1 00:00:00,520 --> 00:00:02,440 All right, well. Hello and thank you all so much 2 00:00:02,440 --> 00:00:04,840 again for tuning into yet another episode of the 3 00:00:04,840 --> 00:00:07,200 Professional Pricing Society podcast. 4 00:00:07,600 --> 00:00:11,560 My name is Terrence and today we have a great guest with us who 5 00:00:11,560 --> 00:00:14,320 is going to be spearheading the conversation centered around 6 00:00:14,680 --> 00:00:18,080 turning pricing complexities into opportunities. 7 00:00:18,400 --> 00:00:22,080 And that guest is John Moss. He is the CEO of Flint Fox 8 00:00:22,080 --> 00:00:25,960 International, the intelligent pricing software provider with 9 00:00:25,960 --> 00:00:28,880 world class IP and pricing and revenue management. 10 00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:33,040 An engineering graduate from Oxford University, John went on 11 00:00:33,040 --> 00:00:36,360 to become an economist in the energy industry before moving 12 00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:39,880 into the tech space where he has held a series of senior 13 00:00:39,880 --> 00:00:43,240 leadership roles. And fun fact about John, he is 14 00:00:43,240 --> 00:00:47,720 also trained to use explosive and radioactive devices, which 15 00:00:47,960 --> 00:00:51,120 is pretty cool if you ask. Me, John, do you mind telling me 16 00:00:51,120 --> 00:00:54,600 a bit about the business? What does Flint Fox actually do 17 00:00:54,600 --> 00:00:56,960 and how essentially does it all work? 18 00:00:57,600 --> 00:01:00,200 Yeah, sure. So Flint Fox helps businesses 19 00:01:00,200 --> 00:01:03,520 that have got complex pricing and rebates to protect their 20 00:01:03,520 --> 00:01:07,040 margin increased profits. But the core of our offering is 21 00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:10,160 our pricing and rebate software solution that's we believe the 22 00:01:10,160 --> 00:01:12,840 fastest and most comprehensive pricing management solution on 23 00:01:12,840 --> 00:01:16,080 the market and that's supported by our experienced professional 24 00:01:16,080 --> 00:01:19,280 services team that will help install, configure customizer 25 00:01:19,280 --> 00:01:22,240 software to deliver immediate value to our customers. 26 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:27,280 We've been around for just under 40 years and our R&D team is 27 00:01:27,280 --> 00:01:29,840 based here with me in New Zealand and we have professional 28 00:01:29,840 --> 00:01:32,480 services and sales teams in each of North America, Europe and 29 00:01:32,480 --> 00:01:35,920 Asia Pacific. And essentially we're a rules 30 00:01:35,920 --> 00:01:38,680 based solution that delivers accurate pricing in real time. 31 00:01:38,680 --> 00:01:41,760 And it doesn't really matter how that price is requested and by 32 00:01:41,760 --> 00:01:44,400 whom. When I look at that customer 33 00:01:44,400 --> 00:01:47,440 base, there are really three reasons why a business would use 34 00:01:47,440 --> 00:01:50,680 Flynn Fox. The first of those is to do what 35 00:01:50,680 --> 00:01:52,600 I call the foundations of pricing. 36 00:01:53,240 --> 00:01:56,680 And there's typically some issue with one of those things in our 37 00:01:56,680 --> 00:01:59,520 in our customers. And so it might be they've got 38 00:01:59,520 --> 00:02:02,560 complexity in the pricing that the ERP simply can't manage. 39 00:02:03,120 --> 00:02:06,360 We know that for many customers, complex pricing is a competitive 40 00:02:06,360 --> 00:02:09,080 advantage and we enable that strategy. 41 00:02:10,199 --> 00:02:13,800 The 2nd is around channels to market. 42 00:02:13,840 --> 00:02:16,960 And so many customers are looking at different ways of 43 00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:21,240 getting product to market and their current pricing solution 44 00:02:21,240 --> 00:02:23,000 simply can't handle all of those channels. 