SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 19, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Steelwedge, a provider of cloud-based planning solutions and services that inform better decision-making for global organizations, today launched PlanStreaming, an action-ready planning platform that enables continuous in-time planning across all time horizons and levels of complexity. The announcement was made at Envision 2015, held this week at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/4dc902e0-fdc6-495d-8094-5fd6d61ad395
The PlanStreaming cloud collaboratively and continuously manages planning across product, sales, demand, supply, strategy, operations and financial roles. PlanStreaming enables demand and supply sensing, collaboration, event management, and advanced analytics – descriptive, diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive – to anticipate the market environment and help organizations plan accordingly. PlanStreaming prepares organizations to be “ready to act” in constantly changing supply and market conditions.
“Markets, customers, suppliers and competitors are continuously in flux. Winning organizations need to plan and act in-time, whether it’s business as usual or a time of great change, so they can execute with accuracy and precision,” said Steelwedge CEO Pervinder Johar. “PlanStreaming is the first planning platform built using high-performance consumer-grade technology found in platforms such as Facebook, Google and Amazon. This enables quickly capturing and analyzing big data at a granular level for tighter forecast accuracy, deeper analytic insights and improved operational performance. It also speeds collaboration and recalibration of plans as new insights are gained.”
Ventana Research senior vice president Robert Kugel discussed the value of quickly reviewing and changing business plans in a recent note on Next Generation Business Planning: “Reviewing business plans is essential for every organization, and on average less than a quarter are able to drill down and examine root causes when reviewing the plan across demand, supply and sales and operations planning processes.”
Gartner research vice president Tim Payne: “Global organizations often have multiple Supply Chain Planning solutions in different divisions, functions and/or regions. They require support in deciding how to rationalize and standardize on planning systems of record in support of integrated E2E supply chain planning.” From “Best Practices for Developing a Pace-Layered Application Strategy for Supply Chain Planning”, August 2015.
Planning Across Ecosystems
PlanStreaming can easily tap into data sources outside of a company to improve plan accuracy. Its analytic engine can continuously measure sentiment and predict demand based on signals from customers, consumer sentiment, distributors and suppliers, enabling more accurate planning across products, product families, component parts, locations, time horizons and other measures.
In Using the Bits: Building Digital Outside-In Processes, (Sept. 17, 2015, Supply Chain Shaman) Supply Chain Insights founder Lora Cecere outlined the growing need for companies to implement planning systems that both sense and adapt: “Today’s supply chain processes respond. They do not sense. Because they cannot sense, they do not adapt. Global markets are both concentrated and dispersed. They are dynamic. Without sensing, and market-driven outside-in processes, organizations are out of step with the markets they serve,” Cecere noted.
How PlanStreaming Works
PlanStreaming includes modules for Product Planning, Sales Planning, Supply Chain Planning (including demand management, supply management, and demand/supply balancing), Revenue & Margin Planning, Supply Chain Visibility and Integrated Business Planning.
Steelwedge’s PlanStreaming applications:
- Assimilate data from multiple sources and continuously aggregates, normalizes, cleanses and makes data and information available for automated and manual analysis.
- Analyze and prioritizes information, and enables automated and manual decisions (scenario based “what-ifs”) and contingencies tailored to each organization’s priorities and operational rules. The system assesses opportunities and risks, reveals “best-course” actions, and alerts users to meaningful changes and potential changes in the market, demand, and supply.
- Align the planning process across business functions and roles to enable contemplative planning that benefits the entire organization.
- Act to generate tasks and orders that enable users and execution systems to take action on planning decisions.
Steelwedge PlanStreaming customers can expect improved forecast accuracy, decreased inventory costs and stock outs, reduced planning cycle times, increased margins and
a significant increase in revenue.
“PlanStreaming is designed to help our customers anticipate what’s ahead and respond quickly and effectively when it matters the most,” noted Johar.
Envision 2015 continues through October 20 at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.
Gartner categorized Steelwedge as a leader in its 2015 Magic Quadrant for Sales & Operations Planning System of Differentiation. To view a copy of the report, go to 2015 Magic Quadrant for Sales & Operations Planning System of Differentiation.
About Steelwedge
Organizations use Steelwedge’s cloud planning platform and services to align product, sales, demand, supply, strategy, operations and financial decisions across roles, geographies, products, time horizons, channels, customers and suppliers to improve efficiency and outcomes. Steelwedge’s PlanStreaming cloud combines predictive, prescriptive and responsive analytics and technology to equip organizations to be ready to act in time with opportunity, especially in highly competitive markets where continuous planning is essential and efficiently responding to changing conditions is advantageous. Named a leader in the Gartner 2015 Sales and Operations Planning Magic Quadrant, Steelwedge is headquartered in Pleasanton, California. Visit www.steelwedge.com.