Overview

For the delight of Planners, key account managers and anyone who benefits from planning their demand for items or sku's further down to the customer group level. We offer you the tool to create unique customer group forecasts, and/ or the ability to plan upcoming demand per customer group.

The forecasted and/or planned demand is 100% real time integrated with the demand driven order calculations, empowering even more efficient fulfillment.

This feature is part of the Planning pro subscription and requires custom data mapping.

Customer groups can be forecasted and/or planned in both the item card and in the Sales plan. This Article describes the sales plan functionality.

Before you start

Data mapping requirements:

Define a list of customer groups and list the corresponding customer accounts.

AGR can then identify the unique sales transactions per customer group.

Two options on Customer group planning settings

The customer group planning can have two behaviors, controlled in the settings

Forecast and promotions
1. When unique customer group forecasts are needed
  1. (Sales history divided by = (item + location + customer group)
2. Ability to override the customer group forecast using the Sales plan data series
3. Ability to add on top of the customer group forecast or sales plan, using the promotion data series
Promotions
1. This option keeps the forecast on the item or sku level (item + location).
2. Enables the option to plan additional demand per customer groups that add on top of the regular recurring forecasted demand using the promotions data series

Customer group Planning

After your Customer Success Manager has activated the feature, it will be accessible through Plans > sales plans.

How it works

Data mapping in place = User can create customer groups
Customer groups created:
1. Setting 1:
  1. User can see the unique forecasts
  2. User can manually override as needed, item by item
2. Setting 2:
  1. User can plan additional demand per customer group, item by item

Creating a customer group forecast

Finding the right items

Start by opening the view settings to access filters and columns

Select the relevant filters, for example: find a list of items by using the item no, we recommend adding the "customer group with sales names" filter.

When you type in "customer" two filters appear,

"Customer Group Names" (which can be only be selected after a customer group forecast has been created).
"Customer group with Sales Names" enables filtering on items that have sales transactions from the customer groups.

Create a customer group forecast

Once you have the items filtered that you would like to plan per customer group.

click on the "Customer groups" icon in the top right corner

A pop up will appear with three options:

Choose which customer group to create, via the dropdown
Apply to:
1. Selected rows only (you can use the mouse to select items)
2. All rows in grid (the filters in view settings)
Apply mode:
1. Add to current customer group selection
  1. (in case the items already have a customer group plan in place and you want to add a new customer group level. Sales plans already in place will hold)
2. Override current customer groups with new selection
  1. in case the items already have a customer group plan inserted, the values will be lost, starting point is a fresh forecast per customer group applied.

The workflow - Start planning (Setting 1, forecast and promotion)

Now that you have created the customer group plan, there are a few things to consider.

There is a new forecast per customer group created
The green fields are editable, indicating you can manually override the forecast.

Preferably you might want to work with one customer group at a time, here you can use the filter in the top left corner.

With the customer group filter in place, you can now enter planning values item per item, there is no need to expand the data series.

Note!

If you miss items from the customer group forecast, go back to the previous step, select the missing items and create a customer group forecast.

Make sure to use the Apply mode "add to current customer group selection"

The workflow - Start planning (Setting 2, Promotions)

Setting 2 -> The automatic forecast remains on the item + location level, and creating customer groups enables the option to plan additional demand down per customer group/s.

Now that you have created the customer group plan, there are a few things to consider.

The green fields per item reflect the forecast
The standard sales plan per item can override the forecast if needed
- (the green item level data series)
Expand the item to find the customer group
Expand the customer group, to find the promotion data series
Manually insert the customer group demand that will add on top of regular recurring demand

The details - Customer group planning

Note!

Customer group planning can only be done on locations classified a warehouse type

Each customer group has it's own sales history that will generate a unique forecast going forward

The more customer groups created the more fragmented the forecast: (with the default settings) Forecasts are created on a more granular level.

Item + location + customer group.

Data series

Available data series can be found under the "Series" button

Sale, historic sales including adjustments and connections
Last Year's Sale, sales 12 months ago
Sales plan: by default mirrors the statistical forecast, when overwritten a green solid bar appears to the left.
- inputs to the sales plan override the statistical forecast

Promotions data series starts empty, user input will add on top of the sales plan.
Total demand is the aggregated sum, used in the order calculations
Stock units,

The Data series appear when you expand each item

to see the details within each data series, expand each one to see the aggregation.

When an item receives a Customer group forecast, the following data series are split into the chosen groups:

Sales plans or promo, If data is already inserted in these, it is discarded when customer group planning is created
Adjusted sales: only possible in the customer tab, users can not adjust sales in the chart or grid or plan tab
Connected sales: is on the customer + item/sku level
Forecast: splitting the item down to customers, means the customer group forecasts might get different forecasting models, that will have a different result.
Stock out smoothing will have different values, because the bridging is filled with a different forecast calculation

Functionality that will remain calculated/controlled/displayed on the item level

Safety stock
Forecast settings, in item details
Legacy sales

Safety stock

Remains calculated on the item level

Forecast settings

item level, there can not be separate settings per customer group

Legacy sales:

Is not displayed in separate historic legacy sales series, the entire legacy sales history remains as one series on the item

Functionality that is disabled with customer group level planning

Promotional smoothing
Adjusted sales

How can I activate the customer group planning feature?

Contact your customer success manager through the in app chat

Customer group planning - What data is needed?

Users must define the customer group names, and link individual customers to the group names. Our integration specialist will then create the groups and map the data.