Trade agreements are a crucial element in the business relationship between Consumer Goods manufacturers and their customers and partners. However, it is common for such agreements to be managed inefficiently, giving rise to a series of challenges that undermine transparency and efficiency. Let’s explore some common difficulties encountered in the process of managing commercial agreements. 

The systems used to manage such terms often lack flexibility in capturing nuances and variations, resulting in a lack of transparency and a significant administrative burden in validating customer requests. Commercial terms, frequently managed with the support of spreadsheets and supplemented by information exchanged through emails, are not adequately documented and updated, leading to difficulties in linking financial aspects and ensuring contractual compliance. This informal approach makes accurate monitoring of commercial transactions challenging. 

Why is a digital and standardized approach essential? 

The introduction of a digital and standardized approach to trade agreement management is an imperative need to address the aforementioned challenges. The primary goal of this process is to create a common language within the company, facilitating communication and ensuring consistency in business operations. 

The digitalization of trade agreements simplifies complexity by efficiently governing all terms and conditions with various stakeholders, from Large Retail to Organized Distribution, traditional distributors to partners or resellers, and managing contracts of different nature (international, national, or local) through a single, comprehensive, and constantly updated repository. It facilitates the calculation of commercial conditions on large volumes of data and accelerates accounting processes, ensuring reliability and precision. 

Improving the work of accounting and finance teams is also a significant benefit because, in addition to optimizing accounting processes for detailed profitability analysis, a digital approach frees up resources from manual tasks to focus on more strategic activities. 

Investing in integrated and scalable information systems is crucial to support growth and business efficiency in a global and competitive context, especially in the CPG sector. The digitalization of trade agreements not only enhances operational management but also serves as a key element in building strong and lasting business relationships.