Reliable demand forecasting software

The ease of an artificial intelligence (AI) generated, consumption-based baseline at product and account level: that’s why leaders in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry use Visualfabriq’s Demand Forecast Master™. Saving time creating volume forecasts means they can invest more effort in the prediction of outliers and NPD’s.

 

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One demand plan, one basis for all teams

 

Consumer behavior is changing due to household spend reduction and new consumption trends. At the same time, the margin for forecast errors in CPG’s has decreased as forecast accuracy is more pressing. Commercial teams require accurate forecasts at account and product level to reliably plan commercial activities and review their impact. But the burden of manual analysis, rapidly expanding data sources and human bias, limits demand teams to deliver the required granularity and accuracy.

 

Visualfabriq’s Demand Forecast Master™ provides CPG teams with a reliable baseline forecast at the lowest level of the product and account hierarchy. AI modelling, supported by automated integration of data sources generates accurate sell-in and consumption-based baseline predictions. Include promotional input to build an unconstrained forecast and be ready for reduced errors and aligned decision-making.

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Create detailed baselines, focus on outliers

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Save time planning volumes at the lowest level of account and product hierarchy and focus demand management on outliers.

What’s so exciting?

Granular volume outlook, from every angle and at every depth
Enjoy the ease of automated baseline predictions at the lowest level of product and account hierarchy. Adjust top-down or bottom-up and work exemption based. Roll up to analyze at any level of granularity during the monthly business cycle.
Integration of actuals to improve future predictions
Constant integration of ex-factory and syndicated actuals provides timely feedback, which allows users to respond rapidly to changes in volume trends and improve the forecast.
Include uncertainties in the outlook
Commercial teams can add uncertainties to the volume prediction through a standardized risk and opportunity input method, feeding directly into demand planning.
One source of truth for volume predictions
Feeding the baseline directly into the Revenue Plan and Trade Promotion Master™, commercial teams can base their plans on accurate volumes at the right level of granularity.
Trust promotional input accuracy
Input generated by commercial teams flows directly into the demand plan for review and creation of the unconstrained forecast.
Change assortment with minimum hassle
Aided by the Product Life Cycle, soft- and hard switches are easily managed adopting the forecast of linked products. Add NPD’s selecting a reference product for predictions.

Game changers for demand management

Enjoy low total costs of ownership

Visualfabriq offers its software as a service (SaaS). All customers use the latest codebase, as maintenance and upgrades are included. This is what true SaaS is. This limited demand on the organization is paired with low implementation and maintenance costs: 100% configuration drives fast deployment and unlimited scaling capabilities allow constant growth of organization and data.

Improve efficiency through seamless data integration

With many relevant data sources, seamless integration of ex-factory data and external data sources (syndicated data, EPoS etc.) is key. Through Visualfabriq’s unique data integration layer Bifrost, customers can control their data independently, driving more trust. The result of this seamless integration? Improved forecast reliability, the certainty that financial actuals are updated promptly, and the ability to create win-win strategies that drive revenue growth for both manufacturer and account.

Save time through removal of repetitive tasks

Manual administration, file generation and audit trails take up too much time in CPG organizations. Advanced automation reduces the reliance on manual work and frees up time to take those actions that make the difference.

Remove manual work through advanced master data management

Changes in master data, especially assortment changes, take up much time within CPG organizations. Code switching is cumbersome and manual, having to be managed in demand solutions as well as promotion planning – often multiple times a year. Visualfabriq’s revenue management software features the Product Lifecycle, which handles all product switching and automatically applies it throughout the revenue growth software.

Drive efficiency with data alignment across the organization

The Visualfabriq revenue forecasting and optimization software is created as a single, integrated ecosystem, logically connecting the different solutions to the Revenue Plan and each other. This ensures full alignment of data, thus driving a one-number principle throughout organizations. Efficiency to the max, no need to duplicate administration or manually knit data together.

Increase predictability and drive optimization

Visualfabriq features embedded artificial intelligence (AI), driving the ability to create forecasting scenarios and optimize “as you plan.” This makes the results of the demand forecast management software more reliable and drives optimization at all times. Besides embedded sophisticated models, customers can use their own proprietary developed models.

 

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Can I Plan at several customer hierarchy levels to represent common regional route to markets & customer structures, e.g. national customers, local customers banners, buying groups?

Visualfabriq’s demand forecast software allows planning at any level of the plan account hierarchy. Create forecasts at the lowest level of the hierarchy or create account groups to handle forecasting for a group of accounts. The underlying accounts will automatically adopt their share of the forecast, making demand planning as efficient as possible.

How does Visualfabriq’s demand management software handle a new Product introduction process? Can it handle to find/replace SKU, add new SKU to existing deal etc. in an automated way?

Visualfabriq’s core functionality of the Product Lifecycle enables easy product switching. Link (temporary) product replacements or define what product models the expected demand for a new SKU. As the Product Lifecycle is part of Visualfabriq’s core functionalities, it drives easy product switching in all modules.

How can I define base drivers (e.g. customer outlet openings/closings, competitive innovation) and adjust baselines in the demand software?

Of course you can! Although Visualfabriq’s demand forecast solution is based on AI models as a standard to generate baselines, users can always manually adjust the outcomes. This gives flexibility to include any base driver or change in the market to your plan.

Does Visualfabriq offer the ability to plan “in and out” items for short term/seasonal distribution?

Yes, Visualfabriq is capable of handling “in and out” items in many ways. It doesn’t matter it’s for seasonal sale, short term sale or for a one-off promotion. Depending on the business “in and out” items can be a significant part of the revenue forecast and therefore are available for planning, evaluation and forecasting throughout the software.

Can the demand forecasting software provide the ability to adjust volume forecast for seasonality of products?

It definitely can! Visualfabriq’s demand solution is designed to include seasonality in its forecasting models. On top of that, users can manually adjust the forecast.

Does Visualfabriq support volume impact calculation from pricing elasticity on different product levels?

Yes, Visualfabriq’s trade spend management solution supports the use of pricing elasticity models. Easily add co-efficients of regression models to the volume prediction model and start building scenarios for price changes.

Does Visualfabriq offer a connection to external sources of data?

Absolutely. The unique Bifrost data integration layer enables customers to both load data to the software and extract reports for use in external solutions.

Can the revenue growth tool provide a financial evaluation of the volumes?

Yes, Visualfabriq’s revenue growth tool builds a full financial outlook based on the volumes managed on the platform. It creates a value forecast using the baseline, trade pricing and trade contracts and trade promotion volumes and spend impactors.

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“What we see now is that (AI) predictions are better than Manual predictions”

Data Scientist | Global Brewing Company

The Demand forecast solution for the CPG market

We work with the top of the CPG industry.

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