SCOT has evolved from being a simple data sharing platform into a powerful resource for optimizing your supply chain. The latest feature, Forecast Sharing, enables the suppliers to better predict order needs, ensuring seamless operations. This forecast sharing empowers you, the admins from Metro and the Suppliers with information about upcoming orders and its volumes that in turn ensures availability of Goods in Metro's shelves. This article will guide you through the new Forecast Sharing page that now both Admins and Suppliers can directly access via SCOT.
What is Forecast sharing?
Traditionally, data flows into SCOT from backend (MDSP*), which automatically analyses all METRO sales data—including sales (projected/predicted sales to end consumers) and orders (planned to be placed by admins to suppliers).
*NOTE: Data is coming from MDSP to EDGE once a week. On Tuesday morning, the data is available in SCOT and this is the data exported from MDSP on the Sunday before. The data contains up to 13-week information, Order Forecast (OF), Sales Forecast (SF), Sales Forecast Base (SFB), Sales Forecast Promo (SFP) , aggregated at week-level for an account.
The forecast data is available from the current week for a total period of up to 13 weeks ahead.
Admins can select the account(s) and also fill in the remaining filters - Week Number, Portfolio, Article Variant Name, Subsys Number, Supplier Article Number, GTIN, Category (the highest level of article grouping in the sourcing system).
Once the required filter is applied, select Search.
The table shows all the units in buying bundle quantities.
Weekly and Customizable Data view:
The table presents data on a weekly basis, with the option to filter by specific weeks. The table is also customizable—only the Article Variant Bundle Number field is mandatory, and other fields can be added or removed as needed.
The data set is analyzed to highlight any outliers (orders that are significantly different from average volumes which are planned to be sold or ordered) in orange color. The data from the table can also be exported from the Three dot menu in excel format.
Now let us understand more on how you as an Admin can provide access to Suppliers.
Access Management:
The Access Management page can be accessed by selecting the Padlock icon in the left-side menu, as highlighted in the image above. There are two filters - Portfolio and Supplier Number-Name - allowing you to narrow down results and set supplier access to forecast data. You can also save the filters for later quick access. Once you save a filter, you can find it under the Saved Filters section. The Clear Filter button allows you to quickly clear any of the preset filters and enables you to start a new search.
Based on your filters, the Access Overview grid shows supplier data and allows you to set their access to the forecast data. As you can see in the grid, each supplier has three accesses that can be enabled/disabled, and you can also add comments.
NOTE: The grid is designed to help you understand better the functionalities through a simple "i" info icon near column headings. You can simply hover your mouse control over that "i" and an explanatory text is shown to you.
Once you add a comment and click Save Comments, the Assigned By and Assigned Date columns keep a record of the commentor and the time stamp for better record-keeping. Now to define access, you may simply select and deselect the access of every supplier record.
You can use the Bulk Update feature to edit the access of multiple suppliers to the data. First select the suppliers you want to change, then click on the Bulk Update button.
A pop-up appears with a mandatory and an optional field. The mandatory field requires you to choose the type of access (OF, SF and SF Split) and the optional field lets you write comments on the operation you are about to perform.
Once you select the type of access, you may be able Give or Remove access.
Give Access:
You can use this button to provide the selected suppliers with the accesses only mentioned in the Report Access field. For instance, if a Supplier ‘A’ has access for Order Forecast access, but if you select Supplier ‘A’ during the Bulk Update and select Sales Forecast in the Report Access field, then Supplier ‘A’ will be provided Sales Forecast access but will be revoked of his default Order Forecast access. So, it is imperative to select all the applicable accesses for a supplier before selecting the Give Access button.
Remove Access:
You can use this button to revoke selective accesses (mentioned in Report Access field) to selected suppliers. For instance, if a Supplier ‘A’ has access for Order Forecast and Sales Forecast accesses, but if you select Supplier ‘A’ during the Bulk Update and select Sales Forecast in the Report Access field, and click Remove Access button, then the Supplier ‘A’ will only have Order Forecast access. So, it is important to select only the accesses that you do not wish for the supplier to have before selecting Remove Access button. In case nothing is selected in drop-down and Remove Access button is clicked, all accesses will be removed.
You can keep changing access as required and in case you face any trouble, you can always reach out to us via scot@sourcingsupport.de