Demand Forecasting is the first component of the planned new version of the suite. Its job is to forecast future demand by using information from the demand side of the business such as pre-sales, which can then be used to inform supply-side activities. A statistical forecasting tool, it analyzes sales and shipment history and applies statistical algorithms to predict future sales.
It fills a gap in JD Edwards’ set of forecasting applications said Ed Stubbs, solutions consultant, and is designed to appeal to mid-market companies. Although the enterprise business applications company offers a forecasting application as part of its ERP site, he admitted that it lacks depth.
In contrast, the existing high-end demand-planning module that is provided as part of the SCM suite has plenty of in-depth functionality but it is not necessarily required by or suited to mid-market user organizations. Demand Forecasting is designed to sit in the middle, offering more functionality than the ERP module in a quick to implement, more user-friendly solution.
Although it does not require the Demand Consensus module, it does work with it and together the two can be deployed to improve forecast accuracy, with the number-crunching capabilities of Demand Forecasting complemented by the more heuristic approach of Demand Consensus for which human input and judgments are the prime source of data.
A lot of companies have appalling demand-management processes internally so we find many are interested in Demand Consensus first because they can start to get people involved in the processes, put the numbers in, and get a number to work to. They benefit from getting the process right, then create a better baseline forecast with Demand Forecast, said Stubbs. 80% of the benefit is getting people communicating with the company rather than just producing a baseline forecast.
It is a hot area of the software market, he added. We haven’t seen a slowdown in demand at all. Companies are realizing that [forecasting] is something they can never be too good at, there are always opportunities to improve. As good forecasting can cut costs by reducing inventory and preventing over-ordering for example, as well as helping to improve customer satisfaction, it is an area that can command a share of the budget. The Denver, Colorado-based company is expected to introduce several other components of SCM 9.0 before the suite is officially launched, and said this is because it is sticking with planned product development cycles.
Source: Computerwire