45 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:25,400 So whether that's through e-commerce, retail, point of 46 00:02:25,400 --> 00:02:28,440 sale, distributors, trade portals, other retailers, 47 00:02:28,440 --> 00:02:32,360 etcetera, we sort of solve that Omni channel complexity. 48 00:02:33,480 --> 00:02:36,160 That third reason is that their pricing solution is too slow. 49 00:02:36,160 --> 00:02:37,720 This is a pretty common one for us. 50 00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:40,240 They simply can't get pricing done quickly enough. 51 00:02:40,600 --> 00:02:44,080 We know of customers that in the past when they run a daily price 52 00:02:44,080 --> 00:02:45,880 catalogue, it takes them over 40 hours. 53 00:02:45,880 --> 00:02:48,360 And so effectively that's that's pretty redundant. 54 00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:50,760 They can't get them done quickly enough. 55 00:02:50,760 --> 00:02:53,200 And so we have a high speed pricing engine, we calculate 56 00:02:53,200 --> 00:02:56,480 everything in real time. You know, our customers have all 57 00:02:56,480 --> 00:02:59,240 of those channels to market when when you scan a barcode at a 58 00:02:59,240 --> 00:03:01,360 point of sale, it's a real time calculation, a real time 59 00:03:01,360 --> 00:03:03,960 pricing. And so we solved that problem. 60 00:03:04,200 --> 00:03:07,280 And then the following one that we do see quite a bit too, is 61 00:03:07,280 --> 00:03:11,320 that the customer has lots of ERP solutions and they want a 62 00:03:11,320 --> 00:03:14,040 single pricing solution that talks to all of those ER PS 63 00:03:14,480 --> 00:03:16,920 Often see that in companies with lots of acquisitions in the past 64 00:03:16,920 --> 00:03:18,480 where they've got multiple ER PS. 65 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:22,400 And so that's, that's the last of what I call the foundations. 66 00:03:23,200 --> 00:03:27,200 The second reason that a customer uses is to streamline 67 00:03:27,200 --> 00:03:30,400 their pricing operations. And, and that typically is where 68 00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:32,240 the customer's got lots of manual processes. 69 00:03:32,240 --> 00:03:35,520 This is where you see spreadsheets in use, which has a 70 00:03:35,520 --> 00:03:38,600 whole series of issues relating to cost and loss revenue. 71 00:03:39,480 --> 00:03:43,320 Second around streamlining is if they, if they offer rebates or 72 00:03:43,320 --> 00:03:46,520 commissions or receive rebates and commissions and they have 73 00:03:46,520 --> 00:03:49,800 concerns about the right amount of claims, then then we can help 74 00:03:49,800 --> 00:03:52,200 with that administration. And then the last time we've 75 00:03:52,200 --> 00:03:54,880 seen a fair bit in the last couple of years as well is if 76 00:03:54,880 --> 00:04:00,000 the customer wants to use price optimization or CPQ, those 77 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:03,800 solutions need lots of really accurate, robust data and we 78 00:04:03,800 --> 00:04:06,080 provide that. So we don't offer price 79 00:04:06,080 --> 00:04:08,960 optimization ourselves, but we work with, with partners that 80 00:04:08,960 --> 00:04:11,280 do. And, and we often see our, our 81 00:04:11,280 --> 00:04:14,880 solution used to, to give them really rich, accurate data to 82 00:04:14,880 --> 00:04:17,120 enable them to optimize prices for the customer. 83 00:04:18,120 --> 00:04:21,440 And then the final reason that I see customers using US is simply 84 00:04:21,440 --> 00:04:23,600 visibility, visibility of margins. 85 00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:26,560 And we all know what's gone on the last few years in terms of 86 00:04:26,840 --> 00:04:29,800 input price increases, input cost increases. 