Retail Point of Sale (POS) data has become much more readily available to consumer goods manufacturers in recent years - yet many of the expected benefits from this insight into store-level demand have yet to be achieved.

An interesting new research note from Bryan Ball of Aberdeen summarizes the problem, noting improvements in out-of-stocks and on-shelf availablity have not really be seen yet to be seen after the POS data flood gates opened.

Ball says the core issues include: a failure to really push that data back up to drive the rest of the supply chain, continued multiple forecasts within companies, and latency in communicating POS internally.

But, says Ball, there is still reason for much hope.

SCDigest editor Dan Gilmore and Fred Baumann, group vice president at JDA Software, discuss Aberdeen's new research, and discuss how new tools to foster collaboration between retailers and manufacturers may be changing the status quo.

On the right, you will find links to download that Aberdeen research note, as well as the VICS guideline for Connecting the Consumer to the Factory.

Not to be missed. View the video now below.