Demand Management

Demand Management has never been more important. From demand creation to marketing automation, demand forecasting, merchandising and assortment planning, collaboration with suppliers, and managing S&OP, getting demand management right is no longer just an option. This is an area ChainLink has intensely researched since our founding. Below is a collection of articles and reports to help you master Demand Management.

To learn more about how ChainLink Research can help you with demand management, please contact us via email or call us.

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A Story of Vinyl — Digital Supply Chain Story in the Music Industry.
Flowcasting–an Idea Whose Time Has Come–It’s Infinite Channel — Forecasting still looms as the highest of challenges,’ declare supply chain organizations. Maybe our paradigm is wrong about how we do forecasting.
It’s Not Omni Channel–It’s Infinite Channel — What happens when Facebook, Pinterest, Amazon are part of your sales channel?
JDA Gets in Focus — Updates and Insights from JDA’s FOCUS 2015 Conference.
Retailer Collaboration: Managing the Supply Side — We frequently think of retail in terms of merchandising, but these days the supply side is just as interesting, whether it’s product design or collaboration with suppliers for transportation, forecasting, or financial optimization.
Retailer Collaboration: Myth or Reality? — The theme of the recent RVCF conference was Collaboration. The move to getting better performance from suppliers and retailers ultimately depends on it. Read on for real results.

The Power of Retailer/Supplier Integration — NEECOM Spring Conference 2014.

Supply Chain Market:
(Parts 1-2)

The Value of Supply Chain Solutions — The supply chain market continues to grow…
Supply Chain Market – Continued — We take a look at the role of purpose-driven supply chain platforms in attaining Omni-channel.

NRF – Retailer Extravaganza! — Retailer technology progress in Omni, RFID, Mobile and Platforms
Demand Management: from the Supplier to the Retailer — Winning in the demand management game requires granular visibility of the market, and software that can take action using the many data streams now available. Those who rely solely on spreadsheet analyses may be left behind.
Demand Management for Retailers — A transformation is occurring in how retailers see and manage their supply chains. Most are in real need of innovative thinking and technology for demand management. The discussion on demand management continues.
Report: My Demand Management Manifesto — Forecasting systems are based on history. The problem is that history did not turn out the way we wanted.

Demand Management Planning:
(Parts 1-2)

Demand Management Now! – Demand Management Solutions 2013 — Intense competition for product companies and retailers and the squeeze on margins challenge companies to get a lot better at planning.
New Dimension for Demand Management — Demand Planning Technology Providers Positioned.

Cloud Strategies Coming from the Supply Chain Market — Now that the end-user market seems to be accepting the cloud option, the major players are stepping up their game.
SAP Manufacturing – Innovation Engine — SAP’s Manufacturing Strategy.
Collaborative Demand Planning Technology — Everybody wants to collaborate. But is this actually done – technically?
Differentiating Demand Solutions — Demand management solution providers are challenged to be unique. But with so many new areas to explore, new innovations are emerging that differentiate the providers. JDA, Logility, Symphony, JustEnough, Predictix, NeoGrid, SAP, and others are discussed in this series.

Demand Management Retail:
(Parts 1-2)

Demand Management in the Age of the Customer — How Mobile and other customer engagement channels can improve Demand Management.
Rethinking the Customer at the Point of Experience — Companies spend millions on engineering products, but not much on thinking about the real point of it all — the customer experience.

Caribou Coffee’s Supply Chain Story — Achieving 99% service levels through Implementing demand management technology solution.
Shaking Up the Status Quo in Demand Management — Ad placement, mobile, social, and competitive pricing all impact demand and your inventory strategy. Lessons learned from ToolsGroup User Forum.
Demanding Models – Demand Customers — Forecasting departments need to keep up with innovative opportunities to improve Demand performance.
Extra-Sensory Perception for Retailers and Manufacturers — How can retailers and CPG manufacturers read the minds of their fickle consumers? There are new ways available, beyond the traditional focus group or statistical forecast tools.
Big Data — The data may be big, but is the information important?

Demanding Times Series: (Parts 1-5)

Demanding Times: Part One – A Best Practice Framework for Managing Demand — Demand management is not just about creating a better forecast (though that is critical). It is discovering new markets, creating a supply chain architected around your customers’ needs, growing demand, and ultimately fulfilling demand and closing the loop with your customers.
Demanding Times: Part Two – Market Assumptions — The best companies pull together quantitative and analytical information to gauge the “market psyche” and create their own assumptions about the markets they serve: what factors are affecting the overall market and their share; what will drive sales; what items will be hot sellers, which will be dogs, and why.
Demanding Times: Part Three – Aligning Supply and Demand — Aligning supply and demand is a core purpose of the supply chain function in an enterprise, but is rarely done well. We examine some cultural and technological underpinnings essential to make sales and operations planning work effectively.
Demanding Times: Part Four – Lifecycle Planning — With so much riding on the successful launch of new products, smooth execution of product transitions can be a competitive weapon. Here we describe practices that were successfully used to overcome the enormous challenges in managing product lifecycles and transitions.
Demanding Times: Part Five – Consumption-based Forecasting — Forecasts are better off based on end-user consumption, rather than retailer orders. Suppliers need to stop asking what will the retailer order from us and start asking what should the retailer order from us, in order to meet actual end-consumer demand.

