Frank Kochendoerfer and Monica Gassmann (both with Industry Business Unit Chemicals at SAP) discuss presentations for an SAP-Insider event. In the course of their 4-minute conversation, they focus on the SAP Price and Margin Management solution, one that Frank describes as a a strategy and analytics tool that allows you to "put your pricing in place". Here's the transcript. The recording's also attached though.
Monica:
Thank you for joining us today. I would like to welcome you to our Podcast on SAP Solutions for the Chemical Industry. My name is Monica Gassmann and I am the Global BPX Lead for the Industry Business Unit Chemicals at SAP.
Here to speak with us today is Frank Kochendoerfer, IBU Director for SAP Labs based out of Newtown Square PA. He will be talking about his upcoming track at SAP Insider in Orlando FL from March 2-5. The Title of his track is Strategies and SAP solutions for navigating economic uncertainty in the chemical industry. An abstract of this can be found on our BPX for chemicals homepage.
Frank, can you tell us a little bit about what we can expect to learn from attending this track?
Frank:
Yes Monica. And thank you for the introduction. The SAP-Insider presentation will be about how SAP solutions can help chemical industry customers to weather the current crisis and continue to prosper. We'll talk about the solutions, the state of the industry, and also how SAP solutions can help you to overcome challenges. We'll also point to the following examples...
- Transportation management - and associated initiatives to overcome challenges posed by fluctuating fuel prices
- Business transparency - enabling a customer to have thorough visibility into their own business, to identify the most profitable customers and products, together with areas of significant cost, need for pricing transparency and so on
- Plant efficiencies etc.
- Dashboards for the chemical industry
- Environmental compliance
Monica:
Frank, you mention the necessity to gain pricing transparency in this economic climate. Can you elaborate a bit more on that?
Frank:
Sure. Pricing transparency is very important right now. we all know that customer demand is dimishing and that is having a ripple effect back to the Chemical Industry. On the other hand, you need to know where your profitable customers and products are. So, it's all about analytics. The more insight you have, the more prepared you are to get through the current downturn and take advantage of new opportunities when the economy picks up again.
So, we have a product called SAP Price and Margin Management (PMM). And PMM really helps customers to get this type of transparency. It basically does a root-cause analysis of your pricing. So, for instance, you start with a list price (that's the list price ypou have in your standard pricing). This doesn't factor in any discounts or rebates or costs for any different modes of transportation (where, for instance you have to do a "rushed shipment") etc.
What if you had a tool to factor all this in? A tool to give you have your complete cost overview and the complete pricing overview? This allows you to even compare to other customers and other products in that range. So, that is really what PMM does. It's basically a strategy and analytics tool to help you to get your pricing in place.
Monica:
Thanks Frank for taking the time today. We welcome listeners to join us in Orlando from March 2-5 or to follow our corresponding Blogs on our BPX for Chemicals homepage.
Links (relevant to discussion topics)
- 4-Minute Podcast (3.8 MB)
- SAP-Insider Event
- SAP Price and Margin Management
- Strategies and SAP solutions for navigating economic uncertainty in the chemical industry
