One
Comprehensive Product : Multiple Solutions
FD6 is a comprehensive, integrated, and absolutely state-of-the-art
software product for sales forecasting and business planning
from McConnell Chase Software Works. FD6 is a base product
for solutions in demand planning,
sales and operations planning,
and inventory optimization.
FD6 is scalable, modular and adaptable, and can be licensed,
implemented, and extended in general or to solve specific
business problems or suit specific customer needs. The inventory
module, for example, can be implemented specifically for service
parts planning as well as finished goods planning, and for
independent inventory locations as well as complex supply
chains that support distribution requirements planning (DRP),
vendor managed inventory (VMI), and collaborative planning
forecasting and replenishment (CPFR). Inventory is a frequent
solution application of FD6 for manufacturing companies because
manufacturing companies want the right inventory in the right
place at the right time and FD6 does an excellent job of accomplishing
that.
Product History
FD6 has grown over 18 years with the primary aim of getting
the professional practice of forecasting and business planning
right. It's grown from a combination of internal vision and
science unique to McConnell Chase, customer driven enhancements,
and evolution in technology.
Adapts to Any Industry Needs
To handle the needs of customers in different industries FD6
has readily added data fields, time series, functions, conversion
factors, user-interface elements, properties for application
customization, reports, exports, technology, and technological
interoperability. Evolving this way, FD6 has never met a set
of customer or industry needs it could not meet. Nor has it
failed in any context. According to customer testimonials,
FD6 always far exceeds the needs of any one customer, which
makes it a product to growth with and into.
Product Future -- Be Part of Next
Generation Enhancements and Benefits
If you become a FD6/McConnell Chase customer, we would like
you to work with us in developing the user-interface and practical
details of FD6 in four new, strategic and next-generation
areas. These areas stem from the internal vision and science
unique to McConnell Chase. Since these are trade secrets we
prefer to communicate what these areas are and how they will
benefit you securely and confidentially.
An Excellent Choice Because...
- Quickest to implement
- Easier to use
- Fastest in execution
- Most powerful (Kinds & Magnitude
of ROI)/Cost
- Most comprehensive
- Most conducive to increase in expertise
- Most adaptable to changing business and
industry circumstances
- Backed by the best customer support
Hardware and Network Overview
Click Image to Enlarge
Built-in Systems Integration
Software
FD6 solutions come with comprehensive system integration software
to bolt onto any ERP, CRM, SCM system and database, including
SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle and home-grown systems. Given built-in
systems integration, companies can confidently take advantage
of our best-of-breed solutions instead of the jack-of-all-trades
solutions offered by large ERP vendors. Further, this functionality
greatly facilitates doing re-implementations as business
conditions, circumstances (such as spin-offs, mergers and
acquisitions), and needs change.
Hierarchies
As part of every implementation one or more forecasting/planning
hierarchies are built in the database on the forecasting/planning
server. The purpose of hierarchies is to provide both aggregate
and detail control from different perspectives. The following
diagrams show two example hierarchies that can be set up within
the same database to provide both supply-side and demand-side
control. We provide hierarchy management software to adapt
a customer's hierarchies as their processes, circumstances,
and needs change.
User
Interface -- Forecast Editing
Users experience FD6 via the user interface.
They click an icon or run a program from their desk- or lap-tops
like any windows application, except they work with and update
data in the forecasting/planning database over their network
or over the internet.
 Behind
the scenes, the FD6 batch jobs have done all the heavy lifting
of adding and updating items, maintaining the hierarchy, importing,
organizing, and processing all sorts of data. Users
spend zero time gathering, preparing, or processing data.
Users spend all their time editing, evaluating,
and making decisions. The FD6 user interface, called Edit
Expectations, is powerful and customizes to each
user's preferences. The user interface can take advantage
of large monitors if users have them.
In the screen capture above, the left column
is an item navigator which in this example contains market
and product-family-within-market items organized in a tree
structure. The three sections to the right of the item navigator
all pertain to the selected item, highlighted in blue. The
top section contains tabs of item fields. The center section
contains a Demand vs. Forecast chart, with history to the
left of the blue dotted line and forecasts to the right. The
bottom section contains the grid used for editing forecasts.
User Interface
-- Error Charting and Waterfall
In this example we again see the item navigator
in the left column and three sections pertaining to the selected
item to the right of the item navigator.
The top section shows the item data tab
for error tracking. The middle section shows the forecast
error chart showing management forecast errors declining over
time (a very good thing!). The bottom section shows the backtracking
(waterfall) grid of forecasts made at different times.
FD6 Error Tracking Details
For every item the system tracks accuracy, bias, and change
for both units and dollars.
The system also assigns to all items 5 priority statuses based
on pareto calculations by units, revenue, cost, margin, and
percent of margin. Given these prioritizations, users -- sales
reps, forecast analysts, inventory managers, sales managers,
financial managers, etc. -- can select, sort, and analyze
errors in order of business impact on their respective areas.
What you can expect -- Integration,
Power, Performance, Ease of Use
You can expect a solution that helps you grow in sophistication
from where you are now to advanced levels and best practices.
You can expect to get better at forecasting and planning and,
provided the right processes are in place to take advantage
of this, to get better at being in the right place at the
right time with the right goods and services.
Smarts and
Competitive Advantage
The player who consistently sees and gets to the right place
at the right time to make a play has great anticipation --
and smarts. This is the capacity that the FD6 forecasting
and planning process develops. And, as it turns out, the times
demand it. During the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s,
most companies focused on supply side improvements, stressing
productivity and efficiency, as their main strategy for increasing
value. While in some industries the productivity and efficiency
strategy still has fruit to bear, these gains have largely
been achieved. Competitive strategy has shifted to increasing
the rate at which the company learns and adapts in the extremely
competitive and international markets of today. We therefore
could not be more excited because our product and approach
greatly enhances a company's capacity to learn and adapt.
Customer
Support
FD6 was developed out of a serious and specialized interest
in the subject and intensive work in our field, working with
and providing customers with the best approach and results.
It is only natural for us to excel at customer support. Customer
feedback is a main source of information for on-going improvement
of our solution. Customer support is key to our customers'
achieving the best results. From McConnell Chase Software
Works you can expect ease of use, speed, and power, and a
working relationship with a vendor of exceptional vision,
ability, hard work, honesty, and integrity -- who readily
listens and responds if you come up with a way to make your
solution even more powerful and easier.
Excellent Statistical Functions
Our solutions include world class statistical functionality
-- the M3 Competition statistical accuracy winner -- http://www.forecastpro.com/company/news/m3.html.
Free web-based Demo with generic
or your own data!
A demo is worth many thousands of words. We offer a kid-in-a-candy-store
product in terms of design, power, and integration and nothing
shows this more than a live demo!
|
