Smart Software to Present at Epicor Insights 2022
Smart Software President and CEO to present Epicor Insights 2022 Sessions on Creating Competitive Advantage with Smart Inventory Planning and Optimization
Belmont, MA, May, 2022 – Smart Software, Inc., provider of industry-leading demand forecasting, planning, and inventory optimization solutions, today announced that it will present at Epicor Insights 2022.
Greg Hartunian, CEO of Smart Software, will present two sessions and will explain Epicor Smart Inventory Planning and Optimization at this year’s Epicor Insights event in Nashville, TN. Greg will show how to empower planning teams to reduce inventory, improve service levels, and increase operational efficiency.
- The Prophet 21 presentation is scheduled for Wed May 25th, 11:30 am -12:15 pm (CST)
- The Kinetic presentation is scheduled for Wed May 25th, 2:30 pm – 3:20 pm (CST)
If you plan to attend this year, please join us at either session below and learn more about Smart Inventory Planning and Optimization as we highlight valuable features in our solutions. Epicor Insights 2022 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 2022.
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 Otis Elevator, 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 and Arizona Public Service to Present at WERC 2022
Smart Software CEO and APS Inventory & Logistics Manager to present WERC 2022 Studio Session on implementing Smart IP&O in 90 Days and achieving significant savings by optimizing reorder points and order quantities for over 250,000 spare parts.
Belmont, MA, March 2022 – Smart Software, Inc., provider of industry-leading demand forecasting, planning, and inventory optimization solutions, today announced that it will present at WERC 2022.
Justin Danielson, Inventory & Logistics Manager at Arizona Public Service (APS), and Greg Hartunian, CEO at Smart Software, will lead a 30-minute studio session at WERC 2022. The presentation will focus on how APS implemented Smart Inventory Planning and Optimization (Smart IP&O) as part of the company’s strategic supply chain optimization initiative. Smart IP&O was implemented in just 90 days, enabling APS to optimize its reorder points and order quantities for over 250,000 spare parts. During the first phase of the implementation, the platform helped APS reduce inventory and achieve significant savings while maintaining service levels. Finally, the session will conclude by showing Smart IP&O in a Live Demo.
Warehousing Education and Research Council (WERC)
WERC is a professional organization focused on logistics management and its role in the supply chain. Since being founded in 1977, WERC has maintained a strategic vision to continuously offer resources that help distribution practitioners and suppliers stay on top in our dynamic, variable field. In an increasingly complex world, distribution logistics professionals make sense of things so that people get their products and services, companies deliver on their commitments, economies grow, and communities thrive.
WERC powers distribution logistics professionals to do their jobs, excel in their careers and make a difference in the world. WERC helps its members and companies succeed by creating unparalleled learning experiences, offering quality networking opportunities, and accessing research-driven industry information.
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 Otis Elevator, 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,
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 named a Microsoft Co-sell-ready partner
Inventory Optimization and Demand Planning now more accessible to extend Microsoft Dynamics
Belmont, Mass., February 2022 – Smart Software is pleased to announce that it has been named a Microsoft Co-sell-ready partner as a leading demand planning and inventory optimization solutions provider. Microsoft customers leverage Smart’s web-native platform for Inventory Planning and Optimization (Smart IP&O) to develop consensus forecasts, manage demand, and optimize stocking policies.
Co-selling with Microsoft sales teams and Microsoft partners will empower the Smart Software’s team to reach a vast community of Microsoft-managed customers to collaborate on various opportunities. This process includes building demand, sales planning, sharing sales leads, accelerating partner-to-partner empowered selling, and delivering marketplace-led commerce. Smart IP&O leverages field-proven analytics, probabilistic modeling, and the latest advancements in forecasting technology to predict future demand, prescribe optimal stocking policies, and identify opportunities for operational improvement. Users can transfer forecast results, order quantities, and stocking policies to Microsoft Dynamics in a few mouse clicks helping build additional value and extend the life of their Microsoft Solutions.
Greg Hartunian, CEO of Smart Software, stated, “The abilities to dynamically identify discontinuities in demand and supplier lead times, prescribe optimal stocking policies that yield the most profit, and accelerate planning frequency, are especially critical and central in today’s hyper fluid supply chains. As a result, customers leveraging Smart IP&O can effectively wield inventory assets, improve their operations, lower costs, improve customer service, and outperform the competition. We look forward to working closely with Microsoft to help our joint customers achieve these key benefits.
