Demand Solutions: The future development trend of consulting business in auto industry

On July 9, Gasgoo.com interviewed Yuri Verjoustinsky, director of sales & marketing of Demand Solutions Asia-Pac. He talked with us about his company and the future development trend of consulting business in the auto industry.

Gasgoo.com: Would you please give us a brief introduction about your company and its business in auto industry?

Yuri Verjoustinsky: Demand Solutions is our organization, with 25 years behind us (established 1984) we are one of the longest serving forecasting, demand & supply planning software solutions in the world today. With over 2500 clients globally, Demand Solutions is the world's leading forecasting & demand planning solution. In Asia our organization has been marketing and supporting Demand Solutions since 1988 .We currently are supporting 157 clients in Asia-Pac. 

In the auto industry our organization focuses on assisting businesses to achieve more effective & accurate forecasting, improve their inventory management in the automotive industry, particularly in spare parts and manage their time more effectively through the use of sophisticated business analysis tools.

Through Demand Solutions we have facilitated the introduction of strategies that have helped companies work more efficiently and effectively in the areas of forecasting and inventory management. Our project results indicate that, within 12 months, our clients have achieved inventory reductions or improvements of between 20 to 35%, while at the same time improving customer service levels by around 5% points.

Gasgoo.com: As we know, there are some consulting companies, like CSM, Polk, Kearney, providing automotive market forecasting business here in China. Are those companies competing with Demand Solution head to head? If so, what are your competitive advantages compared with them?

Yuri Verjoustinsky: As the Global Market leader in Demand & Supply Planning we see a lot of competitors in the marketplace. Many of these organizations claim they provide "forecasting" solutions. Anyone can create a forecast.

We are demand & supply chain specialists, our projects deliver the world's most widely used forecasting, demand & supply planning software, as well as, the business processes required to effectively manage the demand & supply planning to reduce the risks that companies face.

Demand Solutions has been successfully managing demand & supply planning for over 25 years. Our global experience and track record is second-to-none.

The Demand Solutions software is the vehicle that facilitates the process and ensures that companies execute their demand and supply planning strategy in a consistent & disciplined manner. The process implements effective business practices to ensure that organizations communicate, analyze and manage the risk within their forecast & supply plans.

I believe that our approach in how we achieve this is unique and the secret ingredient that sets us apart from our competitors.

Gasgoo.com: What are the main uncertain factors in providing planning and forecasting services to your clients? And how do you cope with that?

Yuri Verjoustinsky: We provide both forecasting and planning services. There are a number of reasons why organizations invite us to review their problems and offer solutions: They are struggling managing inventory, they have too much of the "wrong" inventory; Customer service levels are very poor, they don't have enough of the "correct" inventory; Their incurring increasing transportation costs, the stock is in the "wrong" location; A lack of systems to execute a consistent, disciplined and measurable business strategy;

These problems can usually be summarized as "having the wrong stock, in the wrong place at the wrong time." Thus, from our experience, the main objective for clients is "to put the right stock in the right place at the right time". The key driver for this is better forecasting. Through Demand Solutions we implement more effective, accurate forecasting to deliver a more effective inventory mix resulting in better returns and profitability.

Better forecasting is the starting point. I have always strongly believed that in order to address the problems at the back end of your process, you have to work more effectively at the front end. Improve the accuracy of the numbers that are driving your business processes and the benefits will be delivered. The forecast is the starting point.

As an organization, it is critical to study what you are going to sell or going to use, identifying what do I need, when do I need it and where do I need it. Unless you address this first, you can't get expect effective inventory management. That's why we focus on the forecasting, then as we work through the process, we pick up efficiencies that deliver results along the way.

Gasgoo.com: What's your opinion on the future development trend of the consulting business, especially in auto industry?

Yuri Verjoustinsky: In the consulting & software solutions business, I see that the supply chain market has definitely matured in this region. Buyers are a lot more mature, they know what they want, and when they want it? In the past we needed to conduct a lot more education in the pre-sales cycle, now it seems that many companies have identified and understand their issues and challenges and know that companies like ours exist in the market place to address their problems.

I believe that the recent economic challenges caused through the Global Financial Crises has helped highlight & improve the understanding of the importance of effective cash management through improved demand & supply planning. Most importantly, the significant impact this can have on profitability.

Gasgoo.com: What are your company's development goals in the next five years? What are you going to do to achieve those goals?
 
Yuri Verjoustinsky: As a Software Company our core goals centre around the ongoing development and enhancement of our products in line with the newer technologies that are available. Functionally, on an ongoing basis we are always moving forward as we enhance & improve our solutions to make life easier for our clients.

The philosophy of our organization, since it started in 1984, has been to ask our clients what functionality they would like to see in our products. These requests are catalogued, and then ranked according to what is being asked for the most. We will always go back to our clients for their opinion, thus our product will definitely continue to evolve based on practical "real world" requirements.

Our product technology platform is evolving quickly, evidence of this is our latest product offering, Demand Solutions X. Demand Solutions X is our .NET SQL platform product, it offers an alternative from our existing product range for companies wanting to embrace and move forward using the latest Microsoft technologies.

Currently we have seen a surge in interest in Demand & Supply planning solutions. I believe this is our greatest indicator that as competition increases, global sourcing & distribution trends continue to emerge that the market understands the competitive advantages and improved profitability that our products and projects deliver.

We are entering a very exciting era. As the market consolidates and rebounds from the recent economic challenges, I believe that the adoption rate of demand and supply chain planning solutions will grow. We intend to be well positioned through our proven Demand Solutions products and processes to facilitate this and assist our clients' continue to grow, and at the same time, grow ourselves.