Schneider Electric trusts Price Observatory to help them maintain its leadership position and optimize its margins

Schneider Electric is a global company with several divisions and an operational structure for each country. Each division is responsible for creating products based on its expertise.

Patrick MOREAU is responsible for pricing for one of Schneider Electric's divisions. He issues price recommendations for each product according to their perceived value and market trends by country.

Patrick MOREAU, Head of Pricing at Schneider Electric, tells us about the monitoring and pricing challenges he faced:

"During the COVID crisis, our B2C division experienced dramatic growth, due to the rise of DIY trends among consumers. Our sales via e-tailers and specialist stores increased sharply and we needed information on our competitors. At the time, we were completely blind on this matter.

We started benchmarking scraping and competitive intelligence tools to monitor our competitors.

Additionally, our e-commerce Business Unit also needed to know our resellers' available stocks and check whether or not they were applying our pricing recommendations.

We chose Price Observatory for its flexibility and ability to make tailored products.

They were the only vendor keen on adapting their solution to our applications and needs.

After writing a precise set of specifications, solution implementation was rather simple. We had to adapt the vocabulary to make it stick to our business jargon. We also made some customizations to adapt the solution to our needs.

For example, we set up filter levels tailored to our internal product pyramid. We trusted Price Observatory with this step.

We also decided to simplify things, because there were too many accounts. This allowed Price Observatory to rationalize the scrapping process.

Sometimes, we still need developments on the solution to answer new data needs.

We have access to an interface used by both people on the e-commerce and the business side.

Country managers use the Business Intelligence functions developed to meet their needs of price trend monitoring by country. These new dashboards are extremely useful for business users, country managers, and channel managers who can connect directly to the interface.

I still need to combine Price Observatory's data with other relevant internal data. To do so, I retrieve the raw data from the solution via APIs; I then couple this data with other internal data and use the BI tool "Table" to define my price recommendations.

We also really appreciate the responsiveness of the customer service; Schneider Electric is a large company, which is not always easy for our suppliers to manage. Price Observatory has always been very attentive to grasp our internal challenges. They were able to adapt to our organizational and billing constraints. They have also shown great flexibility and excellent listening skills, thus building the trust we needed.

We also help countries with their Go-To-Market strategy, as products are marketed through several distribution channels: B2B, B2C (including e-commerce)... Price Observatory is especially suitable for monitoring eCommerce.

We analyze the prices our dealers set for our products, as well as the products of our competitors. Marketing also benefits from a global market trend vision.

During COVID, we had to increase our prices because of the cost of raw materials. We were able to see the price strategy applied by our competitors and check if they were following our logic.

Our need is mainly focused on price management, especially our flagship products. We have to find a delicate balance between optimizing margins and remaining competitive in the market. Price Observatory meets this requirement perfectly.

As a market leader, we must constantly monitor our dealers' prices and be aware of our competitors' strategies. This price intelligence solution gives us visibility and helps us adjust our prices to maintain our leadership position.

We also use Price Observatory to check the existing flows between different sales channels in different countries.

It also helps us to decide on price increases while maintaining a balance between sales volume and profitability.

However, what truly sets Price Observatory apart is its reliability. We can trust the data they provide, which is essential to make strategic decisions. Moreover, the team behind Price Observatory is responsive and efficient. Whenever we have an idea or problem, they help us solve it quickly.