87 00:04:30,120 --> 00:04:32,880 And so at both macro and granular levels, we can provide 88 00:04:33,400 --> 00:04:36,920 real time margin visibility. Our solution has both buy side 89 00:04:36,920 --> 00:04:39,960 and sell side pricing, so things you're buying and things you're 90 00:04:39,960 --> 00:04:41,640 selling. And so we can see true, true 91 00:04:41,640 --> 00:04:44,320 margin. And so that those are those are 92 00:04:44,320 --> 00:04:46,600 the real reasons that that I see our customers using US. 93 00:04:46,600 --> 00:04:50,440 And so, yeah, we're pricing and rebase engine, we're very fast 94 00:04:50,440 --> 00:04:53,640 and we solve the whole raft of problems that customers are are 95 00:04:53,640 --> 00:04:56,400 experiencing. And as I say, we've been around 96 00:04:56,400 --> 00:04:59,200 for 40 odd years. People might not know that 97 00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:02,360 because we're down here in New Zealand, but we're we're well 98 00:05:02,360 --> 00:05:04,120 established with a really experienced team. 99 00:05:05,240 --> 00:05:06,120 OK, good. Wow. 100 00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:09,000 You guys are kind of cover it all essentially which is which 101 00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:12,840 is amazing. You guys also our big in what's 102 00:05:12,840 --> 00:05:16,200 called intelligent pricing. Yeah. 103 00:05:16,480 --> 00:05:18,920 Yeah, kind of go in depth about intelligent pricing. 104 00:05:19,440 --> 00:05:22,720 Yeah. I mean, for us, we talk about 105 00:05:22,720 --> 00:05:25,120 intelligent pricing it it's really beneficial both in terms 106 00:05:25,120 --> 00:05:26,880 of saving cost and creating revenue. 107 00:05:26,880 --> 00:05:30,200 And so if you think about the last few years, as I say with 108 00:05:30,280 --> 00:05:34,120 the, with the macroeconomic environment, rising inflation, 109 00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:37,880 input costs, what's really critical is to have that margin 110 00:05:37,880 --> 00:05:39,200 visibility. And that's where the 111 00:05:39,200 --> 00:05:42,280 intelligence comes in. If you're a, a distributor or a 112 00:05:42,280 --> 00:05:44,800 wholesaler that you're buying and you're, you're, you're 113 00:05:44,800 --> 00:05:47,680 collecting rebates or you're, you're selling to a retailer and 114 00:05:47,680 --> 00:05:52,400 paying out rebates, you have to understand all of that chain to 115 00:05:52,400 --> 00:05:55,800 understand your margins. And so the fact that we've got a 116 00:05:55,800 --> 00:05:58,640 buy side, sell side solution, that's the intelligence. 117 00:05:58,640 --> 00:06:01,000 And then almost this reporting that we have within the solution 118 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:04,280 means you can look at a macro level and a granular level. 119 00:06:04,360 --> 00:06:08,520 So if you want to see one of my margins by region, like 120 00:06:08,520 --> 00:06:12,080 products, by customer group, even at a product level, you can 121 00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:15,480 see that. But if you want to say, OK, for 122 00:06:15,480 --> 00:06:19,640 this particular product, customer, region, even store 123 00:06:19,640 --> 00:06:21,240 combination, what are my margins? 124 00:06:21,240 --> 00:06:22,960 And you can do that with our solution. 125 00:06:22,960 --> 00:06:27,760 It's a very simple thing to do and you know, lots of attention 126 00:06:27,760 --> 00:06:29,520 on pricing in the current environment. 127 00:06:29,520 --> 00:06:32,480 And if you, if you don't have good data, you can't make 128 00:06:32,480 --> 00:06:36,280 intelligent pricing decisions. We, we know that traditionally 129 00:06:36,280 --> 00:06:38,760 RP systems can't cope. They don't provide that rich 130 00:06:38,760 --> 00:06:41,000 data. When you start using manual 131 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:43,640 workarounds and spreadsheets, then you have data in different 132 00:06:43,640 --> 00:06:45,480 places. It's hard to title together to 133 00:06:45,480 --> 00:06:48,160 get a true picture. And if you don't have that 134 00:06:48,680 --> 00:06:51,600 intelligence in your pricing solution, then we know that 135 00:06:51,600 --> 00:06:53,160 you're going to have errors. You know you're going to lose 136 00:06:53,160 --> 00:06:54,880 revenue, you're going to increase your costs. 