Capgemini, HP and Intel announce CP-Connect

Paris: Capgemini Group, HP and Intel today announced CP-Connect, a joint initiative designed to help consumer products companies respond to customer demands more quickly, drive down costs in their supply chain, and improve profitability through their distribution and retail network.

CP-Connect focuses on addressing critical issues such as value erosion and margin pressure by helping consumer products companies improve the links with their fulfillment and trading partners and with consumers.

"For consumer packaged goods companies, business priorities center on a highly efficient supply chain," said Gayle Papadopoulos, Managing Director, Worldwide Distribution Industries, HP. "The CP-Connect initiative offers another example of how Capgemini Group, HP and Intel provide customers with complete solutions that deliver real business value and move companies toward becoming Adaptive Enterprises able to synchronize business and IT to capitalize on change."

The joint initiative addresses critical performance challenges in the consumer products industry through Product Lifecycle Management - to increase speed-to-market on product innovations; Trade Promotion Management - to increase return on trade promotions; RFID - to reduce shrink and improve product/stock availability; Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) - to increase internal and external integrations, based on the customer's current ERP backbone and new developments in the ERP area; Customer Profitability and Business Intelligence - to increase the profitability of customers and trading channels by better understanding the most profitable way to sell products to customers,Global Data Synchronization - to improve the data foundation for efficient manufacturer/retailer collaboration; Mobile Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Solutions - to improve the effectiveness of field staff.

Capgemini Group, HP and Intel will also host CP-Connect Inspiration Days, one-day sessions to help companies understand how their trading performance can be improved and identify and prioritize potential initiatives to improve their businesses. The sessions also will help pre-qualified customers determine how Capgemini Group, HP and Intel can assist with initiatives and solutions to accelerate a transformation process that can otherwise take six months or longer.

"Capgemini Group, HP and Intel are uniquely positioned to help consumer products companies align their strategies, IT, and business processes in the face of rapidly changing consumer demand and a volatile marketplace," said Kees Jacobs, Principal Consultant, Capgemini's global Manufacturing, Retail and Distribution practice. "With CP-Connect, Capgemini Group, HP and Intel will deliver a comprehensive roadmap for business transformation. Such a transformation will be enabled by the innovative use of proven technology."

CP-Connect stems from the work conducted by Capgemini Group, HP and Intel with some of the world's leading consumer products companies to address key business challenges. For example, the implementation of the SAP ® Enterprise Portal solution at Heineken helped support a more efficient work environment. At Imperial Tobacco in Europe, a Mobile Sales Force solution allows the field sales force to handle their workload with measurably greater efficiency and productivity, maximizing the effectiveness of every customer visit.