Oracle Demand Management Cloud can be integrated with Oracle Cloud or on-premise ERP solutions such as SAP, JD Edwards and E Business or it can be deployed as a stand alone solution.
At its core the Demand Management Cloud retains the Demantra solution of:
- Pre-seeded setup such as Measures, Hierarchies, Engines, Models, Worksheets & Forecast Processes
- Collection of Valid Items & Locations & History used to create Forecast combinations
- Analytical Engine, Models and Forecast Tree for Bayesian Forecasting
There are however, significant changes over the Demantra solution:
- Vastly enhanced User Interface (Graphs are greatly improved and Tile Sets for Dashboards & exceptions can be really useful)
- The Demand Management Cloud component does *everything* in one place. There is no longer a need separate servers, logins, functions & skills for Administration, Collections, Engine runs, New Product Introductions, Security, Workflows, Logs or Forecast Management.
- Segmentation functions exist throughout the solution which enables a far more fluid & sophisticated approach to forecasting different types of data.
- Worksheets are now tables that planners access via Layouts. The implications of this may be minor but could be significant depending on how your planners create / maintain / access data.
Considering moving from ODP, Demantra, Excel or Other to the Cloud?
Upsides are:
- Far quicker implementation time scale.
- User Defined Hierarchies are simple to create and load
- Cost of ownership and support
- Ease of use (implementation & training)
- Data Segmentation and Plan flexibility
- Manage multiple plans at the same time
- Plans can contain different time scales and horizons
- Plans can have multiple forecast outputs
- Plans can be segmented by Hierarchy
- Plans can contain different Measures
- Plans can interact with each other
- Key Customer function enables grouping of smaller data sets
Downsides are:
- Customisation is limited
- User Defined Hierarchies will require data transformation
- Data Size is more restricted than Demantra
- Promotional & Trade Functions not available yet.