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 Otis Elevator, 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 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 Otis Elevator, 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
Inventory Planning Becomes More Interesting
Taiichi Ohno of Toyota is credited with inventing Just-In-Time (JIT) manufacturing in the 1950s. JIT ensures that a manufacturer produces only what is needed, only when required, and only in the necessary amount. That innovation has since had major impacts, some good, some less so.
A recent New York Times article “How the World Ran out of Everything” describes some of the “less so” impacts. For example, JIT has kept inventory costs very low improving return on assets. This in turn is rewarded by Wall Street, so many companies have spent the last few decades reducing their inventories dramatically. Focused as they were on financials, many companies ignored the risks inherent in reducing inventories to the point that “lean” began to border on “emaciated.” Combined with increased globalization and new risks of supply interruption, stock-outs have abounded.
Some industries have gone too far, leaving them exposed to disruption. In a competition to get to the lowest cost, companies have inadvertently concentrated their risk, been interrupted by shortages of raw materials or components, and sometimes forced to halt assembly lines. Wall Street does not look kindly on production halts.
We all know that random events have added to the problem. First among them has been the Covid pandemic. As the pandemic has hindered factory operations and spread disarray in global shipping, many economies worldwide have been tormented by shortages of an immense range of goods — from computer chips to lumber to clothing.
The damage is compounded when more unexpected things go wrong. The Suez Canal Blockage is a prime example, obstructing the main trade route between Europe and Asia. Recently, cyberattacks have added another layer of disruption.
The reaction creates its own problems, just as the cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline created gas shortages through panic buying. Suppliers start filling orders more slowly than usual. Manufacturers and distributors reverse course and increase inventories and diversify their suppliers to avoid future stockouts. Simply expanding warehouses may not deliver the solution, and the need to determine how much inventory to keep is more urgent every day.
So how can you execute a real-world plan for JIT inventory amidst all this risk and uncertainty? The foundation of your response is your corporate data. Uncertainty has two sources: supply and demand. You need the facts for both.
On the supply side, exploit the data you have on recent supplier lead times, which reflect the current turbulence. Don’t use average values when you can use probability distributions that reflect the full range of contingencies. Consider this comparison. Supplier A is now reliably filling orders in exactly 10 days. Supplier B also averages 10 days but does with a 78%/22% mix of 7 and 21 days. Both A and B have an average replenishment delay of 10 days, but the operational results they provide will be very different. You can only recognize this if you use probability models of inventory performance.
On the demand side, similar considerations apply. First, recognize that there may have been a major shift in the character of item demand (statisticians call this a “regime change”), so purge from your analysis any data that represent the “good old days.” Then, again, stop thinking in terms of averages. While the average demand is important, it is not a sufficient descriptor of the problem you face. Equally important is the volatility of demand. Volatility is the reason you keep inventory in the first place. If demand were completely predictable, you would have neither stockouts nor excess inventory. Just as you need to estimate the full probability distribution of replenishment lead times, you need the full distribution of demand values.
Once you understand the range of variability in both supply and demand, probabilistic forecasting will allow you to account for disruptions and unusual events. Software will convert your data on demand and lead times into huge numbers of scenarios representing how your next planning period might play out. Given those scenarios, the software can determine how best to meet your goals for such metrics as inventory costs and stockout rates. Using solutions such as Smart Inventory Optimization , you will confidently plan based on your targeted stockout risk with minimal inventory carrying cost. You may also consider letting the solution prescribe optimal service level targets by assessing the costs of additional inventory vs. stockout cost.
In inventory planning, as in science, we cannot escape the reality of uncertainty and the impact of unusual events. We must plan accordingly: using inventory optimization software helps you identify the least-cost service level. This creates a coherent, company-wide effort that combines visibility into current operations with mathematically correct assessments of future risks and conditions.
Inventory planning has become more “interesting” and requires a greater degree of risk awareness and agility. The right software can help.
You know the situation: You work out the best way to manage each inventory item by computing the proper reorder points and replenishment targets, then average demand increases or decreases, or demand volatility changes, or suppliers’ lead times change, or your own costs change.
Inventory optimization has become an even higher priority in recent months for many of our customers. Some are finding their products in vastly greater demand; more have the opposite problem. In either case, events like the Covid19 pandemic are forcing a reexamination of standard operating conditions, such as choices of reorder points and order quantities.
To make the right decision, you’ll need to know how demand forecasting supports inventory management, choice of which policy to use, and calculation of the inputs that drive these policies.The process of ordering replenishment stock is sufficiently expensive and cumbersome that you also want to minimize the number of purchase orders you must generate.