137 00:06:55,800 --> 00:06:58,680 We've just some route done some research with PPS and and we 138 00:06:58,680 --> 00:07:02,800 know that 86% of businesses believe that they have missed 139 00:07:02,800 --> 00:07:05,840 out on profit as a result of the inability to quickly adjust 140 00:07:05,840 --> 00:07:08,520 prices. And that's that's a testament to 141 00:07:08,760 --> 00:07:11,480 to the need for intelligent pricing in this environment. 142 00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:15,360 And we know from other research with Forrester, on average 143 00:07:15,360 --> 00:07:19,720 businesses spend about 71 hours a day managing pricing, which is 144 00:07:19,720 --> 00:07:22,240 sort of eight and nine people that are deep in spreadsheets. 145 00:07:23,120 --> 00:07:26,000 And all that means is you're increasing your cost and 146 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:30,360 introducing the chance of error. And so intelligent pricing to us 147 00:07:30,640 --> 00:07:35,480 is a robust solution that's rules based, that doesn't have 148 00:07:35,480 --> 00:07:39,200 errors, is highly accurate and informs really good pricing 149 00:07:39,200 --> 00:07:42,520 decisions. Good. 150 00:07:42,520 --> 00:07:45,800 That's awesome. I'm glad you kind of laid it out 151 00:07:45,800 --> 00:07:48,200 like that and kind of broke it down just for listeners to be 152 00:07:48,200 --> 00:07:49,960 able to understand it, you know, a little bit better. 153 00:07:50,600 --> 00:07:54,360 How, how, how can intelligent pricing, you know, kind of help 154 00:07:54,360 --> 00:07:58,680 recover, say, lost revenue a business may, may, may have? 155 00:07:59,040 --> 00:08:00,800 Yeah. And, and so I would contrast 156 00:08:00,800 --> 00:08:02,640 intelligent pricing with manual pricing. 157 00:08:02,640 --> 00:08:04,920 That's sort of the the the two ends of the spectrum. 158 00:08:05,480 --> 00:08:09,680 And so intelligent pricing effectively removes and replaces 159 00:08:09,680 --> 00:08:11,680 manual pricing. If you have manual pricing, 160 00:08:11,680 --> 00:08:14,160 there's two things happen. It it means you've got people 161 00:08:14,160 --> 00:08:16,360 involved. So it's time consuming, it's 162 00:08:16,360 --> 00:08:18,400 costly, you're busy with those spreadsheets. 163 00:08:18,880 --> 00:08:22,720 And secondly, it's error prone. And we've seen this often and we 164 00:08:22,720 --> 00:08:24,440 see it in our own business as well, when we, when we have to 165 00:08:24,440 --> 00:08:27,720 use spreadsheets that you make errors, you make mistakes, and 166 00:08:27,720 --> 00:08:30,400 customers are very quick to tell you if you're charging them too 167 00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:33,360 much. And you then have to go back and 168 00:08:33,520 --> 00:08:36,320 process the credit notes, resume invoices, and that that again, 169 00:08:36,320 --> 00:08:39,440 incurs a bunch of cost, but they rarely tell you if you're under 170 00:08:39,440 --> 00:08:41,520 charge. And so you lose revenue. 171 00:08:41,520 --> 00:08:44,080 And that goes back to that. That's a stat that I said where, 172 00:08:44,240 --> 00:08:46,720 you know, businesses believe that they're losing money or 173 00:08:46,720 --> 00:08:49,520 losing profit because they have manual processes. 174 00:08:49,840 --> 00:08:51,760 And so intelligent pricing really stops both of those 175 00:08:51,760 --> 00:08:54,600 situations. It introduces accuracy, it 176 00:08:54,600 --> 00:08:58,280 introduces a standard process and it removes the need to have 177 00:08:58,280 --> 00:09:00,960 people in spreadsheets. You can redeploy those resources 178 00:09:00,960 --> 00:09:02,400 to do something that's more value added. 179 00:09:03,080 --> 00:09:06,440 And so effectively you get operating cost reduction and 180 00:09:06,440 --> 00:09:08,720 increase revenues through accuracy or invoicing. 181 00:09:09,120 --> 00:09:12,040 The other side of that is if you're a business that offers or 182 00:09:12,040 --> 00:09:15,120 receives rebates, there are similar challenges. 