Electric Power Utility Selects Smart Software for Inventory Optimization

Smart IP&O goes live in 90 days and reduces inventory by $9 million in the first six months

Belmont, MA., 2021Smart Software, Inc. provider of industry-leading demand forecasting, planning, and inventory optimization solutions, today announced its selection, purchase, and implementation of its flagship product, Smart IP&O, by a major US electric utility.  The platform is now utilized to plan over 250,000 spare parts valued at over $500,000,000 across the Utility’s multi-echelon distribution network.  Smart IP&O was implemented in just 90 days and has been credited for reducing inventory by $9 million while maintaining service levels within its first six months of operation.

The implementation of Smart IP&O is part of the Utility’s Strategic Supply Chain Optimization (SCO) initiative to replace twenty-year-old legacy software. Subsequent phases of the Smart Software implementation will integrate Smart IP&O to their IBM Maximo Asset Management system.

Key to the selection and success of the project to-date is Smart Software’s proven track record planning intermittent demand that is prevalent on spare and service parts.  Intermittent or lumpy demand is characterized by frequent periods of zero demand interspersed with large spikes of non-zero demand that seemingly occur at random.  The Utility estimates that over 80% of its parts have intermittent demand.  Smart Software leverages probabilistic forecasting that creates thousands of possible future outcomes of demand and lead times. The technology’s proven ability to accurately forecast the required inventory to achieve the high levels of service the Utility requires and to do so at scale were critical differentiators.

Implementation was accomplished within 90 days of project start.  Over the ensuing six months, Smart IP&O enabled the adjustment of stocking parameters for several thousand items, resulting in inventory reductions of $9.0 million while sustaining target service levels.  Significant additional savings – and improvement in service levels for critical spares – are anticipated in the coming year as stocks for additional facilities are brought into the system.

“We have had many very strong successes helping customers in asset-intensive industries optimize their parts inventory,” said Greg Hartunian, CEO of Smart Software.  “Combined with the Utility’s support from the top-down, hands-on involvement from IT, and user enthusiasm to embrace a new approach, we had a great recipe for success.  We look forward to building on our early success to deliver even more value together.”

About Smart Software, Inc.
Founded in 1981, Smart Software, Inc. is a leader in providing businesses with enterprise-wide demand forecasting, planning, and inventory optimization solutions.  Smart Inventory Planning & Optimization is a multi-tenant web platform that gives demand planners the tools to handle sales seasonality, promotions, new and aging products, multi-dimensional hierarchies, and intermittently demanded service parts and capital goods items.  The solution provides inventory managers with accurate estimates of the optimal inventory and safety stock required to meet future orders and achieve desired service levels.  Smart Software is headquartered in Belmont, Massachusetts, and can be found at www.smartcorp.com.

 

SmartForecasts and Smart IP&O are registered trademarks of Smart Software, Inc.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.


For more information, please contact Smart Software,Inc., Four Hill Road, Belmont, MA 02478.
Phone: 1-800-SMART-99 (800-762-7899); E-mail: info@smartcorp.com

 

Smart Software to Preview New Gen2 Forecasting Models at Microsoft Community Summit 2021

Belmont, MA, September 2021 – Smart Software, Inc., provider of industry-leading demand forecasting, planning, and inventory optimization solutions, today announced that will participate at the Microsoft Community Summit North America 2021 and preview it’s soon to be released Gen2 forecasting algorithms.

One of the most significant challenges executives now face is the increasing pace of business. In the past, forecasting processes typically ran at quarterly or monthly tempo.  Smart’s Gen2 methods harness daily transactions from Microsoft 365 ERP systems and represents a giant leap forward compared to traditional inventory planning and forecasting methods. Gen2 applies patent-pending probabilistic forecasting and machine learning methods expanding on Smart’s field-proven Gen1 modeling that has been so impactful for so many companies.

