British American Tobacco Belgium Deploys Kalido to Speed Merger Integration: Leading Belgian consumer goods company improves access to accurate, consistent information through business intelligence program

Kalido, the active information management company, announced today that the Belgian division of British American Tobacco has successfully implemented a major management information project using Kalido(R) software at its core. Driven in large part by British American Tobacco's recent merger with sister company STC, the new program has helped British American Tobacco Belgium gain greater insight into sales operations from manufacturer to retailer. As a result, British American Tobacco Belgium's business managers can make more informed decisions to improve the company's brand management, profitability management and contracting capabilities. In addition, the initiative has enabled British American Tobacco Belgium to cut maintenance costs by 50 percent and deliver a consolidated, robust information delivery platform 10 months earlier than anticipated using traditional reporting methods. A full case study on the British American Tobacco Belgium success story is available at www.kalido.com/batbelgium.

BURLINGTON, Mass. (BusinessWire EON) September 24, 2007 -- Kalido, the active information management company, announced today that the Belgian division of British American Tobacco has successfully implemented a major management information project using Kalido® software at its core. Driven in large part by British American Tobacco’s recent merger with sister company STC, the new program has helped British American Tobacco Belgium gain greater insight into sales operations from manufacturer to retailer. As a result, British American Tobacco Belgium’s business managers can make more informed decisions to improve the company’s brand management, profitability management and contracting capabilities. In addition, the initiative has enabled British American Tobacco Belgium to cut maintenance costs by 50 percent and deliver a consolidated, robust information delivery platform 10 months earlier than anticipated using traditional reporting methods. A full case study on the British American Tobacco Belgium success story is available at www.kalido.com/batbelgium.

CPG companies must be able to grow through acquisition to capture market share, but any confusion following a merger is an open invitation for the competition

“The project has impressed on every criterion – speed of delivery, budget and all-round capability,” said Martin Karlsson, Head of IT at British American Tobacco Belgium. “Kalido has enabled us to deliver a flexible information management system that will be fully adaptable for future initiatives. For us, Kalido isn’t a one-off tactical implementation; rather, we see it as a strategic solution we can extend and adapt as we extend and adapt to meet market requirements.”

British American Tobacco Belgium developed the Kalido-based business intelligence program to address the difficult challenge of merging the two companies’ outdated data warehousing platforms on a very short timescale. The highly changing business environment demanded a flexible information architecture – and required a departure from the monolithic and traditional reporting systems both companies previously used.

Within just two months, the Business Intelligence Platform delivered consolidated management reports and competitive market intelligence to users across the business, enabling them to make better business decisions and react quickly to market demands. The solution also features an important historical element that only Kalido could provide, incorporating 10 years’ worth of sales, marketing and channel spend, and enabling British American Tobacco Belgium to recreate historical views of business performance and view data in relation to any business change – past, present or future. In addition, British American Tobacco Belgium has since extended the initiative to change the structure and terms of the company’s retail contracts, linking the contracts more closely with market share and performance.

“CPG companies must be able to grow through acquisition to capture market share, but any confusion following a merger is an open invitation for the competition,” said Bill Hewitt, president and CEO of Kalido. “British American Tobacco Belgium has not only succeeded in leveraging their acquisitions, but they have done so swiftly while simultaneously unlocking vast amounts of valuable information. We’re excited that Kalido is helping British American Tobacco Belgium deliver to users the accurate, consistent information it needs to remain number one in its markets.”

About Kalido

Kalido delivers active information management for business. With Kalido’s unique business model-driven technology, decisions are fueled by accurate, accessible and consistent information, delivered in real time, to dramatically improve corporate performance. Kalido software can be deployed at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional information management methods.

Kalido software is installed at over 250 locations in more than 100 countries with market leading companies. Headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, Kalido is backed by Atlas Venture, Benchmark Capital and Matrix Partners. More information about Kalido can be found at: http://www.kalido.com.