WEST CHESTER, Penn. – August 5, 2003 – Prescient, one of the fastest-growing providers of supply chain planning solutions for consumer products companies, today announced that, within just six months of implementing Prescient’s technology, Maurice Sporting Goods has already improved inventory forecast accuracy from 80 to 90 percent and increased order-fill rates and customer service levels.
Maurice Sporting Goods is the largest distributor of fishing tackle, shooting sports accessories and other outdoor sporting, camping and athletic goods to the major mass merchandisers in the retail industry as well as to small and medium-size sporting goods providers. Maurice enlisted Prescient’s Demand Planning and Sales Forecasting modules to drive supply chain efficiencies across its distribution operations in the United Statesand Canada. Spe! cifically, the company wanted to improve forecast accuracy and lower the cost and inventory risk associated with ensuring the six million combinations of products it supplies to retail partners are not only on the shelf when the consumer is ready to buy, but also reflect fluctuating consumer purchasing trends.
“Through our evaluation of the demand planning and sales forecasting capabilities of the leading supply chain technology providers, including J.D. Edwards and SAP, it became clear that nobody else offered software that met or exceeded Prescient’s level of sophisticated functionality,” said Bruce Barton, vice president of inventory management for Maurice Sporting Goods. “Prescient also stood out because of the highly intuitive and flexible nature of its software, providing our demand planners and sales team with flexibility and dynamic support for our internal business processes.”
Ensuring that adoption hurdles were never an issue, Prescient delivered Maurice a system that was easily configured to seamlessly mirror the look and feel of the outdated homegrown application that Maurice’s sales force was previously using to manage customer forecasts. An integral part of the planning process, the sales team embraced the new system, using it not only to contribute to forecast generation but also to improve customer service levels and sell-through rates. The Maurice sales team is now able to quickly pinpoint and communicate to retailers which products are moving fastest based on Prescient’s real-time statistical analysis of consumer purchasing patterns.
Prescient has also already impacted significant improvements on inventory replenishment rates. In the six months since going live with Prescient, Maurice has seen inventory forecast accuracy rise to more than 90 percent and expects that accuracy will only continue to increase the longer the system is running.
“The livelihood of distributors like Maurice Sporting Goods depends on their ability to deliver on the shortest of lead times possible with the highest level of customer service,” said Jane Hoffer, president and CEO of Prescient. “Maurice is a great example of a consumer products company that is using our software to surpass retailers’ basic replenishment requirements to become a true sales partner and preferred provider.”
