Manugistics Demand and Revenue Management Solutions Help Retailers Drive Top-Line Growth; Integrated pricing solution provides decision-support to optimize profitabilityNEW YORK, NY, Jan. 12, 2004 -- Manugistics Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:MANU), a leading global provider of demand and supply chain management solutions, at the National Retail Federation (NRF) 2004 today announced its integrated Demand and Revenue Management for Retail offering designed to bring together the benefits of effective and accurate management of retail prices, promotions and clearance markdowns to meet retailers' business objectives. "Pricing for retail is highly complex and strategic - understanding when and at what levels to set prices can significantly increase your revenue, profitability, or market share, thus helping you realize the business objective for your products over time," said Neil Hooper, Group Vice President for Demand and Revenue Management, Manugistics. "Manugistics' integrated pricing solutions provide retailers with the decision-support necessary to gain insight into consumer response at various price levels and then leverage that information for future forecasting to complete the cycle," said Kosin Huang, senior analyst at The Yankee Group. "Retailers need to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the efficacy of promotions as well as the revenue and margin implications of pricing strategies before they execute them." "In the past, retailers have managed pricing through a combination of judgment and rigid business rules," said Hooper. "Now, they can scientifically and confidently model and forecast likely results of price changes, promotional activities, and markdowns; select the optimal strategy, and capture the most value for their business." Manugistics DRM for Retail is built on a flexible architecture for leveraging existing transaction and inventory systems, offers a reporting and alerting system to keep performance on track, and boasts groundbreaking scalability - reliably handling tens of millions of SKU/store combinations. Additional Manugistics' DRM for Retail capabilities include: -- Powerful forecast engines to help predict consumer demand, revenue and profitability across a product grouping such as category or class and to help determine various inter- and intra-category impacts - such as halo and cannibalization. -- Proven optimization engines that can help retailers meet business objectives by using more accurate demand forecasts as a chief determinant for setting the initial retail price and the optimal discount levels for promotional and clearance events through the product lifecycle. -- Marketbasket analysis algorithms that capture and analyze valuable transaction-level information and determine which products are most frequently purchased together and which categories generate the highest revenue or margin 'baskets'. This greater understanding of consumer buying patterns and identification of cross-selling opportunities helps facilitate better pricing and promotional decisions to grow each consumer's 'basket'. -- New embedded business rules engine that ensure pricing recommendations fit within retailers' business policies and strategies. -- Modeling of market positioning, competitive positioning and competitive responses. -- Specialized market response models for slow-moving products such as consumer electronics and specialized hard goods. "We believe that Manugistics DRM offers the market's most holistic, comprehensive and sophisticated approach to help overcome the continuing challenge of balancing retail revenue and profitability," said Hooper. At NRF, demonstrations of Manugistics DRM for retail can be seen at Manugistics' Booth, Number 553, in the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York, NY. About Manugistics Group, Inc. Manugistics provides the industry's most comprehensive, best-in-class demand and supply chain management solutions. Today, more than 1,200 clients trust Manugistics to help them drive profitable growth, unlock the value of their existing IT investments, and ensure the security and integrity of their global supply chains. Its clients include industry leaders such as AT&T, BMW, Boeing, Brown & Williamson, Cingular, Circuit City, Coca-Cola Bottling, Continental Airlines, Diageo, DuPont, Fairchild Semiconductor, Harley-Davidson, John Deere, McCormick, Nestle, Nissan, RadioShack and Unilever. For more information, go to http://www.manugistics.com. FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENT This announcement contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, continuing economic and political uncertainty, the timing and degree of business recovery, anticipated losses, unpredictability of future revenues, potential fluctuations in quarterly operating results, unexpected competition, risks related to quarterly performance, risks of new business areas, international expansion, business combinations and strategic alliances, lengthening of sales cycles for software products and services, and the effectiveness of the cost reduction efforts undertaken by Manugistics and their impact on the company's ability to operate its business. A decreased demand for enterprise application software due to weakened economic conditions could result in decreased revenues or lower revenue growth rates. More information about factors that potentially could affect Manugistics' financial results is included in Manugistics filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended February 28, 2003 and Quarterly Report on form 10-Q for the period ended August 31, 2003. Manugistics assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this announcement. Manugistics is a registered trademark, and the Manugistics logo, is a trademark of Manugistics, Inc. All other product or company names mentioned are used for identification purposes only, and may be trademarks of their respective owners. Contacts Manugistics Group, Inc. At NRF: Manugistics Booth #553 Peter Pedraza, 301-255-5330 or Manugistics Group, Inc. Didi Blackwood, 301-255-5330 newsroom@manu.com or Edelman (for Manugistics) Kristine Gager, 202-326-1747 kristine.gager@edelman.com |