# 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. --- ### 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. --- ### 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. --- ### 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. --- ## 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. --- ### 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. --- ### 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. --- ### 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. --- ### 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. --- ### 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.