How demand forecasting helped a company retain market leadership

An industry leader of managed service provider of ATMs is among the top solution providers in the sector’s semi-urban and rural (SURU) markets. The company grew rapidly and attained a market leading position within a short timeframe. In order to maintain its growth trajectory and market position, the company had to reduce existing levels of loss of sales and holding costs. The challenge of loss of sales and higher holding costs happens due to inaccurate demand prediction. Demand prediction, however, is a difficult challenge across the sector because of a multiplicity of factors involved.

The company needed a model for demand prediction, which was highly accurate. Inaccuracy in demand prediction is a core challenge faced by companies in the sector and often leads to deficit or excess cash inventories. Deficit of cash inventory leads to loss of sales whereas excess cash leads to an increase in holding costs.

An integrated and interactive digital platform to streamline daily cash supply chain operations was a critical need for the organization. The solution’s accuracy depended on the ability to cater to different user scenarios while it also needed to integrate into the company’s existing platforms. The company, thus, needed a solution provider with expertise in developing planning solutions with extensive sector knowledge and experience. After evaluating various aspects of its requirements, the company chose EY to build a demand prediction model which could help reduce loss of sales and holding costs. EY’s extensive knowledge about the consumer market, besides its extensive experience of working in the sector, helped the company engage with us to build an accurate demand prediction solution.