Manufacturers need to provide real-time visibility to their teams, channel partners, and end users. No one can predict the future. Just as it makes the most sense to have a diversified stock and bond portfolio, manufacturers should balance their “production portfolios” to serve as many possible markets as possible and be as flexible as possible to respond quickly to changing market conditions.
Demand Prediction Reporting is becoming a highly requested feature. Manufacturers want to build out data models that track (or pull data over from an existing system) inventory, purchase history, frequency of purchase, quantities of assets, partner they buy from, average delivery time per partner and per asset. Based on the data model, they want to create dashboards that demonstrate trends in purchase (time of year, geography, etc), opportunities for up-sells and add-ons, and sales cycle duration. This information can be used to create automated trigger emails that send communications in the month or so leading up to when they typically order.
But this is now more than a futuristic objective. Companies are now integrating systems and tying customer-facing channels into their sales, marketing, and production programs. Below are 3 companies that have recognized success in achieving demand insight.
More than a supplier
NXP Semiconductorswanted to be more than a supplier to their customers. They wanted to be proactive with their customers and provide them with the information they needed beyond the purchasing process. Not only would this allow NXP to better service their customers, but they would be able to better respond to changes in the marketplace. By better integrating systems and capturing more relevant customer data, NXP can now provide clearer guidance on resource allocation, resulting in maximum ROI for their marketing objectives. They recognized a 40% cost savings in fulfillment process, and a 90% reduction in fulfillment lead time.
Insight into the needs of resellers
In the beginning Intel’sregional channel managers were communicating directly with Intel’s audience (partner resellers) via numerous decentralized communication platforms. This meant that Intel had a limited understanding of interests of their partners other than volume of numbers.
Through the development and integration of systems, Intel began to collect information around the Digital Body Language of its resellers. They began to understand the motivations and behaviors of their resellers by providing the ability for resellers to pre-order products. This was a component that was built, similar to a shopping cart system using data cards as the database. They added an email inbox into their communications so resellers could view emails that were previously sent to them using the web version url served from a data card set. They provided an event calendar so resellers could view when events were taking place and register their interest in joining them. They also provided a rating system for parts of the site with new products or features. This allowed resellers to vote for elements that were more relevant to them and drive the direction of the campaigns. 
This provided Intel with a 360-degree view, a universal profile, of their resellers. Intel could now enable, and be more attentive to the needs of, their resellers.
Proactive sample management
Dow receives thousands of requests for product samples per month. Sample management had historically not only been an interesting challenge for this complex company, but was also an important one which had a direct and potentially significant impact on sales and revenue growth. Rather than try to transform the sample management process, Dow decided to exploit this bottleneck by first streamlining the sample follow-up process. When a sample was requested, it was shipped and an email campaign was triggered to follow up with the customer. The email campaign included basic questions to check that the sample was received and enabled Dow to gather additional information on the customer’s needs. Customers who responded to the sample follow-up campaign were then routed to the sales team. Their sample program now commands anywhere from a 40-50% response rate.
How are you working to achieve demand insight?