All Blacksmith TPM Reviews
1-25 of 34 Reviews
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Julie
Verified reviewer
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed February 2018
Our Trade Settlement Team is in Blacksmith Forge & Analytics tools every working business day.
- The Blacksmith team are experts in Food Service industry, - In the forefront of the direction of Food Service Trade. - Forge System is very intuitive and can be customized to meet our business needs, and provides ability to evolve along with Food Service Industry. - We are currently reviewing upgrading to the newest version in 2018. - Continuously adding system efficiencies into system or process to account complexities that we are faced with - Network of Blacksmith customers - Bi Annual Blacksmith meetings
Ricardo
Food Production, 201-500 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed March 2022
Great system for trade management
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.
CONSIf 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.
Reasons for switching to Blacksmith TPM
Company was companing IOC's and wanted all the business to run on one trade system.
Vendor Response
Thanks for your review! We love to hear from our happy customers.
Replied March 2022
Yassmin
Consumer Goods, 10,000+ employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
3
EASE OF USE
3
VALUE FOR MONEY
2
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
2
FUNCTIONALITY
3
Reviewed August 2018
Forge & Forge Analytics Review
The overall experience for the first year was not what was expected. The features and functionalities would be great if it worked, however, the data was incorrect and it took over 9 months to find out that a refresh wasn't happening between Forge and Forge Analytics. The initial customer service experience was also poor and not helpful. Recently we received better customer service when we were provided with a different group of individuals to help us. There is no ownership on customer service on validating that the data between the systems are running appropriately. We constantly have to catch the issues and report them.
PROSThe 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.
CONSThe 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.
Vendor Response
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.
Replied August 2018
Scott
Food Production, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used monthly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed August 2019
Forge Helps Make the Complicated World Of Foodservice Programs and Billbacks Easier
Forge has been a great help to our organization. It has helps us get our arms around a very difficult to manage piece of the Foodservice business.
PROSThe 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
CONSThe 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.
Reasons for switching to Blacksmith TPM
The more options that Blacksmith Forge offered to us and the overall quality of the product.
Lupe
Food Production, 201-500 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed August 2018
Great software
My overall experience with GoSimple is very good you have everything you need in one system easy to use and track and see claims and run reports. I also like that you can see all categories on Home page so you know what category is priority and let's you know when contracts are expiring
PROSWhat 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
CONSWhat 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
Timothy
Food & Beverages, 51-200 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed July 2019
Ease of Use
Accounting has been very efficient.
PROSEasy to navigate, search and complete details.
CONSSome fields are a bit confusing and more time consuming than others.
Matt
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed February 2018
Blacksmith Forge is essential to everyday operations as a Foodservice CPG.
Roll out to our business managers to take a closer look at their trade spend.
PROS+ 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.
CONS- 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.
Amy
Verified reviewer
Food Production
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed June 2018
A must have for Foodservice Manufacturers!
In depth industry knowledge makes the features/functionality invaluable Intuitive for users of all experience levels Above and beyond the software, you get a partner Built to be flexible with it's features
CONSAlthough we realize they are growing at a rapid pace, Customer Support can be a little slow at times. Would like to see a user forum of some type for feedback
Kristy
Verified reviewer
Food & Beverages, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed August 2018
Go Simple - experience
My experience was great, the system was easy to learn as well and train others. It was a personal feel and a ton of support from the account manager Andrea.
PROSI liked the detail the system provided when working on a pending/recalculated claim and the hyper link options available.
CONSThe software could have had more customized reporting.
shirley
Food Production, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed April 2020
Operator Sales Specialist - easy of use
most of the time i able to get what i need to perform my job
PROSseveral ways to search for programs, reports are easy to download
CONSI 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.
Paige
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed March 2018
Forge is an essential part of my day to day work.
- The tool is very user friendly. - Customer Support is top notch whenever we are experiencing any difficulties or have any questions. - The Blacksmith team is always willing to help with any system efficiencies to enhance our day to day work. - Being able to network with other Blacksmith users within the industry helps us learn other ways we can utilize this tool across our Foodservice team.
CONS- We experience a few system outages but the team is quick to work on it and fix the issue. - System does run slow every now and then.
Kevin
Food Production, 201-500 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed August 2018
Fantastic Trade Tool!!!!!
Our experience has been nothing short of spectacular. As a matter of fact, we are pursuing rolling it out to our Retail side of the business as well. The benefits we've reaped from the system are numerous. We have visibility to things we have never had in the past. It's been a great investment!