Demand Better for Demand Management — Highlights from DemandTec User Conference.
Report: Six Steps to Get Your S&OP in High Gear — Sales and Operations Planning has been talked about for over two decades, yet enterprises are having their challenges. Learn from those who are mastering S&OP.
Collaboration vs. Transactions — Lessons from eBay, Facebook, LinkedIn and other Social Networks – What traditional business management can learn from Social Networks.
Collaboration Frameworks 2011 – On Creating a Global Workspace: Part One of Two — Social Networks, Teleconferencing, and anywhere that technology opens new challenges in Collaberation.
Happy New Year – Converged, Collaborative, Telepresent Communities in the Second Decade: What’s happening in 2011? – Convergence – Unified Applications and Devices for the Second Decade.

Demand Management in the Second Decade Series: (Parts 1-3)
Demand Management in the Second Decade – A Structured View – Part One of Three — Here we present our framework for demand management. Companies that excel at Demand Management know how to predict and grow demand. They effectively segment their markets and channels. They analyze demographics and capture and analyze new audiences. They use price optimization and are smart about the use of promotions. They know when and how to do consensus and collaborative planning, and are able to effectively stay ahead of their competition by sensing and discovering Demand – new markets and new customers – by using web analytics and Marketing Automation.
Demand Management in the Second Decade – The Strategic View – Part One of Three — Demand Management has never been more important. From demand creation to marketing automation, demand forecasting, merchandising and assortment planning, collaboration with suppliers, and managing S&OP, getting demand management right is no longer just an option.

Report: Demand Management Technology Evaluation: Best Practices and Technology Evaluation — Leading companies continue to pursue and achieve significant improvements in business performance through the adoption of innovative Demand Management technologies.
Report: Demand Management: Technology for Retailers — Although investment in North American and EU new-store development has slowed, the newly optimized and networked retailer will see same-store sales increase.
Report: Demand Management: Technology for Manufactures — New model for demand management, unique perspectives on the challenges faced by manufacturers, different approaches and technologies available, and an evaluation of existing solution providers.
Report: 2010 Supply Chain Priorities: — New Models for Improving Supply Chain Processes and Performance. Findings from ChainLink’s 2010 Supply Chain Priorities Survey.
Parallax View- New Models of Supply Chain — Supply Chain Definitions for Demand Management Requirements and Definitions for Supply Chain applications.
Report: Demanding Times: Next Generation Demand Management — Achieving excellence in demand management – discovering, creating, growing, and fulfilling demand – is the core of market leadership.
Report: The Effect of Demand-Supply Mismatches on Equity Volatility — An Analysis of Different Types of Supply Chain Risks.
Report: From Complexity to Clarity – Part 1 — Achieving excellence in Supply Chain has always been a challenge, but the last decade has gotten more complex, requiring solutions to enable clarity.

Holiday Shopping Strategy Series:

— Holidays and other events place extra challenges on Manufacturers and Retailers. Here are strategies that work best.

It’s 42 Shopping Days till Christmas — Merchandising Methods Redefined. What impact will RFID, Smart Dressing Rooms and Smarter Merchandising software portent for Retailer Success?
Report: Supply Chain’s Christmas Checklist — This document is designed to provide an across-supply-chain ‘checklist’ of practices and actionable suggestions to tune your supply chain for better performance, to deal with volatile and seasonal challenges, no matter what the season.
Report: Predictive Demand and Supply: If you’re in the Supply Chain business, Murphy’s Other Law stipulates that Demand and Supply, if left to their own tendencies, will always tend to diverge and get you in trouble. Here’s what to do about it.
Christmas Buildup in the Warehouse: Warehouse Management Strategies need to be looked at in order to prepare for new retail realities.

It’s Seventy Three Shopping Days to Christmas: Strategies such as Market Segmentation and Promotion Management can lift Holiday spirits and sales.
It’s Sixty Seven Shopping Days to Christmas: Don’t hit that markdown button; Pricing Strategies for a Small Planet.
It’s Sixty Shopping Days to Christmas : Customer Engagement – Customer Segmentation Beyond the Numbers.
It’s Fifty Three Shopping Days to Christmas: Revised CPG Retail Footprint – from Merchandising to Supply Chain – Part 1 of 3.
It’s Forty Six Shopping Days to Christmas: The Customer Experience.
It’s Thirty Nine Shopping Days to Christmas – Is Your Brand Grand? Brand power is when consumers camp out to get into your store.
It’s Twenty Four Shopping Days to Christmas – And Black Friday Shows the Winners and Losers – In spite of the noise and the crowds, shoppers spent over $10B on black Friday, which was a modest increase from last year.
It’s Seventeen Shopping Days to Christmas! – * * * On the First Mobile Christmas, My True Love Gave to Me . . .* * *
It’s Only Ten More Shopping Days to Christmas! – Coupons, anyone?