Discover how Netstock’s Pivot Forecasting can give your business a competitive edge.
Are you struggling with inaccurate forecasts? Spending countless hours manually aggregating data? If so, you’re not alone. Many small and medium-sized businesses face these challenges, often leading to missed opportunities and lost revenue.
Netstock’s Pivot Forecasting is the solution. This robust, AI-infused, ML-based predictive forecasting engine provides businesses with enterprise-level capabilities for accurate forecasting and predictive planning. Demand planners can forecast by product, group, sales channel, and key customers. With top-down, bottom-up, and middle-out forecasting options, you can make accurate predictions and collaborate with colleagues to ensure your forecasts are as precise as possible.
Paul Soderbloom, Demand Planning Manager at Edward Garments, says, “In the apparel industry, one pair of pants may have 200-250 available sizes when looking at all waist and inseam options. We use the statistical models and algorithms that Netstock suggests at the product level and then apply historical averages to develop forecasts down to the SKU level.”
Why Pivot Forecasting?
Businesses need advanced forecasting features to stay ahead of the competition, and Pivot Forecasting is designed to address most of the pain points experienced by businesses.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the scenarios and use cases for Pivot Forecasting:
1. Enhanced group-level forecasting capabilities
If your business needs to forecast based on style, color, size, or other group levels, Pivot Forecasting offers flexible hierarchy options. You can forecast top-down, middle-out, and bottom-up for individual items, giving you more accurate predictions for each group level.
2. Independent and strategic forecasts by demand planners
As businesses become more sophisticated, multiple demand planners are often required to work on forecasts simultaneously. Pivot Forecasting allows each demand planner to work on their own forecast, which is then aggregated into the main forecast for replenishment purposes.
3. Boost collaboration and accuracy
Demand planners often need to work separately or send forecasts in Excel spreadsheets to get input from their colleagues or customers. Pivot Forecasting allows businesses to work collaboratively while keeping each other’s data separate.
4. Forecast differently per customer and channel
Certain customers and channels are more important than others. Pivot Forecasting enables businesses to forecast separately for these key groups and combine the forecasts to create a replenishment plan.
5. Improve forecasting with historical event management
Historical events, such as promotions or seasonal anomalies, must be considered when forecasting. Pivot Forecasting allows you to flag such events, and specialized methods for trends, seasonal, and intermittent demand can be captured and reused for future forecasting.
6. Take promotional forecasting to the next level
Pivot Forecasting allows you to tag certain promotional events with a predicted forecast. The feature considers past events and automatically manages promotional forecasts, with machine learning capabilities that help businesses learn from historical events.
7. Have precise control over the forecasting engine
Pivot Forecasting enables users to tweak parameters and apply a computer forecast to various products. This level of control ensures greater accuracy and precision in your forecasts.
8. Involve the finance department
For businesses using S&Op and IBP approaches, it’s essential to involve all departments in the forecasting process. Pivot Forecasting allows businesses to involve finance in their forecasting process, ensuring greater accuracy and alignment with financial goals.
9. Effective weekly forecasting for businesses
Weekly forecasting is now possible with Pivot Forecasting, one of the most valuable management tools for businesses that operate weekly.
Trex, one of Netstock’s satisfied customers, explains, “The Pivot Forecasting functionality provides a user-friendly way to analyze forecast data in any level of detail, and the statistical forecasting has significantly enhanced our ability to plan for seasonal demand.”
The benefits of Pivot Forecasting
Netstock’s Pivot Forecasting provides businesses with the following benefits:
- Flexible hierarchy
- Unit and price margins
- Forecasting for promotions and events
- Weekly or monthly forecasting
- Forecasting by product, group, sales channel, and key customers
- Top-down, bottom-up, and middle-out forecasting
- Collaborative forecasting
- Management of historical events when forecasting
- Management of promotions in forecasting
- Precise control over the forecast engine
- Involvement of the finance department in forecasting
Soderbloom continues, “The Pivot Forecasting function in Netstock gives us the flexibility to forecast our products at many different levels, whether at the lowest item level, product, product group, customer group, or by grouping different products that may have similar sales trends. The forecast options are endless.”
Netstock’s Pivot Forecasting offers a depth, interactivity, and intuitiveness unrivaled in the market. Its near-zero integration and out-of-the-box pre-configured dashboards make implementations quick and easy.
Pivot Forecasting is a comprehensive forecasting feature that addresses most pain points experienced by businesses in the market. By enabling demand planners to forecast by product, group, sales channel, and key customers, with the ability to forecast top-down, bottom-up, and middle-out, businesses can make accurate predictions, collaborate with colleagues, and involve finance in the forecasting process.
If you want to master your demand planning, Pivot Forecasting is a must-have feature. Learn more about Netstock’s Pivot Forecasting feature here.
