Smart IP&O

Smart Sales Forecasting at PROCON

Comentarios: SDP has bridged the gap between sales and supply chain team. Forecast is based on communication with customers which had also made relationship between account manager and customer stronger. SDP has also helped identifying new customer and/or product and made onboarding of either new product and/or customer seamless. This helps in preparing the supply chain and production with right components and helps fulfilling the customer commitment especially the new one.

Puntos a favor:

We customized SDP to give us visibility on customer’s business by finished SKU. SDP Dashboard provides historical sales in a glance both by number and in graphical view. Depending on the scenario and preference data presentation either in text or visual provides key insights in past usage. SDP automatically picks up the most appropriate forecast method based on the trend. SDP provides us framework for the tiered customers identified for forecasting. SDP’s forecast is often the starting point of conversations with customers driving our 80% of business (revenue). Customer and account manager collaboration helps fine tuning the forecast in SDP platform. For rest of the customers driving 20% business, we let SDP drive the forecast, in other words we use system generated forecast. This process is working in great favor for us as forecast vs. actuals (revenue) is within 3-5%. Forecast accuracy is also a great tool and provides means to dig deep if forecast is off for specific customer and/or SKU The product took some time for team to get familiar with. There were several iterations where we took team’s feedback to Smart team and tweaked the tool and data presentation to our need. Smart team was very helpful and efficient throughout the process.

Puntos en contra:

We needed Smart’s help to apply some of the more advanced functions, such as the treatment of new or zero demand items, but the functionality was solid The application is powered by transactional data automatically delivered from our Epicor ERP. This can introduce some complexity at first, but the benefits are great – eliminating the need for database creations and management, and providing fine-grained data for sophisticated analysis

Exceptional

Comentarios: We have a much better inventory position largely due to using Smart IP&O. Our inventories are better aligned with the customer demand and timing of the demand. We are able to better identify trends and pick up on changes in a more effective manner by using Smart IP&O. We are also able to provide the leadership team and our factory partners with projections regarding our anticipated demand. In addition, our inventory turns have increased. Smart has been very valuable in our S&OP processes and has made a positive difference in our inventories.

Puntos a favor:

Smart IP&O is user friendly, easy to learn, and navigate. It's ability to leverage various mathematical forecasting techniques is one of my favorite attributes. It is a great help in our capability to respond to unplanned demand changes, without creating obsolescence.

Puntos en contra:

Smart IP&O does not have the functionality to perform an ABC stratification. This feature would be useful to our business segments and a time saver for us.

Alternativas consideradas previamente: Logility Platform, Insight Supplychain Application, Forecast Pro y JD Edwards EnterpriseOne

Razones para elegir Smart IP&O: We desired a tool that was less challenging to use while maintaining or increasing effectivity.

Software anterior: Logility Platform

Razones para cambiar a Smart IP&O: Smart IP&O introduced us to an extremely knowledgeable, customer centric team along with a terrific product that we could use to forecast our business with ease. The team listened to every concern and actively worked to get us what we wanted and where we needed to be.

Steelfire Equipment Ltd.

Comentarios: Good so far!

Puntos a favor:

The software UI is effortless and easy to navigate.

Puntos en contra:

Not necessarily a con, but initially it does take a while to customize the settings to your business operational goals. However, the learning curve is not that steep.

SMART for Flexco

Comentarios: Our forecast was not our complete product offering and always depended too much on history. We struggled to forecast specifically and used general families that failed to affect our specific items. Our excel sheets were slow and cumbersome and we couldn’t drill down quickly through are data and had no ability to see projected outcomes with different inputs. SMART has given us the ability to solve all of the above and has always been quick to respond to service and questions we may have.

Puntos a favor:

The ease of processing large amounts of data. Adjusting quickly at different levels that flow through was a huge improvement to our process. Being able to make changes at different levels of our product hierarchy achieved more buy in from marketing. SMART has allowed our general information from sales turn into specific product builds.

Puntos en contra:

Being able to consolidate all the different projects into a report and show how well we are doing would be very helpful. I'd love to be able to see my snapshot, SMART and how we did in my product hierarchy across all projects without having to run each project to pull the data. I have not reached out about the custom options SMART provides so this con may be on my end.

Automate Demand Planing and eliminate spreadsheets

Comentarios: Our experience has been very positive. The team at SMART is great to work with and provide quick support when needed.

Puntos a favor:

The tight integration with our Epicor ERP\Kinetic software. Without a solution to generate demand for our high mix - low volume products we would be in the dark. This tool replaces a bunch of spreadsheets that where never populate with live data.

Puntos en contra:

The cost is a bit high for our size company. There are many features we do not use. This product is like any feature rich product it takes ownership and dedication to fully utilize.

Alternativas consideradas previamente: Forecast Pro

Razones para cambiar a Smart IP&O: A few reasons we chose SMART:- Cloud-Based- Integration with Epicor ERP\Kinetic- Feature and superior forecast modeling