Symphony Marketing Solutions

Solutions | Forecasting

Providing analysts with knowledge-driven forecasts allows them to provide a critical contribution to the Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process. Analytically driven forecasting offers more than numbers - it provides the rational behind the numbers.

The SMS Forecasting solution integrates key data between sales and marketing business functions. By connecting the sales forecasting process to the marketing information flow and using fact-based data as its foundation, SMS Forecasting produces accurate forecasts based upon customer demand, planned sales activities, planned marketing activity, historical sales information, capacity constraints and inventory conditions.

Symphony analysts develop causal driven models that are optimized for your forecasting process. We work with you to understand what the key business elements are that can be quantified, tracked and planned for future periods. Often, existing models (marketing or media mix for example) can be used as starting points to leverage past analytical work and maintain business consistency. For segments of the business where causal-data is too sparse to develop a model, SMS can offer a variety of time-series modeling options to forecast future business streams. Using both short and long-term patterns with automated statistical tools, past data can be used to best estimate future trends.

Symphony offers a suit of report to analyze forecasts as new data is integrated into the database and the forecasts become actualized. These reports include:

Variance - Understanding the difference and the drivers between forecasted and actual values.
Due To’s – A drilldown between the changes of this year to last year so the user can note which factors contributed to growth and those that stunted it.
Contributions – A decomposition of the key drivers of the business model.
Summaries – Combining elements of different forecasts that can derive changes in inventory levels to help with the planning cycle.

We also offer simulation tools to provide quick snap-shots and what-if scenarios. Rather than require week by week plans the simulation process allows for more global changes to help understand how different factors may have a smaller or larger effect on the big picture. These insights can then be linked to more detailed forecasts.

Symphony also offers a team of experience forecast practitioners to help clients develop or enhance their own forecasting practices.

Use SMS Forecasting to achieve real business benefits, including:

Accurate sales forecasts and short forecasting cycles
Greater revenue predictability
Lower inventory costs
Less frequent out-of-stock conditions
Higher order fulfillment rates