cause a problem in the local distributor environment,
when you are a manufacturer trying to make sense of the sell-through
across hundreds of distributors nationwide with market overlaps,
it becomes a major stumbling block.“
Secant has also adopted TDLinx for superior account mapping and
account classification capabilities. Through this joint process,
TDLinx clients can quickly identify and resolve duplicate stores/outlets.
In addition, retail account data can be seamlessly coded with
additional TDLinx location information including industry-standard
channel/sub-channel definitions, marketing group/chain names,
account ownership hierarchies, franchise information, and other
syndicated data sources.
“We see significant benefits for our clients in using TDLinx
to clean and code locations in account-sold data,” said
Elena Amboyan, Secant Managing Partner. “We have chosen
to partner with the recognized leader in this area rather than
attempting to build our own account mapping engine. TDLinx and
Secant are working together to provide this valuable gateway between
our companies' respective services.”
“This alliance enables our Beverage Alcohol and three-tier
distribution clients to streamline the coding and cleansing process,
“ said Marianne Frasco, Senior Vice President of Strategic
Market Development for TDLinx. “Based on years of industry
experience, Secant knows how to remove obstacles to collecting
and cleansing data. This combined business process enables better
data integrity, faster data delivery and data integration closer
to the point of data collection.”
About Secant, Inc.
Secant, Inc. is an independent consulting corporation specializing
in helping companies in the Consumer Packaged Goods and Alcohol
Beverage industry. Secant understands the complexities of the
alcohol beverage industry environment and the need for collaboration
throughout the value chain. Secant combines strategic, technical,
operational, and organizational expertise with proven, disciplined
approaches. In addition to its consulting practice, Secant provides
a product offering to its alcohol beverage industry clients.
Secant’s product offering facilitates the collection and
transformation of disparate data from distributors and national
accounts, providing manufacturers a clear view of their performance
through the supply chain. This product offering is a much needed
alternative to current data collection and reporting processes.
With an emphasis on accuracy, integrity as well as improved frequency
and coverage, Secant has structured their product offering to
enable a broader business intelligence vision. Secant’s
product offering design is extremely flexible, enabling companies
to maximize their current technology investments. Suppliers can
choose to deploy data collection processes in their own environment
or through a newly announced Secant service model.
About TDLinx
TDLinx is a division of ACNielsen, a VNU business. TDLinx is recognized
as the universally accepted store, outlet and account coding structure
and premier source of retail/on-premise channel information. With
TDLinx Codes, consumer packaged goods manufacturers (CPG), alcohol
beverage suppliers are enabled to aggregate to a customer view,
integrate disparate data and activity, communicate seamlessly
on a code-to-code basis, and evaluate in any frame of reference
with a systematic and repeatable process. The TDLinx provide universal
coverage of over 600,000 locations, 11,000 accounts and up to
five layers of account hierarchy.
ACNielsen is the world's leading marketing information provider.
The unit provides measurement and analysis of marketplace dynamics
and consumer attitudes and behavior. Clients rely on ACNielsen's
market research, proprietary products, analytical tools and professional
service to understand competitive performance, to uncover new
opportunities and to raise the profitability of their marketing
and sales campaigns.
VNU is a global information and media company with leading market
positions and recognized brands in marketing information (ACNielsen),
media measurement and information (Nielsen Media Research), business
information (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Computing, Intermediary)
and directory publishing (Golden Pages). VNU is active in more
than 100 countries, with headquarters in Haarlem, The Netherlands
and New York, USA. The company employs 38,000 people. Total revenues
amounted to EUR 3.9 billion in 2003. VNU is listed on the Euronext
Amsterdam (ASE: VNU) stock exchange. For more information, please
visit the VNU website at www.vnu.com
