Manufacturer Forecasting

Ingen Software is excited to announce the creation of the Manufacturer Forecasting solution. This new solution provides manufacturers with critical information about their representative's customer. This information includes the following:

• The products customers are interested in buying
• The quantities they want 
• When they expect to order
• What products the customer ordered

This solution gives manufacturers the opportunity to forecast their business requirements. It also provides success rates of products (what was quoted versus what was ordered) so that they can more effectively deliver the right products. The result delivers the right product to the customer, improves sales for the representative, and allows the manufacturer to better utilize their resources. 

Key Points for Representatives

Full Disclosure:

• The representative provides only the data that they want to release
• All information released to the manufacturer is attached to the representative's OASIS quotes and orders and is readily available for examination.

No Interaction Required:

• Information is released based on a configurable OASIS quote status
• Information is released when OASIS quotes are updated
• Configurable to be done automatically or as desired
• Information is released when OASIS orders are created and updated
• Configurable to be done automatically or as desired

OASIS User Interface

There are three categories of information that the representative has the option to send to the manufacturer:

• Send Bill of Material
  • For Quotes:
    • Quote DB ID, Quote ID, Line UID
    • Line Code, Quantity, Fixture Type, Manufacturer ID, Catalog Number
    • Unit Quantity, Part Quantity
  • For Orders
    • Order DB ID, Order ID, Line UID, Quote Line UID
    • Quantity, Release Quantity, Fixture Type, Manufacturer ID, Catalog Number, Sell Price
    • Unit Quantity, Part Quantity
• Send Transaction Information
  • For Quotes:
    • Quote DB ID, Quote ID, Representative ID
    • Project Name, Quote Status, Bid Date, Last Update, Location City, Location State
  • For Orders:
    • Order DB ID, Order ID, Representative ID
    • Order Number, MFG Quote Number, Project Name, Entry Date, Last Update
    • Location City, Location State, Sold To, Ship To, Bill To (name and address)

• Send Specifiers
  • For Quotes:
    • Quote DB ID, Quote ID, Sequence ID
    • Role, Name, Address Line 1 and 2, City, State, ZIP, County, Country, Account Number
  • For Orders:
    • Order DB ID, Order ID, Sequence ID
    • Role, Name, Address Line 1 and 2, City, State, ZIP, County, Country, Account Number

Key Points for Manufacturers

Data flows from the representatives to the manufacturer’s Ingen-hosted OASIS database as OASIS quotes and orders are processed.  This gives manufacturer complete control of when they wish to process forecast information.

Note: This portion is a work in progress.  The goal is to allow the manufacturer to log into their database and run a report, or to query the data via JSON (see below).  However, that technology is not in place.  In the meantime, Ingen will send the data via email or sftp in Excel or csv format. See Examples.

Data Query and Extraction:

A web-based service allows you to extract information from your OASIS database.  The output format of that data will be JSON.  Basic extraction criteria will be available:  

• By Date
• Quote ID
• Representative ID

Data Extraction Example

Example Query:

• Select all quotes available from representative ABC
• Provide Per Quote: Quote ID, Project Name, Quote Status, Bid Date, Last Update,
• Provide Per Quote Line: Quantity, Fixture Type, Catalog Number

Resulting output:

{“Listing”:

[{

“QuoteID”:”1”,”ProjectName”:”Proj1”,”QuoteStatus”:”Quoted”,”BidDate”:”2019-09-07 00:00:00”, ”UpdateDate”:”2019-12-13 00:00:00”,

“Lines”:

[

{“Quantity”:1,”FixtureType”:”F1”,”CatalogNumber”,”ABC-123-MV-27”},

{“Quantity”:1,”FixtureType”:”F2”,”CatalogNumber”,”XYZ-123-MV-27”}

]

},

{

“QuoteID”:”2”,”ProjectName”:”Proj2”,”QuoteStatus”:”Quoted”,”BidDate”:”2019-10-30 00:00:00”, ”UpdateDate”:”2019-11-13 00:00:00”,

“Lines”:

[

{“Quantity”:3,”FixtureType”:”FA”,”CatalogNumber”,”BBA-123-MV-27”},

{“Quantity”:7,”FixtureType”:”FB”,”CatalogNumber”,”DVB-123-MV-27”}

]

}]

}

Specialized Format:

The forecasting data is output in a standard format that is usable for many solutions.  However, OASIS can provide additional customization* to meet your specific needs.

* Regular Ingen Software customization charges will apply