DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Symphony RetailAI, a leading global provider of integrated AI-powered marketing, merchandising and supply chain solutions for FMCG retailers and CPG manufacturers, today announced that Festival Foods has selected Symphony RetailAI Master Data Management. The fast-growing grocer will use the solution to establish a data foundation to sustain its fast-paced growth before executing on its end-to-end technology roadmap, beginning with Symphony RetailAI Promotions Optimization.
Festival Foods’ systems have been in place since the Wisconsin-based grocer operated only 10 locations. Now with nearly 40 stores, Festival Foods recognized that it had outgrown its current technology. The company’s initial goal was to run more effective and cost-efficient retail promotions. However, the retailer recognized it needed a more analytical approach, where it could apply science to promotional decisions instead of trusting gut-intuition and determined it needed to replace its underlying system before adding new capabilities. In doing so, Festival Foods knew it could also centralize store-level responsibilities so that teams could focus less on tactics and more on creating an exceptional guest environment.
“As we grow, we’re committed to doing so in a way that leverages leading-edge technologies with AI and machine learning, while staying true to our customer-focused culture,” said Jeff Main, Vice President Information Technology, Festival Foods. “In fact, culture was our number-one priority and Symphony RetailAI certainly fit that requirement with its roots in grocery. Plus, the breadth of Symphony RetailAI’s offering was exactly what we were looking for, covering everything a grocery retailer needs today. Furthermore, because Symphony RetailAI’s platform is cloud-based, it’s going to eliminate IT management headaches you’d typically have with an on-premise solution. Instead, we’ll have a more reliable system across the board, with less downtime and more confidence in the integrity of our data.”
Retailers using a single master data management solution can achieve on average a 50% reduction in data maintenance costs and a 100X faster time to market. Symphony RetailAI Master Data Management is expected to be a productivity driver for Festival Foods, with simplified vendor onboarding and the ability for suppliers to manage their data and collaborate within the shared insights platform. Festival Foods’ data input workflow will be streamlined, with enforced requirements and formatting standards to ensure accuracy and eliminate errors. The grocer will also be able to capture more data attributes than before.
“Our initial goal of improving promotions led us to a broader understanding of the importance of a data foundation,” said Rick Baranczyk, Business Analytics Senior Director, Festival Foods. “The confidence in our analytics will drive better decision making and allow us to be nimbler as we grow the business. We’re confident that with this master data management solution in place, we’ll soon be able to optimize our promotional spend to promote the right products at the right time in the right markets. That single version of the truth will also eventually allow us to ensure the best assortments are on the shelf in each market.”
“A solid data foundation feeds the entire retail value chain, and it is critically important to have in place to support strategic growth,” said Chris Koziol, CEO, Symphony RetailAI. “We know that one of Festival Foods’ driving forces is customer satisfaction and providing an amazing guest experience. With a newfound mastery of its data and resulting downstream system efficiencies, Festival Foods will be able to deliver on that commitment even more than before. We’re excited that the team has invited us to be its partner in continued innovation as we help Festival Foods create an integrated retail value chain that delivers actionable insights across marketing, merchandising and supply chain.”
Festival Foods will be well-positioned to integrate additional capabilities from Symphony RetailAI, including Assortment Optimization, Demand ForecastingAI, Replenishment Planning and Allocation.
Visit the Symphony RetailAI website to learn more about how retailers are using the power of data to drive next-level customer relationships with Symphony RetailAI Master Data Management and Symphony RetailAI Promotions Optimization.
About Festival Foods
Festival Foods is more than just a grocery store. As an employee- and family-owned company, Festival Foods prides itself on providing high-quality products and offering guests an exceptional shopping experience. Festival Foods operates stores throughout Wisconsin and was founded as Skogen's IGA by Paul and Jane Skogen in 1946 in Onalaska, Wisconsin, and is still owned by the Skogen family.
About Symphony RetailAI
Symphony RetailAI is a leading global provider of role-specific, AI-powered revenue growth management solutions and customer-centric insights for retailers and CPG manufacturers across the entire value chain. Our proven, industry-leading, AI-enabled software, coupled with the industry’s only conversational natural-language AI interface, CINDE, provides key users with proven prescriptive and preemptive recommendations that make it easy to identify end-to-end growth opportunities, activate plans and realize measurable profit and revenue growth. Our solutions are specific to key decision-maker roles focused on profitable growth across the retail value chain from source to consumer. With our strong global partner ecosystem, we serve more than 1,200 organizations worldwide – including 15 of the top 25 global grocery retailers, 25 of the top 25 global CPG manufacturers, thousands of retail brands, and hundreds of national and regional chains – all through the Microsoft Azure Cloud. Symphony RetailAI is a SymphonyAI company. More at Symphony RetailAI.
About SymphonyAI
SymphonyAI is building the leading enterprise AI company for digital transformation across the most important and resilient growth verticals, including life sciences, healthcare, retail, consumer packaged goods, financial services, manufacturing, and media. In each of these verticals, SAI businesses have many of the leading enterprises as clients. SAI is backed by a $1 billion commitment from Dr. Romesh Wadhwani, a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist. Since its founding in 2017, SymphonyAI has grown rapidly to a combined revenue run rate of more than $300 million and over 2,200 talented leaders, data scientists, and other professionals.