Most inventory planning teams rely upon traditional forecasting approaches, rule of thumb methods, and sales feedback to determine stocking policies and demand forecasts. Come by booth #1820 to learn about these approaches, why they often fail, and how the new Gen2 probabilistic forecasting and optimization methods can make a big difference to your bottom line. Whether you are a seasoned Microsoft user looking for new ways to optimize your supply chain, or are new to Dynamics Applications and want to understand how a planning platform can help drive revenue increases and inventory reductions, please stop by.

 

About Smart Software, Inc.
Founded in 1981, Smart Software, Inc. is a leader in providing businesses with enterprise-wide demand forecasting, planning and inventory optimization solutions.  Smart Software’s demand forecasting and inventory optimization solutions have helped thousands of users worldwide, including customers at mid-market enterprises and Fortune 500 companies, such as Disney, Arizona Public Service, and Ameren.  Smart Inventory Planning & Optimization gives demand planners the tools to handle sales seasonality, promotions, new and aging products, multi-dimensional hierarchies, and intermittently demanded service parts and capital goods items.  It also provides inventory managers with accurate estimates of the optimal inventory and safety stock required to meet future orders and achieve desired service levels.  Smart Software is headquartered in Belmont, Massachusetts and can be found on the World Wide Web at www.smartcorp.com.

Community Summit 2021 Smart Software Inventory planning


For more information, please contact Smart Software, Inc., Four Hill Road, Belmont, MA 02478.
Phone: 1-800-SMART-99 (800-762-7899); FAX: 1-617-489-2748; E-mail: info@smartcorp.com

 

 

Smart Software to Present at Epicor Insights 2021

Smart Software President and CEO to present Epicor Insights 2021 Breakout Session on Creating Competitive Advantage with Smart Inventory Planning and Optimization

 

Belmont, MA, June, 2021 – Smart Software, Inc., provider of industry-leading demand forecasting, planning, and inventory optimization solutions, today announced that it will present at Epicor Insights 2021.

Greg Hartunian, CEO of Smart Software, will present “Creating Competitive Advantage with Smart Inventory Planning and Optimization.” Greg will explain how to empower planning teams to reduce inventory, improve service levels, and increase operational efficiency. Most inventory planning teams rely upon traditional forecasting approaches, rule of thumb methods, and sales feedback on demand. Our Breakout Session at Epicor Insights discusses these approaches, why they often fail, and how new probabilistic forecasting and optimization methods can make a big difference to your bottom line.

  • The presentation is scheduled for Wed July 14th 10:25 -11:15 AM  (PST) 

1 Epicor Inventory Mangement Platinum Partner

Epicor Insights 2021 will bring together more than 2,000 users of Epicor’s industry-specific ERP solutions for the manufacturing, distribution, and service industries.  To learn more, visit INSIGHTS 2021.

 Join us at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, at the Solution Pavilion,  Booth #1.

3 Epicor Inventory Mangement Platinum Partner

 

2 Epicor Inventory Mangement Platinum Partner

 

Smart Software is an Epicor Platinum Partner and leading provider of demand planning, forecasting, inventory optimization, and analytics solutions. Our web platform, Smart IP&O, leverages probabilistic forecast modeling, machine learning, and collaborative demand planning to optimize inventory levels and increase forecast accuracy. You’ll use Smart IP&O to create accurate forecasts and optimal stocking policies that drive automated ordering in Epicor. The platform includes bi-directional integrations to both Epicor ERP and Prophet 21.

 

 

About Smart Software, Inc.
Founded in 1981, Smart Software, Inc. is a leader in providing businesses with enterprise-wide demand forecasting, planning and inventory optimization solutions.  Smart Software’s demand forecasting and inventory optimization solutions have helped thousands of users worldwide, including customers at mid-market enterprises and Fortune 500 companies, such as Mitsubishi, Siemens, Disney, FedEx, MARS, and The Home Depot.  Smart Inventory Planning & Optimization gives demand planners the tools to handle sales seasonality, promotions, new and aging products, multi-dimensional hierarchies, and intermittently demanded service parts and capital goods items.  It also provides inventory managers with accurate estimates of the optimal inventory and safety stock required to meet future orders and achieve desired service levels.  Smart Software is headquartered in Belmont, Massachusetts and can be found on the World Wide Web at www.smartcorp.com.

