Demand Planning Software: Why Use Microsoft Dynamics?

Companies rely on demand forecasting to accurately predict the level of demand they should anticipate from sales orders. The goal is to build a reliable, predictive supply chain process. That can prove challenging in an unpredictable business environment. Factors like competitors, geopolitical dynamics, and vendor pricing changes can lead to inaccurate results. Microsoft Dynamics 365’s comprehensive business management suite offers companies a wide array of tools and modules for streamlining operations and making demand planning more seamless.

The Advantage of Using Dynamics 365 as Demand Planning Software

The versatility of Dynamics 365 and its demand planning capabilities make it a valuable demand planning software asset for organizations. It integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft applications like SharePoint, Excel, and Power BI. That makes it easy for organizational teams to share data and collaborate on cross-department projects. This allows companies to establish a well-coordinated demand planning and forecasting process that uses accurate information.

Dynamics 365 scales to fit the needs of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and large enterprises. Organizations can expand and customize the platform to accommodate growth. That way, they can meet evolving demand planning needs without purchasing additional solutions. The platform also provides users with real-time insights and the kind of analytics relied upon by decision-makers.

These insights help companies optimize inventory and reduce overstock and stockouts. At the same time, intuitive AI insights from Dynamics 365 help businesses increase customer satisfaction by offering feedback on issues that might impact their experience.

Benefits of Using Dynamics 365 for Demand Planning

Below is an overview of some advantages organizations gain from using Dynamics 365 demand planning tools.

1. Enhanced Demand Forecast Accuracy

Modern organizations need demand planning software capable of pinpointing future demand to help them formulate business plans. Dynamics 365 uses machine learning and AI-driven insights to improve business forecasts. Some of the key features found in platforms like Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management include:

• Statistical forecasts — Use statistical methods to create a baseline demand using historical information from sources like warehouses, items, customer accounts, and locations.
• Cleansing of historical data — Dynamics 365 can filter the noise in data to ensure you have clean data sets to work with when creating forecasts.
• Data visualization — You can use Dynamics 365 to visualize historical data, forecasts, and confidence intervals. That helps you identify places where you want to make targeted forecast adjustments.
• What-if analysis — Use “what-if” analysis to explore the impact of input changes. That positions your organization to prepare for unexpected changes or disruptions.

Using Dynamics 365 demand planning tools helps companies reduce the build-up of unwanted inventory, leading to benefits like:

• Improved customer service levels
• Fewer supply-chain disruptions
• Higher sales

Businesses can also use Dynamics 365 machine learning capabilities to sense changes in observed variables and locate new variables that might impact demand forecasts.

2. Real-Time Planning

Businesses must adapt to changing trends to ensure they have the products customers want at the right time. Dynamics 365 helps organizations bridge that gap by improving their ability to plan strategically, streamline essential processes, and hit production targets consistently.

• Planning optimization — Businesses can perform production planning multiple times per day. That way, they can detect and incorporate changes in demand capacity constraints.
• Material requirement planning — Dynamics 365 uses AI to detect what materials are needed to meet customer demand automatically. Businesses can schedule order release dates from there while minimizing inventory carrying and material costs.
• Capacity planning — Companies can use Dynamics 365 to optimize resource allocation based on fluctuations in demand and supply. That reduces the need for overtime while improving overall equipment allocation.
• Inventory policies — Businesses can track changing customer demands and capacity restraints to improve inventory turns.

By using Dynamics 365’s intelligent planning and resource management tools, organizations can ensure they have the right raw materials and resources in places as needed to optimize inventory volumes. Dynamic planning tools are also built to reduce run times and incorporate real-time insights into supply-side changes and existing orders.

3. Streamlined Collaboration

 Dynamics 365 facilitates collaboration across various departments, like sales, marketing, and production. Companies can use this advantage to take a more integrated approach to demand planning by aligning the organization toward a common goal.

• Vendor collaboration portal — Businesses can collaborate with suppliers by sharing demand forecasts and procurement requirements.

• Administration of purchasing policy — Dynamics 365 helps companies realize higher cost savings by automatically leveraging negotiated prices across workflows based on specific purchase policies.
• Accelerated product orders — Speed up the procurement of direct and indirect supplies by integrating Dynamics 365 with vendor catalogs
• Spending data review — Analyze spending data to locate trends and areas for cost-saving initiatives.

Organizations using Dynamics 365 demand planning tools can gain control over the purchasing process by ensuring trade agreements get carried out as intended. The platform also enables a fast, sophisticated supplier qualification process to build redundancy into the supplier network and ensure business continuity.  

4. More Efficient Order Management

Dynamics 365 automates order creation and processing based on demand forecasts. That lets companies reduce the amount of manual intervention required, lowering the risk of errors in the order management process.

The system also prioritizes orders based on factors like profitability, customer importance, and demand urgency. Companies can focus on fulfilling high-priority orders, optimizing their order fulfillment processes, and helping them meet critical customer demand.

Dynamics 365 efficiently allocates available inventory to open orders using factors like safety stock levels, lead times, and demand forecasts. Businesses can ensure that inventory gets distributed in ways that prioritize stock availability while lowering the chances of overstock or stockouts.

Implement Dynamics 365 for Demand Planning

Before you can start using Dynamics 365 to improve your organization’s demand planning, there's some work to do. For example, you must review your specific demand planning needs, including available data sources, forecasting methods, and collaboration requirements.

Internet eBusiness Solutions helps businesses find the right software for demand planning and other company needs. Find out more about how we can help you locate the best technology for your business environment by contacting an IES representative.