Forecast Pro is a specialized platform for demand forecasting, used by analysts and planners to generate accurate predictions. It uses advanced statistical techniques and automatic forecasting models to project future sales of a business at the product or SKU level.
It stands out for the customization of the tool and the ability to choose statistical models. You can use it to forecast demand for individual products, product families, or even entire regions. Additionally, it allows you to share your forecasts with your team, facilitating collaboration.
Forecast Pro offers three packages:
- FP100: For projects with up to 100 items.
- FP Unlimited: No restriction on the number of items.
- FP TRAC: Includes advanced functionalities such as historical archiving, forecast vs. actual sales comparisons, report ranges, and a collaborative module.
Functionalities and Pros of Forecast Pro
- Automatic Forecasting Models: Automatically selects the best forecasting model based on historical data. Supports a wide range of statistical models, including exponential smoothing, ARIMA, and seasonal models.
- Multi-level Forecasting: Ability to generate forecasts at different levels of aggregation, such as individual products, product families, regions, and more.
- Manual Adjustment and Overrides: Allows users to manually adjust automatically generated forecasts based on their market knowledge or specific events.
- Data Analysis and Visualization: Integrated tools for data visualization, such as time series graphs, histograms, and seasonal component analysis. Ability to compare forecasts with actual data and perform accuracy analysis.
- Exception Management: Identification and handling of exceptions and outliers in historical data. Automatic alerts for unusual events that may affect forecast accuracy.
- Data Integration: Import and export of data to and from ERP systems, CRM, and other databases. Support for CSV files, Excel, and ODBC connections.
In the words of their customers:
“It is an excellent management tool that helps to keep your tasks and workload in order. It aids in better strategy and planning with good execution.” – Forecast Pro Customer, 2022
“It is an effective and efficient tool that helps to improve and enhance the company’s work. Very effective and fast, which saves quality time. The installation and implementation of the tool is very easy, which increases your work in multiple ways. Very easy to use.” – Forecast Pro Customer, 2022
Forecast Pro limitations:
- Information Access: If the cloud solution is contracted, access to information is limited to Monday through Friday from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm
- Initial Configuration Complexity: The initial setup can be complex, especially for organizations with complicated data structures or specific requirements
- Primarily Limited to Demand Planning: It mainly focuses on demand planning, without covering other key supply chain processes such as inventory management, purchasing, or distribution
- Infrastructure Requirements: Requires clients to acquire and maintain their own infrastructure to run the software, implying significant costs and efforts
- Limited Analysis and Metrics: Analysis and metric options are limited in basic packages, requiring a larger investment to access advanced functionalities
- Updates and Maintenance: Needs periodic updates and maintenance to ensure the software is running with the latest improvements and bug fixes.
According to their customers:
“It can be slow depending on how complex and large your models are.”- Forecast Pro Customer, 2020
“Their collaboration solution (S&OP) could be a bit stronger.” – Forecast Pro Customer, 2019
Is Forecast Pro the Right Solution for You?
Forecast Pro can be a good option if your company has very specific demand forecasting needs and has the resources and expertise to manage the required infrastructure.
- High accuracy and reliability in its forecasts through the use of advanced modeling techniques.
- Flexibility and adaptability to adjust to different business needs and demand scenarios.
However, if you’re looking for a comprehensive solution that covers all supply chain processes, with a cloud delivery model and a more flexible pricing structure, other alternatives like Datup might be better for your company.
