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Salescast - sales forecasting made EASY

A web app that delivers automated demand forecasts together with key inventory optimization metrics. Best suited for retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers. No statistical skills required. Suitable for both extremely large and extremely small companies. Salescast imports data directly from your existing business app and generates Excel and database exports.

Video introduction

Screenshots, demo and sample report

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Big Picture

Not enough inventory and you have nothing to sell, too much inventory and your costs explode. Accurate demand forecasting is a cornerstone of inventory optimization. Salescast, a web app by Lokad, delivers forecasts and inventory optimization metrics.

Pricing is by monthly subscription and depends on the number of forecasts you require. No setup cost. No termination cost. When you stop using Salescast, we stop charging. No questions asked.

Achieve complete process automation with Salescast. Pull data from your current IT systems, and receive results either through Excel sheets, or directly injected into your existing business app. Ongoing usage of Salescast requires near-zero manpower.

Get the most accurate forecasts on the market, as Lokad manages all demand patterns on your behalf: seasonality, trends, product life cycle, promotions, cannibalizations, etc. Sign-up for your free account in 60 seconds. From this account, log into Salescast. Within Salescast, upload your historical data and retrieve your forecasts. Setting-up the data import typically takes 2-3 business days. The Lokad team is here to assist you, just send us an email;

Does Salescast apply to your company?

If you have inventory, yes it does. Someone, somewhere, is already producing forecasts, because inventory is nothing but anticipated demand. And more often than not, the person doing it doesn't have the word forecast in his or her job title. Nevertheless, the level of inventory optimization that your company is able to achieve is directly related to the accuracy of those forecasts. Learn how Salescast helps you to achieve better inventory levels.

Strengths and weaknesses of statistics

Statistical forecasting isn't magic. The fundamental assumption behind this methodology is that the most tangible source of information when predicting the short term evolution of your business is the actual historical data of your business itself. Learn more about pros and cons of statistical forecasting.

Why choose Salescast over competitors?

In short, when it comes to statistical demand forecasting tools, there is no substitute for a real data benchmark . But then, Lokad is not your usual demand forecasting solution. If you're already familiar with our competitors' offerings, Lokad may puzzle you at first. We deliver forecasts, not forecasting toolkits. As a result, no expertise in statistics is required. See how our technology compares to traditional approaches.

Scope of Salescast and complementary apps

Our technology isn't intended for stand-alone usage. Salescast leverages your existing IT systems, and potentially feeds further apps that help your company get the most from our forecasts. Let's review what Salescast is, and what it is not.

Features: forecasting and stock optimization

Salescast lets you produce extensive Microsoft Excel-based inventory reports that include:

• Sales forecasts (daily, weekly or monthly)
• Key inventory metrics (e.g. on hand inventory)
• Optimization metrics (e.g. reorder point)
  

Forecasts are typically produced at the lowest level (per product or per SKU) because that's the data aggregation level your company needs to optimize its inventory. Learn more about Salescast features.

Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) is not handled by Salescast out of the box, because we have observed that EOQ is typically very business-specific. Nevertheless, EOQ can be integrated as a customization on top of Salescast.

How does the forecasting engine work?

Our technology combines a vast library of statistical models, an extensive model selection mechanism, a multiple time-series modeling approach and a native cloud computing infrastructure to power such a processing-intensive solution. Although Lokad's forecasting engine is somewhat of a black box in the sense that you don't get the details of forecast generation, you can get more insights into how the forecasting engine works.

For a more in-depth viewpoint, check our technology page along with its FAQ.

Understanding the pricing

We charge on a monthly basis for the number of forecasts consumed by your company. For example, if you have 200 products to be forecast 10 weeks in advance, twice per month, then the total number of forecast points is 200*10*2 = 4,000, which amounts to $38/month (*). No setup fee and no strings attached: the day you stop using Salescast, we stop charging. There is a major volume discount too. Learn how Lokad pricing applies to Salescast.

(*) Provided as an example, check the pricing page to get current pricing terms.

Getting started

Going into production with Lokad does not require cash (free trial) but it is still an investment of a couple of business days to make sure the historical data is properly made available to Salescast.

For a mid-sized company, the process typically goes as follows:

• Issue instructions to IT(*) and supervise the POC (Proof of Concept): 1/2 day.
• IT prepares data to be imported: 1 to 3 days (1 person).
• Management validates forecasts: 1/2 day.
• IT finalizes access to data for production: 1 or 2 days (1 person)
  

(*) Yes, IT has to be involved, importing data from Excel will not work.

Read more about the setup process and the historical data needed to feed Salescast.

First forecast report? Expect the unexpected

Unless you're already experienced in statistics, the first time you have an in-depth look at the numbers produced by Lokad, you will most likely be puzzled. Statistics is a counter-intuitive science, which produces counter-intuitive results. Nevertheless, those results have a very real impact on your business. Let's shed some light on this first report.

Importing your historical data (technical)

If you are using QuickBooks, please read these instructions

Salescast typically pulls data from a remotely reachable SQL database. If you select the option where the Lokad team is in charge of creating a data adapter tailored to your existing database, then you only need to enter the database credentials in Salescast directly, and then email us so we can start working on your data.

• Exposing data in the native Salescast format? We have an intermediate SQL schema.
• Connecting a Microsoft SQL Server database to Salescast? We have instructions for MS SQL Server.
  

Security notes

From a legal viewpoint, we treat every single piece of data exposed to Lokad by prospects and clients as if the data were under a strict NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement). The data are and will remain the property of your company. Security is the second most important concern for Lokad (forecasting accuracy being the first). If needed, we will gladly sign an NDA with your company on simple request. Just email us your template.

From a technical viewpoint, Lokad is hosted on Windows Azure, the cloud computing infrastructure from Microsoft, a computing environment that we believe to be about one of the most (if not the most) secure on the market. By relying on Windows Azure, we benefit from all the ongoing security efforts and monitoring that Microsoft is applying to its own computing infrastructure.

Last but not least, if your data is too sensitive to be exposed to Lokad, then we have a clever trick available named data obfuscation. In short, since Lokad is a purely statistical engine, we don't need actual product names or anything that could identify the item. It is possible to feed Salescast with raw sales data where all product names have been replaced by database identifiers (the same applies for tags).