Sitting on POS Data or Using It?

A hunker-down approach to boost revenues and cut expenses

by Kathleen Kiley, Editor, Channel Management Insights

With information technology spending slashed this year, how will IT manufacturers capture a slice of modest corporate spending this year? 

Forrester Research, for instance, predicts corporations and government will increase spending on IT goods and services by a modest 1.6 percent in 2009. In the prior year, spending on IT was less anemic: Spending grew by 4.1 percent.

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Hunker down AND grow? Consider leveraging POS data 

With 2009 expected to be a repeat of 2008, manufacturers are likely to hunker down, contract and slash costs. Want some unexpected growth, too? Read our feature story to find out how point-of-sales (POS) data can help you better track inventory and get more out of your marketing dollars. 

Since market development funds have become a priority for many vendors, in our last dilemma, a reader asked about how to best manage those funds. Those who responded are divided on whether vendors should give funds to channel partners or take a more hands-on approach and micromanage partners' marketing efforts. 

Along the same lines as the feature story  --  this month, a reader  would like your help to best leverage POS data. This newsletter must be valuable to you; otherwise, we're not doing our jobs. How can we better serve you? For completing our survey, we enter your name into a drawing for a $100 Visa gift card.

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