Last Updated: February 10, 2021
Many businesses struggle with accurate forecasting, especially predicting changing indicators many months ahead and applying those to their specific company. Prevedere’s Intelligent Forecasting solution leverages a massive amount of external data to find company-specific leading indicators, which, combined with internal data, allows businesses to achieve more accurate and data-driven forecasts. Ultimately, this means better decision making across the board.
A recently commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Prevedere shows Prevedere’s total economic impact and the value Intelligent Forecasting services has provided to its customers. The study takes a holistic, multi-step approach to evaluate the costs and benefits, and it includes a real case study analysis of one of Prevedere’s customers in the chemical industry. In summary, it found that “Prevedere Intelligent Forecasting yields transformative benefits to customers by marrying custom modeling to the power of cloud computing to accurately identify key indicators and to help position optimally to change.”
Specifically, the study found that Prevedere’s customers had a three-year return on investment (ROI) of 345% and net present value benefits of $2.3 million. The study categorized the benefits to customers as either quantifiable benefits or unquantifiable benefits. Here are some of the quantifiable benefits the study outlined:
- Improved forecast accuracy reduced inventory write-off.
Prevedere provided the customer with improved forecast accuracy. As a result, the customer reduced production levels before market conditions resulted in excess inventory, limiting the volume of obsolete material and associated warehousing and financing costs. - Improved forecast accuracy avoided costs of transporting raw material.
Improved forecast accuracy allowed the customer to anticipate the optimal locations where production would be needed, reducing the cost of shipping raw materials between facilities. - Reduced impact of exposure to international trade dynamics saved.
With improved forecasting, the customer would have avoided costly market changes. In one case, a specific country dumped excess inventory into a market, which rapidly decreased prices and left the customer holding millions in obsolete inventory.
As defined through interviews with customers, the unquantifiable benefits include improved management focus, heightened visibility for investors, and improved consistency controls and guidance across business units. According to one vice president of operations in the chemical industry, “Prevedere brings data and indicators we just have never been able to access or hadn’t even thought of in some cases. Even if we hired the two-and-a-half analysts that equal what we’re paying Prevedere, they would have just a fraction of the data. We’d have to pay for that too.”
Another executive in the company spoke to the value of Prevedere’s intelligent forecasting accuracy and detail: “Prevedere gave us drivers that showed that our business was going to slow in six months. Boy, is that powerful. It is a huge value we didn’t have.”
As a year of unprecedented challenges to planning comes to a close, businesses have come to recognize the benefits of Intelligent Forecasting more than ever. As we look towards the beginning of a new year, investing in successful scenario planning will be vital to driving well-informed decisions that allow businesses to react quickly to the continuously changing environment.
To access the full study, The Total Economic Impact™ of Prevedere’s Intelligent Forecasting, click here. >>