183 00:09:15,880 --> 00:09:20,040 If you have a process that's manually driven, what happens is 184 00:09:20,040 --> 00:09:23,640 you have all of this time to try and get rebate approval or 185 00:09:23,640 --> 00:09:26,680 Commission approval. You risk paying too much on 186 00:09:26,680 --> 00:09:29,000 commissions or not claiming enough on rebates. 187 00:09:29,320 --> 00:09:32,840 And so the automation of that process does two things, 188 00:09:32,840 --> 00:09:36,160 increases accuracy and the sharing of data through through 189 00:09:36,160 --> 00:09:39,320 systems means you get much quicker claim acceptance. 190 00:09:39,520 --> 00:09:42,080 So you get your rebates much more quickly and your cash flow 191 00:09:42,080 --> 00:09:46,080 improves. And so intelligent pricing is is 192 00:09:46,080 --> 00:09:49,400 the complete opposite of manual pricing, reduces operating costs 193 00:09:49,400 --> 00:09:50,960 because you can redeploy resources. 194 00:09:50,960 --> 00:09:56,560 And secondly, you have much more accurate pricing, a much smaller 195 00:09:56,560 --> 00:09:59,240 claims department and much faster rebate collection. 196 00:10:12,520 --> 00:10:16,520 You know, when you think about businesses, you know, lost 197 00:10:16,520 --> 00:10:19,760 revenue, let me ask you this as well. 198 00:10:19,760 --> 00:10:23,600 What what implications does the current business landscape have 199 00:10:23,600 --> 00:10:26,200 on pricing And you know, what are some of the biggest 200 00:10:26,200 --> 00:10:28,080 challenges you kind of alluded to a little bit, but what are 201 00:10:28,080 --> 00:10:31,000 some of the biggest challenges in pricing that you have may 202 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:33,120 have come across or may be experiencing at the moment? 203 00:10:33,560 --> 00:10:36,480 Yeah, it's really topical. I mean, I think anybody in the 204 00:10:36,480 --> 00:10:40,880 pricing industry the last 3-4 years has seen a much heightened 205 00:10:40,880 --> 00:10:45,080 focus on price and pricing. For many years in the year of 206 00:10:45,080 --> 00:10:49,080 low inflation, pricing was a fairly straightforward 207 00:10:50,400 --> 00:10:53,480 situation, whether you have a an annual price increase or a 208 00:10:53,480 --> 00:10:57,600 quarterly price increase, it wasn't that hard to to process 209 00:10:57,600 --> 00:11:00,640 those because there wasn't much going on in terms of inflation. 210 00:11:00,640 --> 00:11:04,320 But the last four years sort of from COVID onwards, all of those 211 00:11:04,320 --> 00:11:08,200 supply chain shocks, year of high inflation, input cost 212 00:11:08,200 --> 00:11:11,320 changes meant that pricing becomes much more important. 213 00:11:11,680 --> 00:11:15,120 And what it means is you've got to focus much more on price to 214 00:11:15,120 --> 00:11:18,080 maintain margins. And now we're going through this 215 00:11:18,080 --> 00:11:19,840 phase where inflation is slowing. 216 00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:22,360 We're getting a little bit closer to to normality as we 217 00:11:22,360 --> 00:11:24,920 know it, but there's still the odd shot coming through. 218 00:11:24,920 --> 00:11:28,640 So the Red Sheep Sea shipping attacks have an immediate effect 219 00:11:28,640 --> 00:11:31,360 on supply chain and prices. We see, we see freight prices 220 00:11:31,360 --> 00:11:33,360 increasing. We see disturbances, of course, 221 00:11:33,720 --> 00:11:36,480 but they are diminishing. And so we're now in a period 222 00:11:36,480 --> 00:11:39,240 having been through those four years where there were lots of 223 00:11:39,240 --> 00:11:41,080 price increases across the board. 224 00:11:41,440 --> 00:11:43,560 People are more aware of those now. 225 00:11:43,720 --> 00:11:46,200 So every single price increase is scrutinized. 226 00:11:46,200 --> 00:11:47,800 You see it in the press all the time. 227 00:11:48,680 --> 00:11:52,280 And not only that, but demand is, is reducing in some areas. 