And How Can We Improve Forecasts With The Right Software
Humankind has been trying to predict the future for thousands of years and with the help of today’s technology, we are finally getting close. No, this is not about the lottery numbers! We are talking about demand planning.
What Is Demand Planning?
This is the process of forecasting the demand for a service or product in order to be produced and delivered to the satisfaction of the customers.
In other words, demand planning is a way of surprising your customers with a service or product feature that they didn’t even know they needed but would love to use.
Demand planning is also an essential step in supply chain planning but let’s not deviate from the main topic and namely:
The Importance of Demand Planning
Many business owners believe that flawlessly executing services and satisfying clients is the most important part of their job. Well, to some extent they are right. However, this is not enough.
Let’s imagine the following scenario: 2 bakeries in the 1900s. Both were producing great bread and their customers loved their products. One day, however, one of the bakeries decided to start offering bread deliveries. People have had never seen such a thing but they sure loved the idea. Which one do you think ended up having more customers and revenue?
This is a clear example of demand planning back in the day. While many would argue that everything is already thought of, we would kindly disagree. With the advancing technology nowadays, we have the advantage of using AI and computer algorithms to our benefit. This is exactly why you need a professional demand planning software.
Having the resource to forecast and anticipate what your customers are going to want from your business is the most valuable knowledge a business owner can have. You will be able to cut down on holding costs and other expenses if they are not needed and focus on something more valuable.
How Does This Work?
Actually, this is not something new. There are many traditional methods known for collecting data and manually manipulating and integrating it to forecast demand. However, this was really time-consuming and it wasn’t worth it. Now that you can easily utilize technology to do the hard work, you have no excuses!
We at Enhanced Retail Solutions (ERS), have the perfect software that offers the right retail analytics insight you need to predict the best path to reach your destination without even knowing where it is. You can think of our software as having an onboard navigation system that is showing you only the new places in town to visit that you haven’t even heard of but are going to love.
How Can ERS Help You
Our demand planning software is the culmination of years of performing the planner’s job ourselves and feedback from both retailers and suppliers. It was designed by people experienced in the demand planning and forecasting industry so that the software can actually provide the most straightforward and easy-to-use system on the market.
Our tools integrate a multitude of data points and logic to quickly and intelligently facilitate the analytic insight needed to make better decisions. It’s something a spreadsheet-based forecasting regiment simply cannot match.
Our tools do a lot more than determining sales potential and inventory requirements. They work for your planning team ensuring a successful organization and rationalization of your SKUs.
There are more than 50 business rules and parameters that can be assigned. The software provides a forecast which gives you weekly or monthly estimates inventory requirements. By integrating and comparing retailer and supplier estimates in the same place.
Also, you can save multiple versions of a forecast and create an electronic copy with comments of any changes being made over time.
This data is more accurate than the one offered by the previous demand forecasting tools as those tools base their forecasts on historical drivers and patterns that are being repeated over time. This model is based on assumptions and one cannot make effective business decisions in this case. Luckily for us, technology is really advancing and we are a company that can offer you one of the best Demand Planning and Inventory Management Software there is.
You can find more detailed information about our product on our Homepage or simply by getting in touch with us. We hope this was helpful!
Image credit: Demand Planning via Den Rise/Shutterstock