PROSThe ease of use of this product is amazing! Our user community has had nothing but good things to say about the product. GoSimple has helped our company uncover many, many things that have been swept under the rug in the past. Visibility to spending has been restored and our financial savings as a result of this tool continue to mount. Our company's decision to move to this trade tool has paid off very quickly. Customer services levels are also second to none.
CONSLack of an established CRM tool and trade spend file for analysis has been our biggest bottleneck. However, we are close to rectifying.
Marco
Food Production, 501-1,000 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
3
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed August 2018
Go Simple Review
I've been working with Go Simple for 3 years now, actually I was the first one to use it in my company and thankfully I've loved every piece of it. Go Simple has always made my life easier and has given me the opportunity to increase my abilities at reporting, time management, contract management, communication, etc.
PROSIt 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.
CONSActually nothing, the software works as promised by them.
Nicholas
Food & Beverages, 11-50 employees
Used weekly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
3
EASE OF USE
3
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
3
Reviewed July 2019
Neutral
It has been difficult to find the full benefits of the program without spending a lot of time that is not there.
PROSCost savings versus our previous company
CONSSearch functions are mediocre, "lose" contracts
Reasons for switching to Blacksmith TPM
Cost savings, perceived simplification
Kristy
Food Production, 201-500 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed August 2018
Great tool!
We have so much more visibility then we've ever had before (stacked spending, incorrect deductions, repays, etc.). Working with GoSimple has been a great experience. The team is always available to assist when needed and they offer solutions to help us improve our trade spend monitoring.
PROSIt is a very user friendly tool and the customer service support levels are extraordinary. The return on investment has been fantastic!
CONSThe ability to pull a full trade spend report is currently lacking.
Becky
Food Production, 10,000+ employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
3
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
3
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed February 2018
Overall my experience has been good.
It helps me to perform my daily job duties
PROSIt is user friendly for me because I have used it from the beginning but new users struggle with it.
CONSIt seems upgrades that have been done for other manufacturers can create issues for our company that we are unaware of until something isn't working
Grant
Food Production, 10,000+ employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
3
EASE OF USE
3
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
3
FUNCTIONALITY
3
Reviewed April 2020
Hormel forge review.
It does the job. It is not the most efficient program but works.
PROSIt houses the majority of the programs instead of using multiple programs
CONSIt is hard to find programs. The amount of time for processing. The inability to delete/remove old programs.
Bailey
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed March 2018
Forge allows me to have better insight to our trade spend
- The product is easy to teach and understand for new users. - We have great customer support from the Blacksmith Team. - Blacksmith has an awesome community of users that help keep the tool innovative and fresh. - It helps me perform my job daily!
CONS- Can run slowly on some instances, but if there is ever a complete outage, the Blacksmith team has it fixed very quickly and efficiently.
Alex
Financial Services, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
3
EASE OF USE
3
VALUE FOR MONEY
3
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
3
FUNCTIONALITY
3
Reviewed July 2019
Review
I enjoy that we have the functionality to approve multiple programs at a time.
CONSThe downside of this application is that it is often slow and gets backed up if there are too many users on at a time.
Cheryl
Food Production, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used weekly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed July 2019
GoSimple Works
We have been able to find mistakes that were costing our company a lot of money. We were able to recoup a lot of money from companies that have been deducting incorrectly.
PROSIt’s keeps track of expiring pricing memos which was a chore on its own The best part is that it helps us capture money that was deducted when it shouldn’t have been.
CONSOne more step to do when offering a pricing memo. You have to input the information. We now have a designated person that takes care of that which helps tremendously.
Kevin
Food Production, 10,000+ employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed April 2020
Forge Review
Spending contracts
PROSEase of use, good info.. seems accurate
CONSSometimes is bogs down, slow kicks me out
PAMELA
Food & Beverages, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed July 2019
Pam's Review
Fair
PROSRep helping me! And I can easily look up contracts.
CONSPutting in a new program- some features are difficult
Daniel
Food & Beverages, 501-1,000 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed July 2019
Value for the money
Very Good
PROSIt enables each person to keep track of unwanted deductions
CONSA little time consuming entering the data
Scott
Food Production, 201-500 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed August 2018
First class customer service
Visibility of spending from the operator to the distributors
PROSEase of use, customizable, level of detail able to achieve
CONSReporting aspect has some challenges but they are working very hard with ya to deliver what’s needed and in the format requested
Ryan
Consumer Goods, 10,000+ employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed July 2019
Opinion of a daily user
My overall experience with FORGE has been mostly positive as it is a powerful tool in managing trade that offers excellent reporting capabilities as well as powerful search functions that save time.
PROSThe search function and reporting capabilities are excellent.
CONSAt times, especially when revising larger programs with hundreds of items and operator/distributor combinations the program can become very sluggish and unresponsive.