228 00:11:52,440 --> 00:11:55,640 And so if you're in pricing, you've got this real challenge 229 00:11:55,640 --> 00:12:00,720 about how do I set prices that will maintain margins and 230 00:12:00,720 --> 00:12:04,400 maintain or grow profits, but also maintain that the sales 231 00:12:04,400 --> 00:12:06,000 numbers and, and the overall numbers. 232 00:12:06,000 --> 00:12:10,360 And so it's, it's a, it's a really hard gig right now being 233 00:12:10,360 --> 00:12:12,280 in pricing because there's so much going on and there's so 234 00:12:12,280 --> 00:12:14,040 much scrutiny that you hear it all the time. 235 00:12:14,560 --> 00:12:18,120 The words of greed, flation, stagflation, shrink flation as, 236 00:12:18,120 --> 00:12:21,400 as, as packet sizes diminish, but price remains the same. 237 00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:25,600 And so as a pricing person, you just got to be more aware of 238 00:12:25,600 --> 00:12:29,080 technology and more aware of solutions and, and be more aware 239 00:12:29,080 --> 00:12:32,880 of the, the customer sentiment. You can't, you can't increase 240 00:12:32,880 --> 00:12:36,520 prices by double digits now that you could do maybe 1-2 years 241 00:12:36,520 --> 00:12:38,160 ago. You still have to increase 242 00:12:38,160 --> 00:12:40,080 prices to main margins, but they're going to be much more 243 00:12:40,080 --> 00:12:42,520 thoughtful and you need to support them in solid data. 244 00:12:42,520 --> 00:12:44,720 So again, the intelligent pricing solution that gives you 245 00:12:44,720 --> 00:12:47,160 robust data to make good decisions. 246 00:12:47,400 --> 00:12:50,680 And, and then of course, you have to factor in what's going 247 00:12:50,680 --> 00:12:52,680 on in your particular industry and market in the region. 248 00:12:53,320 --> 00:12:56,880 And so, yeah, the the challenge is very definitely price setting 249 00:12:57,160 --> 00:13:00,920 in an environment where there's intense interest on the prices 250 00:13:00,920 --> 00:13:03,960 that you set. That's good to know. 251 00:13:04,800 --> 00:13:07,480 When you mention you have to kind of be in the know as far as 252 00:13:07,480 --> 00:13:09,960 technology is concerned and just kind of be in the loop and just 253 00:13:09,960 --> 00:13:14,080 aware of what the current market may be showing or what the, you 254 00:13:14,080 --> 00:13:16,520 know, trends are at the moment to help you adjust. 255 00:13:16,520 --> 00:13:19,600 Like you said before, you know you can probably make a make a 256 00:13:19,600 --> 00:13:22,640 price adjustment by double digits, but now compared to 257 00:13:22,640 --> 00:13:25,680 before where you that might not have been that feasible. 258 00:13:25,720 --> 00:13:28,760 But you know what, when it comes to trends, what trends have you 259 00:13:28,760 --> 00:13:32,600 kind of seen in response to, you know, the growing demand for 260 00:13:33,280 --> 00:13:35,720 precision pricing? Yeah, Yeah. 261 00:13:35,920 --> 00:13:37,680 I think, I think continuing that that last answer. 262 00:13:37,680 --> 00:13:41,400 And so for pricing professionals, for people in 263 00:13:41,400 --> 00:13:44,520 finance and marketing and sales, so knowing the environment, 264 00:13:44,840 --> 00:13:47,840 they're taking a much closer look at their own pricing 265 00:13:47,840 --> 00:13:51,080 systems and processes and trying to work out how they fit for per 266 00:13:51,080 --> 00:13:54,600 person. So you know, when you look 267 00:13:54,600 --> 00:13:57,640 inside your own business and you, you look at how much is 268 00:13:57,640 --> 00:14:00,800 manual, how much is through our ERP or through our pricing 269 00:14:00,800 --> 00:14:05,280 solution, what can we see in terms of margin visibility And 270 00:14:05,360 --> 00:14:08,080 partly it's about the speed. So how quickly can you make a 271 00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:10,960 change? And so if, if your suppliers are 272 00:14:10,960 --> 00:14:14,200 changing their prices every week or every month, how quickly can 273 00:14:14,200 --> 00:14:17,440 you change your price and your strategy to make sure you 274 00:14:17,440 --> 00:14:21,440 maintain the, the, the margins? And so you know, to, to maintain 275 00:14:21,440 --> 00:14:24,320 and grow profits, you've got to have both margin visibility and 276 00:14:24,320 --> 00:14:26,560 execution speed. Without both, it's, it's really 277 00:14:26,560 --> 00:14:29,720 hard to do that. And then, you know, beyond the 278 00:14:29,760 --> 00:14:31,840 systems, businesses are looking at the pain points. 