knowledge/faqs/use_cases.md

# NegOptim — Use Cases and User Stories

## Use Cases for Manufacturers

### Use Case: Key Account Manager preparing for annual negotiations

**Profile:** Account Manager at a consumer goods brand managing 5 major retail customers

**Challenge:** Preparing for annual price increase negotiations with buyers who have access to detailed sales data the KAM doesn't have consolidated.

**How NegOptim helps:**
- Calculates Average Weighted Increase (AWI) automatically per customer
- Simulates hundreds of scenarios at item and bulk level before the meeting
- Provides a clear Price Waterfall showing off- and on-invoice details
- Gives the KAM the same consolidated view as the buyer — or better

**Outcome:** The KAM walks into negotiations informed, prepared, and focused on strategy rather than data preparation.

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### Use Case: Category Manager tracking promotional ROI

**Profile:** Category Manager at a CPG manufacturer managing seasonal promotions across 3 retail chains

**Challenge:** Promotional budgets are consumed faster than anticipated, and ROI is only measured after the fact.

**How NegOptim helps:**
- Monitors promotion budgets throughout the cycle in real time
- Tracks sell-in / sell-out calculations by brand and period
- Verifies return on investment (ROI) per promotion
- Enables budget adjustments before overspending occurs

**Outcome:** Better budget control and real-time visibility over promotional investments.

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### Use Case: CFO monitoring financial provisions

**Profile:** Chief Financial Officer at a major FMCG company

**Challenge:** Manual provision calculations are error-prone and lead to year-end disputes with retail customers over trade fund balances.

**How NegOptim says it:**
> "I benefit from comprehensive, detailed, and dependable financial performance reports."

**How NegOptim helps:**
- Automates provision calculations for all Trade, Digital, and Marketing funds
- Ensures 100% of negotiated conditions are provisioned
- Provides account ranking by financial objectives
- Reduces disputes through systematic, traceable tracking

**Outcome:** Clean year-end close with minimal disputes and full traceability.

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### Use Case: Managing assortment distribution across channels

**Profile:** Head of Category Management at a food manufacturer

**Challenge:** Understanding actual distribution levels across hundreds of stores and simulating the impact of launching a new SKU.

**How NegOptim helps:**
- Visualizes WD (Weight Distribution) and ND (Numeric Distribution) down to SKU and circuit level
- Simulates assortment movement impact on volume, revenue, and margin
- Supports referencing decisions with data before committing to a launch

**Outcome:** Manufacturers launch new products with confidence, backed by distribution impact simulations.

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## Use Cases for Retailers

### Use Case: Purchasing Director preparing negotiation budgets

**Profile:** Purchasing Director at a retail chain managing 200+ supplier negotiations per year

**Challenge:** Consolidating negotiation budgets across all categories before the annual buying campaign begins.

**How NegOptim says it:**
> "Can we succeed in negotiations with scattered data, without rapid transitions from consolidated to detailed views?"

**How NegOptim helps:**
- Budget Maker provides a consolidated view of historical and forecasted KPIs by perimeter
- Enables real-time adjustments and landing calculations as negotiations progress
- Multi-cycle support manages Tariff 1, 2, 3, 4... without confusion

**Outcome:** The purchasing team enters every negotiation fully prepared with a shared, consistent data foundation.

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### Use Case: Buyer managing multi-supplier AWI declarations

**Profile:** Buyer at a major hypermarket chain managing dozens of supplier tariff declarations

**Challenge:** Suppliers send AWI increases via email. Tracking, verifying, and simulating counter-proposals is manual and time-consuming.

**How NegOptim helps:**
- Suppliers submit AWI declarations directly in the Collaborative Platform
- Information automatically integrates into buyer tools
- Buyers simulate counter-proposals based on raw material evolution data
- Shared vision is built through structured dialogue, not email

**Outcome:** Faster, more transparent AWI processing with fewer errors and a clear audit trail.

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### Use Case: Legal Manager handling contract signing

**Profile:** Legal Director at a retail group managing hundreds of annual supplier contracts

**Challenge:** Contract preparation involves multiple rounds of back-and-forth by email, version control issues, and slow physical signing processes.

**How NegOptim helps:**
- Purchasers and Legal Directors prepare contracts collaboratively on the platform
- Electronic signing directly within NegOptim
- Contracts are generated from templates auto-populated with negotiated conditions
- Amendments are tracked and version-controlled

**Outcome:** Contract cycle time reduced significantly with full legal traceability.

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### Use Case: Accounting Controller invoicing promotional conditions

**Profile:** Accounting Controller at a retail group

**Challenge:** Ensuring all negotiated promotional conditions are actually invoiced to suppliers, and managing credit notes and disputes.

**How NegOptim says it:**
> "100% of the negotiated conditions are effectively invoiced while reducing disputes."

**How NegOptim helps:**
- Provisions are calculated automatically
- Mass invoice generation and sending directly from the platform
- Proof management allows uploading evidence linked to contract conditions
- Dispute risk is minimized through full traceability

**Outcome:** Near-zero disputed invoices and complete fund recovery.

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### Use Case: Market Manager running a product tender (RFP)

**Profile:** Market Manager at a retail chain launching an RFP for a new product category

**Challenge:** Managing RFP responses from 15 suppliers, scoring them consistently, and awarding markets while keeping all parties informed.

**How NegOptim helps:**
- Publishes customizable RFP response grids on the platform
- Manages supplier responses, scoring, and selection in one place
- Suppliers can propose innovations aligned with the referenced assortment
- Markets are assigned and data synchronized automatically

**Outcome:** A transparent, efficient tender process with no administrative overhead and a clear audit trail.

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### Use Case: Category Manager optimizing store assortment

**Profile:** Category Manager at a supermarket group managing fresh produce across 3 store formats

**Challenge:** Building assortments that match each store cluster's positioning (discount, premium, standard) while integrating competitive benchmarks.

**How NegOptim helps:**
- Simulates and builds assortments by store type and cluster
- Integrates external competitive benchmark data
- Identifies target SKU counts by price zone and private label share
- Simulates the profitability impact of price variations at SKU level

**Outcome:** Differentiated, competitive assortments per store format — aligned with both commercial objectives and consumer positioning.