The 2005 Tech Trends Study conducted by AMR Research and Consumer Goods Technology was recently released. This annual report analyzes the key drivers causing food & beverage companies to invest in technology in the immediate future.

The report states, "The findings of this benchmark study reinforce the consumer goods industry's renewed focus on both the customer and the consumer, and a continued transformation to a demand-driven model. While technology investment is often driven by retail mandates, consumer goods manufacturers are finding that the true key to their success is their ability to get closer to the consumer."

43 percent of manufacturers surveyed indicated that "customer-driven issues" are the "most influential issues shaping application investments over the next 12 months." Industry leaders are already hard at work leveraging "better utilization/analysis of data through out the organization" to improve trade-off decision making.

Two data management capabilities were identified as business-critical as manufacturers prioritize investments:

• Master Data Management to get to "one version of the truth" for effective cross functional decisions.
• Unifying and utilizing downstream data for the demand insights to which the business must respond.

The study looked at all of the critical business processes and enabling technologies that executives are looking to invest in, including RFID, trade promotion management, outsourcing, new product development, data synchronization and supply chain management. QAD's own research agrees with the report's findings. QAD has solutions to meet the needs of food & beverage companies and is developing or enhancing additional solutions to meet the critical business processes identified within this report.

If you would like further information about QAD solutions or would like to discuss product strategies with QAD, we would like to hear from you. Please contact Greg Rodgers, Director of Industry Marketing, CPG at ggr@qad.com.