279 00:14:31,840 --> 00:14:33,520 So, so where do they lose efficiency? 280 00:14:33,920 --> 00:14:35,760 Where do they have to resort to manual prices? 281 00:14:35,760 --> 00:14:37,760 What's going on? What's, what's the failure in 282 00:14:37,760 --> 00:14:41,400 our system that means we've got to have a spreadsheet or a, some 283 00:14:41,400 --> 00:14:44,120 sort of document that, that that does that in, in manually. 284 00:14:44,120 --> 00:14:46,200 And what are the results of those on the bottom line? 285 00:14:46,200 --> 00:14:48,720 So I think there's over the last 3-4 years, there's been 286 00:14:48,720 --> 00:14:53,360 increased focus on the impact of pricing process on the bottom 287 00:14:53,360 --> 00:14:55,320 line. And then once they know that, 288 00:14:55,320 --> 00:14:57,480 and then it comes down to, OK, So what can we do to, to solve 289 00:14:57,480 --> 00:14:58,640 those? And so I think there's been a 290 00:14:58,640 --> 00:15:02,960 lot more awareness within organizations of potential 291 00:15:02,960 --> 00:15:06,120 pricing technology to help solve those pain points, whether it's 292 00:15:06,120 --> 00:15:09,040 a solution like ours that's very much around pricing execution 293 00:15:09,040 --> 00:15:12,080 and rebate management, whether it's price optimization, whether 294 00:15:12,080 --> 00:15:16,280 it's CPQ, lots of businesses are looking at solutions from 295 00:15:16,280 --> 00:15:20,000 technology that can automate and deliver both intelligent and 296 00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:23,400 precise pricing. Again, from that that PPS 297 00:15:23,400 --> 00:15:26,800 survey, we know that 50% of businesses use spreadsheets 298 00:15:26,880 --> 00:15:30,240 outside their ERP to manage pricing, which which we know 299 00:15:30,240 --> 00:15:34,080 introduces errors. We know that 46% of businesses 300 00:15:34,400 --> 00:15:37,600 say their pricing solution can't manage their rebate and pricing 301 00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:41,400 needs and 36% say they've got inaccuracy in pricing. 302 00:15:41,400 --> 00:15:43,880 And so we know that systems today aren't quite meeting the 303 00:15:43,880 --> 00:15:45,720 needs. And I think we're seeing that 304 00:15:45,720 --> 00:15:49,000 generally across the industry that more businesses are looking 305 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:52,920 for a bespoke pricing solution and not simply relying on their 306 00:15:53,000 --> 00:15:57,120 ERP pricing, which as is often the case, ER, PS are fantastic. 307 00:15:57,120 --> 00:16:00,040 They are necessary for, for running a business, but they're, 308 00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:03,400 they're, they have lots of different horizontal solutions 309 00:16:03,400 --> 00:16:05,120 that don't go very deep in functionality. 310 00:16:05,120 --> 00:16:07,360 And I think businesses and customers are realizing now they 311 00:16:07,360 --> 00:16:09,080 have to go a little bit deeper on pricing. 312 00:16:10,280 --> 00:16:12,920 And then I guess the other thing is what, what it all means is 313 00:16:13,240 --> 00:16:16,160 businesses are very aware of the macroeconomic environment. 314 00:16:16,440 --> 00:16:19,800 They're looking for ways to improve, which is fantastic, and 315 00:16:19,800 --> 00:16:21,080 they're looking for greater control. 316 00:16:21,080 --> 00:16:25,640 Like in this environment, it's often hard to to retain control. 