Demand planning comes to Microsoft users

Microsoft is increasing its efforts to get hold of the enterprise IT applications market: the firm has now launched a demand planning and forecasting module, licensed from developer TXT e-solutions. The software, which will be sold and supported by Microsoft Business Solutions’ ERP resellers and partners, is being released here next month as out-of-the-box compatible with its Axapta and Navision (formerly Attain) ERP suites. Following that, in January it will be released for the Great Plains ERP suite. Clyde Bennett, MBS ERP products manager, says that initially the application will be available through two or three of its partners, although which ones has yet to be decided. Bennett accepts that forecasting has a poor reputation in manufacturing, but points out that with good collaborative planning and forecasting software supporting collaborative sales and operations planning processes, many could improve their performance. “It’s just like production planning: you have to be on top of it: you can’t just do a quarterly update and expect everything to go well. Mostly, we want it to be easy so we do it in quick batches that are far too separated in time.” By taking forecasting more seriously and supporting it with good, interactive tools, “you get manufacturing businesses singing off the same song sheet,” he opines. Looking briefly at the specifics, to date Navision has only had production forecasting as a built-in module, while Axapta has had better forecasting software, but not sophisticated enough to support collaborative inter-departmental processes. TXT is well known as being among the leaders in demand planning and forecasting technology, so the MBS partnership agreement will benefit existing and new MBS system users. Operationally, it will suck data out of MBS’ ERP systems, run its modelling algorithms to generate the forecast, and update its master production schedule. Pricing information is not yet available.