Latest News

Decideware sponsors ANA Financial Management, May 2012

Once again, Decideware is proud to sponsor the ANA's Financial Management conference.

This year the event will be held May 6-9 in Boca Raton, Florida and it features some incredible speakers including Hans Melotte, vice president and Chief Procurement Officer at Johnson & Johnson, and Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive Officer at WPP.

Other confirmed speakers include some of the most senior and influential figures in the marketing arena, namely:

• Paul Matsen, chief marketing officer at Cleveland Clinic
• Dustin Cohn, chief marketing officer at Jockey International
• Richard Davies, vice president of global media investment at Unilever
• Brian Wieser, senior analyst at Pivotal Research
• Ed Abrams, vice president of marketing at IBM

Chaired this year by Sopan Shah, Group Manager, Marketing Procurement Nestlé USA, this is one of the most important events on the ANA calender and Decideware is very proud to provide support.

Full details of the event are available, here:

http://www.ana.net/conference/show/id/AFM-MAY12

Decideware named as a Gartner "Cool Vendor in Marketing, 2012"

We would like to thank Gartner Group for including Decideware in its latest "Cool Vendor in Marketing, 2012" report published April 3rd.

This is the second Gartner Cool Vendor report Decideware to feature Decideware - previously we were named as a "Cool Vendor in Procurement and Finance". This new report highlights the work we are doing to help large advertisers make substantial improvements to their marketing procurement discipline to attain spend and process efficiencies.

Key Quotes

Kimberly Collins, a leading analyst in the marketing arena, summarized her findings in an insightful phrase "Decideware helps CMOs make investment decisions".

She sees our work in the context of growing recognition by senior marketers of the importance of optimizing marketing value and the need to invest in that objective, "Decideware provides a next-generation MRM capability that helps CMOs and their advertising functions better manage their agencies and measure agency performance".

Managing the spend with marketing agencies is well known for its unique challenges, which have not perhaps been well addressed by technology vendors until now, as supported by this quote:

"However, MRM solutions do not support the level of agency management, performance assessment and skills alignment that is the hallmark of Decideware's solution."

Finally Gartner make this recommendation: "CMOs and marketing leaders with large advertising budgets and extensive agency relationships and dependencies should consider Decideware for its agency management solutions."

Decideware to assist in ANA webinar: Improve Your Scope of Work Program, Wed 28 March 3pm Eastern

Decideware is proud to be assisting the ANA to deliverthe webinar Improve Your Scope of Work Program, on Wednesday 28 March Eastern - a part of a procurement series targeting their membership.

The ANA states, "In this webinar, Diane Gibbons, Director, Agency Management Global Procurement and Operations - Pfizer, Inc. and Richard Benyon, CEO - Decideware will explain how marketing procurement / agency management professionals can design and implement best-practice scope of work techniques to achieve great results. Diane and Richard will help participants understand how to combine process and systems to achieve a pragmatic Scope of Work program that allows marketers to clearly articulate what they are looking for, delivers agencies greater transparency to help develop their resourcing estimates, and provides procurement / finance with a clear picture of the cost and value drivers that underpin the client / agency financial relationship."

Details of the program can be found, here:
http://www.ana.net/webseries/show/id/PRO-328

Decideware releases Marketing Agency Management Platform video

Decideware today released its 4th corporate video, this time providing an overview of the Decideware Marketing Agency Management Platform.

Designed to meet the needs of major advertisers, Decideware's Marketing Agency Management Platform provides an integrated suite of tools to help manage key functions, including - agency evaluation, agency roster and scope of work.

In addition to the current suite, new modules are in development.

Every application has been designed with direct input from the client base of global marketers to ensure the offer the market industry specific functionality, configurable for each clients' unique requirements.

See the video on the Decideware You Tube channel, here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/decideware/feed

Decideware Conference 2012: Hawaii

Please be advised, we are holding an important annual planning meeting in Hawaii for all Decideware staff Thursday Feb 16 though to Monday 20 Feb, inclusive.

We will, of course, continue to monitor email and phone calls during that period.

This internal conference is a great opportunity to discuss what we've learnt over the past 12 months in working with clients all around the world and agree how we can continue to evolve the Marketing Agency Management Platform, further develop our services offer and generate and fresh thinking and new ideas.