317 00:16:25,640 --> 00:16:28,480 And I think having a intelligent, precise pricing 318 00:16:28,480 --> 00:16:32,360 solution allows you to get more control over your business and 319 00:16:32,360 --> 00:16:34,720 to make better decisions going forward that will hopefully 320 00:16:34,720 --> 00:16:38,360 maintain and grow your profits. All good to know. 321 00:16:38,760 --> 00:16:43,720 I do want to ask you one last question for for listeners, for 322 00:16:43,720 --> 00:16:45,720 those who are interested in learning more about Flint Fox 323 00:16:45,720 --> 00:16:48,640 and what you all stand for or maybe learning more about you in 324 00:16:48,640 --> 00:16:51,160 particular, where can they go to, you know, retrieve some of 325 00:16:51,160 --> 00:16:53,280 your resources or just to learn more about you guys? 326 00:16:53,640 --> 00:16:56,120 Yeah, so definitely go to our website flintfox.com. 327 00:16:56,400 --> 00:16:59,440 There you'll find a number of blogs and white papers and lots 328 00:16:59,440 --> 00:17:02,240 of case studies. That's the best way to to find 329 00:17:02,240 --> 00:17:06,440 out about our business. As I said, we we're clear in our 330 00:17:06,440 --> 00:17:10,160 solution and what can offer. We know that we meet the needs 331 00:17:10,160 --> 00:17:12,720 of certain types of businesses are having both buy side and 332 00:17:12,720 --> 00:17:14,800 sell side means that we're fantastic the wholesale and 333 00:17:14,800 --> 00:17:17,960 distributors, but we're also used by a range of industries. 334 00:17:17,960 --> 00:17:20,359 And so, yeah, we've got particular spaces where we've 335 00:17:20,359 --> 00:17:24,119 got lots of IP beverage distribution, food service, Med 336 00:17:24,119 --> 00:17:27,119 device manufacturing and our team has hundreds of years of 337 00:17:27,119 --> 00:17:29,560 experience between them. As I said, we've been around for 338 00:17:29,560 --> 00:17:32,200 37 years. Our team are passionate about 339 00:17:32,200 --> 00:17:34,920 pricing and pricing technology and we worked across many 340 00:17:34,920 --> 00:17:37,320 different industries. And just as quick examples, 341 00:17:37,760 --> 00:17:40,480 MAPI, which is a global building products manufacturer. 342 00:17:41,080 --> 00:17:44,760 So we help them deliver on their complex pricing strategy. 343 00:17:45,280 --> 00:17:48,840 Site one in the US is as a large landscape supply business, you 344 00:17:48,840 --> 00:17:50,880 know they had a real challenge when Omni channel pricing, 345 00:17:50,880 --> 00:17:53,360 getting all their stores, trade bars, e-commerce working 346 00:17:53,360 --> 00:17:55,560 together. And so we solve their problems 347 00:17:55,560 --> 00:17:57,760 for them. And then Coca-Cola in Africa 348 00:17:58,080 --> 00:18:02,320 have some pretty complex sort of local and cross-border taxes 349 00:18:02,320 --> 00:18:04,840 they have to deal with them. And again, our pricing solution 350 00:18:04,840 --> 00:18:08,640 has lots of functionality that that's creates audit trails 351 00:18:08,640 --> 00:18:11,280 around pricing and that's been really useful with government 352 00:18:11,280 --> 00:18:13,240 agencies. And so if you go to our website, 353 00:18:13,240 --> 00:18:16,160 you'll see those case studies and you'll see a whole bunch of 354 00:18:16,160 --> 00:18:18,880 information through white papers and blogs that will help you 355 00:18:18,880 --> 00:18:22,200 understand what we do. OK, sounds good. 356 00:18:22,240 --> 00:18:24,360 Thank you so much. John Moss with Flintfox. 357 00:18:24,720 --> 00:18:27,000 For those who are interested, you can visit flintfox.com. 358 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:30,440 You can also learn more about PPS as well by visiting Pricing 359 00:18:30,440 --> 00:18:33,640 society.com and just to learn more about the different pricing 360 00:18:33,640 --> 00:18:37,480 opportunities and pricing trends and topics that are happening in 361 00:18:37,480 --> 00:18:39,360 today's market and in today's world. 362 00:18:39,800 --> 00:18:41,680 Until next time you all have a good one. 363 00:18:41,920 --> 00:18:42,200 Bye bye.