 


For more information, please contact Smart Software, Inc., Four Hill Road, Belmont, MA 02478.
Phone: 1-800-SMART-99 (800-762-7899); FAX: 1-617-489-2748; E-mail: info@smartcorp.com

 

 

Smart Software Celebrates 40 years

40 years of Innovation for Demand Forecasting, Inventory Planning, and Supply Chain Analytics

 

Belmont, MA, June 1, 2021 – Today marks the 40th anniversary for Smart Software, a leading innovator of demand planning, statistical forecasting, inventory management, and supply chain analytics software.

Company CEO, Greg Hartunian remarked “Our success is built on continuous innovation. Our mission follows the path that our founders initiated 40 years ago; we provide cutting-edge analytical solutions that help our customers maximize sales and minimize waste.  We are enormously grateful to our customers who have given us their support, confidence, and trust.  Thank you to our partner community of resellers and consultants who have mobilized our growth and shared their expertise with us.  We are also indebted to our many employees, past and present, local and abroad, whose creativity and dedication have produced systems that are benefitting so many great companies worldwide.”

Smart, Hartunian, and Willemain was incorporated in June 1981 by Charles Smart, Nelson Hartunian, and Thomas Willemain, our visionary founders. The firm later incorporated as Smart Software, Inc in 1984 reflecting their shift from boutique consultancy to software.  Over the years, their pioneering work produced the first-ever automatic statistical forecasting system for the personal computer, a patented APICS award-winning method for intermittent demand planning, and most recently a cloud-native probabilistic forecasting platform. All have produced major inventory cost reductions and service level improvements for our customers.  To learn more about Smart Software’s roots and journey, please click here:

 

  Smart Software Company History 

 

Smart Software Logo 40 years

 

“Smart gives us good information to work with.  The service level planning method has led to productive conversations between sales and supply chain and given us a common ground from which we base our discussions. People are feeling comfortable with numbers, and through our S&OP process we’ve been able to create buy-in across the company.”
Rod Cardenas  – Purchasing Manager, Forum Energy

 

“It was deployed as part of our implementation of a new centralized distribution model and highlighted significant blind spots in the original project plan. The accurate forecasts of stocking levels and SKU count provided fact-based data that allowed us to strategically phase the consolidation effort where warehouse space was at a premium.”
Eric Nelson – CPA, CMA. Manager, Parts Supply and Logistics. BC Transit

 

“Its easy for us to give suppliers information they never had before. Our suppliers can plan their production and work with their suppliers. That visibility has been invaluable. That’s where the real payoff will come. Not just reducing inventory or saving time on people managing the inventory but being more responsive to customers’ needs. To me, that’s the overarching benefit of this software.”
Bud Schultz – Vice President of Finance  NKK Switches

 

 

 

 


 

SmartForecasts and Smart IP&O have registered trademarks of Smart Software, Inc.  All other trademarks are their respective owners’ property.

For more information, please contact Smart Software, Inc., Four Hill Road, Belmont, MA 02478.
Phone: 1-800-SMART-99 (800-762-7899); FAX: 1-617-489-2748; E-mail: info@smartcorp.com

 

 

Smart Software VP Research to present at the MORS Symposium and at the Emerging Techniques Forum

Smart Software announced today that its co-founder and Senior VP of Research, Dr. Thomas Willemain, has been selected to present at the prestigious Emerging Techniques Forum on December 7-9, 2021, and also at the 89th MORS Symposium on June 21 – 25, 2021. MORS is the Military Operations Research Society, funded by the Navy, Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, Office of the Secretary of the Defense, and the Department of Homeland Security. Its mission is to enhance the quality of analysis that informs national and homeland security decisions.

1) MORS Virtual Symposium provides the defense analytic community with extensive content on emerging analytics topics and techniques. The focus for 89th MORS Symposium will be “Analytics to Enhance Decision Making.”  Willemain will present four sessions this year:

High-Dimensional Data Reconnaissance using Snakes

The Snake is a new analysis tool that can detect the presence of clusters and estimate their number. Snakes provide a unique and readily interpreted visual depiction of the structure of high-dimensional data.

