The past two years have been hard for Small and Mid-sized Enterprises (SME) around the world as lockdowns came into place, demand changed, and many small and mid-size startups couldn’t cope with these unprecedented shifts. SMEs often have more at stake when compared to global conglomerates or industry giants. With inaccurate demand planning, they were less agile, and could not provide the required products, while unnecessary products sat in their inventory, causing waste.
Historically, SMEs would rely on spreadsheets to plan their demand, which is cumbersome and error-prone. But as the pandemic forced the ultimate collapse of some SMEs, others turned to better ways of planning. Demand planning software, such as that offered by industry leader Avercast by TransImpact, offers a more accurate and user-friendly way to plan demand accurately.
How exactly does demand planning software work? It gathers a business’s past sales data, market analysis, trend analysis, and more to create an accurate prediction of future demand. Since SMEs often struggle with changing demand, this helps them better plan production and provide better customer service.
A well-planned supply chain can ensure availability and avoid shortages or stockout situations. Additionally, by only increasing the products needed, a business can avoid waste or deadstock in their inventory.
Using a demand planning system, businesses can better equip their inventory with the right product in the right amount. They can save on inventory space and excess warehousing costs. And, they can enhance their delivery times with well-stocked inventories to increase on-time deliveries.
The software accurately examines years of product sales data and market analysis to predict changes and accurately accounts for any sudden spike or fall in demand. Acting as demand management software, it helps demand planners analyze their product performance over time and realize the factors that affect it. Avercast’s demand planning software uses 250+ advanced forecasting algorithms to forecast demand accurately for up to five years. It analyzes market and consumer trends, accounts for seasonality, and monitors changes in demand to provide up to 99% accuracy on forecasts. Event forecasting helps businesses account for sudden demand changes due to particular events. It also helps calculate safety stock to ensure availability during a sudden demand spike.
The demand planning software predicts demand across various platforms with point-of-sale forecasting, and the MS SQL technology enables custom reporting. It integrates with many popular ERP or BI tools, and its intuitive user interface saves time in demand planning. To make the software ideal for any business, Avercast experts work with businesses to customize the solution per their industry-specific needs.
To better understand the working of the demand planning software or learn more about the supply chain solutions from Avercast by TransImpact, get in touch.