Decideware supports Vendor Relationship Management Conference.

Decideware is proud to announce our support of the Vendor Relationship Management Conference, Sydney, March 2012.

This conference is a rare opportunity to focus on the skills and technologies available to help procurement executives assess and manage better vendor performance on an ongoing basis.

With speakers including Decideware client, Russell Woods, National Purchasing Manager at Australand, this conference offers 7 great reasons to attend:

• Access to an interactive Chief Procurement Officers panel discussion assessing the value of vendor relationships in the procurement process
• Create an optimal organisation and government model for vendor management
• Use supplier alliancing as a tool to effectively manage vendor relationships better
• Learn how to manage large IT outsource contractual partnerships
• Develop a risk and reward model to improve better delivery of contract agreements
• Evaluate and select the right technology that suites your vendor relationship framework
• Applying the supplier assessment & development program into your process to manage the future of your contracts

See the full program, here:

http://www.supplierrelationships.com.au/Event.aspx?id=633950

Decideware releases new Scope of Work video to YouTube.

Decideware has released a 3rd video, this one to explain the powerfully upgraded Scope of Work Manager application now used by some of the world's best known advertisers.

See the videos here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/decideware/videos

Decideware Releases Major Upgrades to Scope of Work Manager

With interest rapidly building in Decideware's Scope of Work Manager application, we recently released a major upgrade of the tool to include features which improve both performance and work-flow efficiency.

More specifically, the upgrades include:

• A configurable approval workflow process which can be configured to clients' requirements
• A facility to embed contractual terms (creating a Statement of Work)
• Powerful new reports - including reports to compare agency fees and develop benchmarks
• A facility to easily handle production and OOP expenses

You can also find a new video which provides background on Scope of Work Manager, here:
http://youtu.be/Eag6utqviUY

Decideware to present at CIPSA Use of Technology

Decideware's VJ Ratnam is one of the guest speakers at CIPSA's Use of Technology in Procurement conference, scheduled for Tuesday 6 September 2011, Etihad Stadium, Melbourne, Australia.

Decideware exhibited at the Sydney 2010 event and frankly we thought it was one of the best forums we've ever participated in to engage buyers in short, meaningful and interesting discussions about technologies which can help their organisations.

This Forum is designed to provide delegates with advice, analysis and education on technology and how it can be deployed to improve procurement performance.

"There are numerous technologies out there designed to support the procurement profession, but which is right for you and your organisation? What are the opportunities for you to improve processes, decision-making, measurement, management and - most importantly – outcomes? How do you ensure that you will get the best results from a technology deployment and how do you avoid creating a “white elephant”? How do you make the business case for deployment and measure the benefits?"

See the full programme outline, here:
http://www.cipsaconferences.com.au/html/uotmelbprog.cfm

Decideware adds 2nd You Tube video

Decideware has posted it's second video on the dedicate You Tube site.

Entitled Agency Performance Evaluation, this video briefly explains the importance of agency performance evaluations and how Decideware can help advertisers to grow the value of their brands via better agency relationships and improved agency performance.

This video does a great to explain in simple terms what can appear to be a complicated area of agency optimization.

Type Decideware in You Tube to see the new video.

Decideware sponsors ANA Thought Leadership Series e-Magazine

Decideware is the proud sponsor of the 2nd issue of the ANA Magazine, Thought Leadership Series, eMagazine.

This June 2011 issue is filled with industry best practices, insightful case studies, and words of wisdom from your marketing peers.

A highlight is the section entitled 5 Best Practices for Improving the Relationship between Marketing, Procurement and Agency Professionals.

The magazine is available, here:
www.ana-thoughtleadership.net/ana-thoughtleadership/201106

Decideware sponsors WFA Annual in Beijing

Decideware is proud to announce our sponsorship of the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and China Association of National Advertisers (WFA/CANA) Global Advertiser Week in Beijing, April 11th to 15th.

This is the only global event for major advertisers and for the first time it will be held in China.

Decideware works with many WFA members to provide agency assessment solutions and we look forward to supporting an event that will offer them new information and opportunities to network.

The highlight of the week will be the Global Advertiser Conference boasting some of the leading lights of the global and China advertiser community.

http://www.wfanet.org/en/events/meetings--conferences/wfacana-global-advertiser-week