PLEASANTON, Calif. and PHOENIX, May 12, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Understanding demand precisely enough to prevent products from being out-of-stock while at the same time avoiding excess and obsolete inventory is a challenge all companies face. While there is a proliferation of data available to signal real-time buyer behavior, changing market sentiments, potential environmental impacts, competitive and channel changes and other factors that can shape short-term demand, many companies lack the ability to combine these diverse sources of information into an actionable plan that better matches demand and supply in the short term.
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Today, Steelwedge launched Demand Sensing Insight, a cloud-based solution that synchronizes diverse demand signals from large amounts of data, whether structured or unstructured, to help companies accurately predict future short term demand. Debuting at the Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference in Phoenix May 12 – 14, Demand Sensing Insight helps companies make better inventory decisions and more rapidly respond to business needs based on a variety of factors, including real-time sales data, consumer buying behavior and sentiment, new product launches, promotions, market shifts, competitor actions, weather changes, and order data from distribution channels.
“Many companies are overwhelmed by all the data available to help them make better inventory decisions,” said Glenn Jones, executive vice president, product strategy for Steelwedge. “We’ve built Demand Sensing Insight on a cloud platform that uses scalable technologies proven in social applications, as well as state-of-the art predictive analytics and sentiment analysis, to transform large amounts of different types of data into usable information for different roles involved in creating and executing short-term demand plans. This will help companies improve their ability to get demand right in advance, and to more quickly respond to real-time market pulses without having to carrying excess inventory that negatively impacts margins,” Jones added.
Improved Short-Term Accuracy for Every Point-of-View
Demand Sensing Insight makes data more actionable in part by presenting information tailored to the point-of-view of each role involved in making decisions based on demand. In this way, the solution delivers both clear visibility into overall demand situations and related issues while also enabling individual decision makers to see situations and root causes on which they can take action.
For example:
- Account Managers can see detailed daily demand by SKU, location and customer segment, to quickly take advantage of dynamically changing market conditions.
- Supply Planners gain insights into current inventory situations by warehouse location, potential areas of stock-outs, and current inventory turns
- Product Planners gain insight into consumer sentiment and competitor data and information enabling them to rapidly assess impacts of promotions and new product introductions.
- Demand Planners can focus on demand pulses as they relate to weeks of supply and days of supply, planned promotions and existing demand forecasts
- Executives can analyze how short-term demand signals might impact market share, sales actuals versus targets, distribution decisions and customer satisfaction
How Demand Sensing Insight Works
Companies can choose which structured and unstructured data sources they want to inform Steelwedge’s Demand Sensing Insight solution. For example, a fashion company may want to factor in celebrity news and social media sentiment regarding its lines and the lines of its competitors, while that data might not be relevant to a manufacturer of farm tools, which would want to factor in weather and other environmental data.
Steelwedge’s big data cloud platform normalizes, filters, aggregates and distills the data inputs selected using an advanced analytics engine, data cleansing methodologies and advanced algorithms to deliver outputs tailored by role. An easily configurable user interface enables each user to define the key performance indicators tracked in his or her view to make the information delivered most relevant and actionable. Users can easily perform “what-if” scenario analysis to shape their decisions, and tie granular details to higher-level situation analyses to identify root causes of gaps between short-term plans and real-time performance. Managers can analyze performance at different hierarchical levels, from individual products at a specific retailer to overall regional or global views.
Attendees at the Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference, for which Steelwedge is a Platinum sponsor, can see Demand Sensing Insight at booth #105. Gartner categorized Steelwedge as a leader in the April 19, 2015 Magic Quadrant for Supply Chain Planning System of Differentiation. To view a copy of the report, go to: Gartner 2015 Magic Quadrant for Sales and Operations Planning System of Differentiation *
About the Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference
The Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference is the world's most important gathering of supply chain leaders and takes place in North America and Europe. The event features analysts specializing in all supply chain disciplines and offers an unrivaled resource for chief supply chain officers and their supply chain leadership teams when it comes to advice and expertise, and a platform for the informed and provocative debate that is essential to raising the bar on supply chain performance. For more information go to - http://www.gartner.com/technology/summits/na/supply-chain/
About the Magic Quadrant
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product, or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
About Steelwedge
The Steelwedge Collaborative Planning Cloud enables leading companies to profitably align demand, supply, strategy, operations and financial goals. Connecting people, processes and technology, Steelwedge helps leading brands such as HP , Lenovo , Jaguar Land Rover , Nissan and Monsanto to optimize planning to improve performance across every role to make outcomes more predictable, mitigate risk, and profitably navigate market changes. Steelwedge’s planning solutions provide real-time decision making tools through rich analytics and powerful “what-if” scenario modeling. Visit www.steelwedge.com .
*Gartner, Inc., Magic Quadrant for Sales and Operations Planning Systems of Differentiation, Tim Payne, April 29, 2015
Contact: Todd Craig POP Influence tcraig@popinfluence.com 678-778-4730
