PROJECT INFO QUICKLY MEETING OBJECTIVES

JAMES TENSER

SAN FRANCISCO -- Project Info, the multi-company effort to create standards for the electronic communication of sales and promotion information among brand marketers, brokers and retailers, is moving quickly from development into implementation:

A total of 16 manufacturers are now actively participating in pilots or expanded tests, along with dozens of food brokers.

Use of the market development fund transaction sets has been routine at several companies for nearly a year now.

Off-the-shelf software packages that manufacturers and brokers can use to quickly begin electronic data interchange are now on the market from as many as seven vendors.

A major pilot is being readied for the first quarter of 1995 to test use of the retail sales call reporting transaction sets.

These Project Info updates were presented to attendees of the National Food Brokers Association 1994 Convention here earlier this month by a panel of experts, including Chris Frapwell, EDI project coordinator for the Uniform Code Council, Dayton, Ohio; John Hans, group vice president of Crown Inc., the Los Angeles-based brokerage firm, and Bob Drury, vice president of management information systems for Pet Inc., St. Louis.

Their reports portrayed an initiative that is largely meeting its objectives on schedule, but they also called for more participants among the manufacturer and broker communities.

Frapwell explained that a key purpose of Project Info is to head off the proliferation of proprietary software systems, which can potentially overload a broker force and undermine its fundamental economies of scale.

Added Hans of Crown, "Brokers are being asked to run various proprietary manufacturer systems. There is a concern that these would proliferate in the future.

"We should be able to eliminate implementation of individual systems," he said.

Project Info began with three primary objectives, Frapwell said. They were to gain industrywide consensus on information requirements, to facilitate development of new Uniform Communications Standard transaction sets, and to market and promote the use of the new transaction sets.

"By and large these have been met," said Frapwell.

Project Info began with transaction sets for market development funds, which Pet Inc. began pilot testing with its brokers in the fourth quarter of 1993 and which are now gaining wider use.

Transaction sets for retail sales call reporting, return merchandise and unsaleables, deduction research and broker commission statements have also been developed, but these are not in widespread use, said Frapwell.

In the area of retail sales call reporting, which allows brokers to transmit information about store characteristics and customer call reports to manufacturers, a "major pilot" has been scheduled for the first quarter of 1995. Frapwell did not name the broker and manufacturer who will participate.

The return merchandise and unsaleables transaction set has been "very sparsely used" so far. "We are looking for more companies to participate," Frapwell said.

Finally, in the area of deduction research and commissions, neither the payment advice nor deduction research transaction sets are being used by any one at this point. "No pilots have been scheduled as yet," he said, repeating his call for volunteers.

Hans said that currently seven broker software companies are in development or testing stages of Project Info software applications. In addition, at least 10 brokers and 16 manufacturers are participating. He invited interested manufacturers and brokers to participate in the Project Info Share Group.

Pet Inc.'s Drury named Dial Corp. and Tyson Foods as the most recent additions to the group. They join Pet Inc., Clorox, Nabisco, DowBrands, Pillsbury, Reckitt & Colman, Tambrands, Veryfine Products and Golden Cat among manufacturer participants in the standard-setting activity.

Pet Inc. has so far focused on MDF allocation, Drury said. He explained that under the current method, the broker breaks MDF funds down by event and by retailer and then allocates the money and sends the information back.

"The company is about to start a new process, under which the broker sends a request for payment and we send the customer a check, or an EDI payment," he added.

He said that Pet Inc. has essentially copied Pillsbury's concept of taking the MDF dollars off-invoice right in the order flow. He called the approach, "very new, very promising."

"Pillsbury has achieved 50% to 55% reduction in deductions where this has been implemented," Drury said.

Pet Inc. is now exchanging EDI information with 55 dry grocery brokers and 52 frozen food brokers, he said. "That, in our case, is critical mass."