GoMacro Builds a Foundation for Growth with CPGvision and PSignite

About GoMacro

GoMacro, a leading producer of healthy and nutritious bars, has experienced incredible success, growing from a family kitchen operation into "the number one selling... nutrition bar in the natural space." This rapid boom has brought the company to an inflection point. Anjail Wilson, Trade, Pricing and Promotions Manager, explains. "As we continued to grow," Wilson says, "and were becoming more mature as an organization as a whole, we were looking for tools and solutions to help aid that."

The challenge: The "limitations of Excel"

Before CPGvision, GoMacro relied on a mix of tools, including spreadsheets, to manage trade spend. This created significant pain points for a scaling company.

“I’ve managed trade in a few different systems as well as in Excel," Wilson notes. "I’ve encountered a lot of limitations…"

Those included:

• Complex Calculations: "There's only so much that you can do in Excel, it just doesn’t work. You really need a strong solution."
  
  
• Cross-Functional Inefficiency: "We needed the ability  for the information to be sliced and diced in the proper way in order to help inform different cross-functional teams."
  
  
• Lack of Granularity: The old system struggled with the detail needed for accurate planning. If you think about it from a demand planning standpoint, they plan by the week. We also needed product granularity.”

The solution: A user-friendly tool and a collaborative partner

GoMacro's journey to a more mature trade solution involved two key components: the CPGvision platform itself and the team at PSignite that supported it.

The people: A "really key" partnership

For Wilson, the human element of the implementation was just as critical as the software. She praises the PSignite team for their collaborative and responsive approach.

"We've built a great relationship with the PSignite support team, the right solution layered with the human element has been the key to the adoption of our solution across the organization"

This partnership with the team at PSignite proved essential when navigating complex challenges. "Being able to partner together has been very collaborative," Wilson says. "They help us combine the business needs with best practice to guide us to the right solve."

The solution: An "easy-to-use" platform

The CPGvision solution itself delivered on usability, even helping to win over a sales team that was wary of new technology.

“Anytime you have new technology, people who are comfortable with an old way of doing things have anxiety about change," Wilson admits. "Our team, particularly in our sales group, have found this tool a lot easier to use, which I think has helped alleviate that anxiety."

Results and future-state: "Empowered to make more informed decisions"

In the stages of "crawl, walk, run" – Wilson feels that GoMacro is “standing” and they are  already seeing tangible benefits and a clear path to future value.

• Immediate Financial Wins: "Right now people are enjoying the little wins," Wilson shares. "For example, we have started finding deductions that we can dispute that we would not have been able to realize that we were able to dispute it before."
  
  
• A Centralized Source of Truth: The biggest win for Wilson is the end of data silos. "Having a centralized tool where the information can be put in, harmonized and then come out in the form that we need it to, that is the biggest thing. For example, we are now able to help inform our demand team and finance teams – booking liability and understanding spend buckets."
  
  
• A Data-Driven Future: The ultimate ROI, according to Wilson, is clear: "The data and insights will increasingly empower us to make more informed decisions moving forward."
  
  

Looking ahead - the partnership grows

GoMacro is implementing CPGvision's Foresight capabilities for forecasting. The goal is to "be able to better inform the week by week" and "have more detailed data when it comes to phasing down to the SKU level"—a level of detail that was impossible with their old systems.

For Anjail Wilson, the value is clear, and it comes back to the combination of technology and teamwork.

"Technology can only get you so far, and we've really just encountered the most amazing partners in PSignite. I know that we wouldn't be as far as we are on this journey without them. So, although I do enjoy the solution, I think the people aspect is really the most important part."