Blacksmith TPM Features

Functionality of the system was great. Once you had a promotion in place, you could duplicate the promotions and just update the key information (customer, dates, deal allowance). If you were dealing with a distributor, you were able to add additional indirect customers if you dealt with multiple independents to reconcile invoices. You were not forced to add individual promotions for each independent retailer.

If there were too many users on during any particular period, it would bog down the system. This usually happened during planning sessions when 40+ users where on at the same time.

Thanks for your review! We love to hear from our happy customers.

The quicker processing of the deductions and billbacks feature in Forge. The detailed billback reports in Forge Analytics are also great because of how much data you can include in the report.

The concept of the system is actually a great concept. The functionality though needs improvement. Forge and Forge Analytics needs to be consistent in refreshing between systems. The contract management piece in Forge is a great feature, however, it provides too much flexibility for sales to enter contracts and easily revise or duplicate them which in turn causes errors on the Forge Analytics report.

Yassmin, we appreciate your feedback. As an early adopter of FORGE Analytics, we take your input very seriously as we activate continuous improvement to our support and data models. We'll have someone reach out to discuss system choices that can address the sales team permissions you commented on. Thank you for being a valued customer.

The Forge system is very user friendly. The system allows all organizations within a company to understand the effect that the distributor and operator programs have on profitability. Forge allows companies to keep all of their programs in one place so the data and information is accessible to sales, management, finance and reconciliation/settlements departments

The Forge software can be overwhelming to new users. But once the users get a chance to work with the system for a while, they will become very adept at using it.

What I like the most of this software is that you can keep track on claims and deductions so companies won't double dip such as rebates and etc. It's also nice that you can run reports and have the option to imported it in excel. It's been very useful for our company and also saving a lot of money on the long run

What I like the least about the software is that I wish the check numbers would show in more places like in the pending category other than that I do like it very much it's pretty much straight forward and very easy to use

Easy to navigate, search and complete details.

Some fields are a bit confusing and more time consuming than others.

+ The product is intuitive and can be customized to meet our business needs. + Our Blacksmith Business partners are CPG experts and are forward thinking. + Customer service agent provides us with tremendous support and demonstrate a clear understanding of the current (and future) landscape of our Industry. + We recently rolled out the program for our business managers.

- Data configurations can be complex, but there is always a Blacksmith employee to address any questions that we may have. I do not feel there are actual cons with Forge.

I liked the detail the system provided when working on a pending/recalculated claim and the hyper link options available.

The software could have had more customized reporting.

several ways to search for programs, reports are easy to download

I don't understand why updates have such a long black out period. When do mass price increases system is not available for 2 weeks or more.

It is easy to use, it is very helpful, it brings clarity to the user, processes are easy to follow, and it gives you clarity if you are doing something wrong within your company that employees might oversee.

Actually nothing, the software works as promised by them.

Cost savings versus our previous company

Search functions are mediocre, "lose" contracts

It houses the majority of the programs instead of using multiple programs

It is hard to find programs. The amount of time for processing. The inability to delete/remove old programs.

I enjoy that we have the functionality to approve multiple programs at a time.

The downside of this application is that it is often slow and gets backed up if there are too many users on at a time.

It enables each person to keep track of unwanted deductions

A little time consuming entering the data

The search function and reporting capabilities are excellent.

At times, especially when revising larger programs with hundreds of items and operator/distributor combinations the program can become very sluggish and unresponsive.

Ease of use, customizable, level of detail able to achieve

Reporting aspect has some challenges but they are working very hard with ya to deliver what’s needed and in the format requested

Easy to filter and find things. Support is amazing

Reports are on going, nothing to run out of the box. New broker security setup can be frustrating because you have to drag it to multiple spots.

Ease of use Flexibility Customer support

Reporting capabilities are somewhat limited

That I can input and alter data without assistance from another party or individual

It's not as intuitive as it seems it could be and others can alter without main users knowledge