Datalliance Forum Brings Together Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) Leaders From Consumer, Industrial & Healthcare Markets

CINCINNATI, OH--(Marketwired - May 30, 2014) - This year's Datalliance VMI Forum, the world's largest annual cross-industry gathering focused entirely on the topic of Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI), attracted attendees from a wide range of consumer, industrial and healthcare industry segments. Attendees included representatives from suppliers, wholesale distributors and retailers. Held May 12-14 in Cincinnati, Ohio, the Forum focused on VMI successes and innovations across many aspects of VMI.

The Forum's program featured presentations from Ivan Bruner, SKF Industrial eSupply Chain Manager for Europe and Tracee Abu, Henkel Consumer Products Customer Supply Chain Manager. A highlight of the Industrial Products track included a distributor panel with representatives Graybar, Midwest Wheel and Wajax Industrial components. The Consumer Products track featured a 'retailer's view of VMI' session where representatives from Wegmans Food Markets outlined the attributes they most value in supplier VMI programs. Both tracks also had multiple solution roadmap and user technique sessions.

In the Datalliance company update, Datalliance President and CEO, Carl Hall, presented a number of illustrative growth factors, including the fact that Datalliance managed over $38 billion in sales, and added over 2100 new inventory locations and 16 new suppliers last year's Forum. 

A 'VMI Benchmarking' session reviewed and analyzed key performance metrics drawn from the global Datalliance VMI database. Data from 2012 and 2013 indicated that suppliers and their distributor partners realize an average 22% increase in sales, 14% increase in inventory turns and 40% decrease on out of stocks in the first full year of VMI, and that those gains are sustained or incrementally improved in subsequent years. Metrics for individual industry segments and other breakdowns were also reviewed. In addition, results from an independent VMI survey showed that the top 3 benefits of VMI are seen to be 'order management reliability', 'managing customer service level %' and 'business partner relationships. A 2014 Datalliance customer survey indicated that 80% of companies increased or maintained the size of their VMI programs over the past two years and that 83% expect to increase the size of their programs over the coming two years. 

The program also included a thought-provoking interactive keynote session on 'The Speed of Trust' presented by Barry Rellaford, leadership development trainer and co-author of the book 'A Slice of Trust'. Attendees experienced a 'wild' dinner and animal interaction event in the new 'Africa' area of the globally recognized Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens.

About Datalliance

Datalliance is the world's largest independent Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) service provider. Delivered as a cloud-based platform backed by extensive customer service, Datalliance VMI makes it easy for suppliers and their customers to establish sales and inventory management relationships that fully align business objectives, improve collaboration, and streamline supply chain operations. Datalliance manages billions of dollars in orders, millions of SKUs, and thousands of locations worldwide for leading companies in consumer, industrial and healthcare markets. For more information about Datalliance, visit www.datalliance.com.