Coincidences: Signal or Noise?

We want to know whether the simultaneous occurrence of two events, i.e., a coincidence, is merely a chance event. If not, there may be some exploitable link between the events. We propose more comprehensive tests based on models of events that account for autocorrelation, trend, and seasonality. 

Generation of Visual Scenarios for Use in Operator Training

Operator training is enhanced by exposure to scenarios depicting real-world data streams. Properly tuned time series bootstraps can create univariate and multivariate scenarios that meet quantity, cost, fidelity, and variety standards. 

Testing for Equality of Several Distributions in High Dimensions

A fundamental Testing and Evaluation analysis task is looking for differences among alternative systems or processes.  Several new tree-based statistics work well for effects that have multiple impacts in both MVN and non-MVN data.

 

2) The Emerging Techniques Forum provides the defense analytic community with extensive content on emerging analytic topics and techniques. Willemain will be one of a small number of experts speaking in the Augmented Decision Making track. 

Dr. Willemain’s topic will be “Coping with Regime Change in Logistics Operations.”

Military Operations Research Society (MORS) Emerging Techniques Forum

 

Dr. Thomas Willemain’s research at Smart Software and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute helps constantly innovate Smart IP&O, the company’s multi-tenant web-based platform for forecasting, inventory planning, and optimization.

 

 

About Smart Software, Inc.

Founded in 1981, Smart Software, Inc. is a leader in providing businesses with enterprise-wide demand forecasting, planning and inventory optimization solutions.  Smart Software’s demand forecasting and inventory optimization solutions have helped thousands of users worldwide, including customers at mid-market enterprises and Fortune 500 companies, such as  Disneyland Resorts, Metro-North Railroad, and American Red Cross.  Smart Inventory Planning & Optimization gives demand planners the tools to handle sales seasonality, promotions, new and aging products, multi-dimensional hierarchies, and intermittently demanded service parts and capital goods items.  It also provides inventory managers with accurate estimates of the optimal inventory and safety stock required to meet future orders and achieve desired service levels.  Smart Software is headquartered in Belmont, Massachusetts and can be found on the World Wide Web at www.smartcorp.com.

 

SmartForecasts and Smart IP&O are registered trademarks of Smart Software, Inc.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.


For more information, please contact Smart Software, Inc., Four Hill Road, Belmont, MA 02478.
Phone: 1-800-SMART-99 (800-762-7899); FAX: 1-617-489-2748; E-mail: info@smartcorp.com

 

 

Prophet 21 User Group Webinar: Inventory Planning Processes

Smart Software is pleased to introduce our new webinar, offered exclusively for Prophet 21 Users. In this webinar, Greg Hartunian, CEO at Smart Software, will lead a 45-minute webinar focusing on specific approaches to demand forecasting and inventory planning that will enable you to increase revenue capture, improve service levels, and reduce inventory holding costs.  Minimizing excess stock, equipment downtime, and lost sales requires the right planning foundation. Most inventory planning teams rely upon traditional forecasting approaches, rule of thumb methods, and sales feedback. Many companies struggle to keep up, putting businesses at risk when the insulation of a growing top line thins. Our Webinar at EUG discusses these approaches, why they often fail, and how new probabilistic forecasting and optimization methods can make a big difference to your bottom line.

 

Please contact us to request access to the webinar. During the webinar, we will outline the challenges associated with traditional inventory planning processes and show how Smart Software can help. You’ll see a live demo of the Epicor Smart IP&O platform including the bi-directional P21 integration.

 

Smart Inventory Planning and Optimization is an integrated set of native web applications that provides a single, easy-to-use, scalable, environment with field-proven inventory and forecast modeling that optimizes inventory stocking policy and improves forecast accuracy. We hope you will be able to join us!

 

 


SmartForecasts and Smart IP&O are registered trademarks of Smart Software, Inc.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

For more information, please contact Smart Software,Inc., Four Hill Road, Belmont, MA 02478.
Phone: 1-800-SMART-99 (800-762-7899); E-mail: info@smartcorp.com