Implementation

Considerations
Overview

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Implementation Considerations
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Implementation Considerations

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Objectives

Objectives

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Agenda

Agenda

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Implementation Roadmap

Implementation Roadmap

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Step One: Gather Requirements

Step One: Gather Requirements

In the initial phase of an implementation, you gather information and perform groundwork. It is
important to analyze the business and demand planning requirements of the enterprise. An
important part of this process is to identify gaps between customer requirements and the
Demantra template, and decide how to address them. You might also consider conducting a
benchmark analysis (that is, where are they today and where do they want to get to) on key
performance indicators.
Generally, you complete a questionnaire that outlines the enterprise business model, products,
workflow, sales data, and distribution channels. The information usually includes the following:

Sales history, including what was sold, where, the quantity and the dates on which an
item was shipped

Other operational/logistics data relating to sales history

Item and location information

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Information about the various item and location hierarchies that are meaningful to this
organization

For Promotion Effectiveness: Information on sales promotions

Required lowest-level time resolution

After gathering this information, you should create a detailed design document for later use
during the implementation process.

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Step Two: Design the Data Model

Step Two: Design the Data Model

Once you have established your requirements, the next step is to design the data model. This
process should include:

The different dimensions, and levels within each dimension.

The planning units that your model will use (for example, physical cases, cost, weight,
and so on.)

The planning horizon.

The planning cycle (for example, either weekly or monthly.)

Defining the physical data elements required.

Defining the global and local causal factors that will affect your forecast.

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After designing the data model, you should map the requirements to the Demantra data model
and identifying the gaps.

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Step Three: Installation

Step Three: Installation

At this point in the implementation you are ready to install Demantra Spectrum. This includes
installing a RDBMS (for example, Oracle 9i), the planning engine, the desktop and the default
data model on the server. Once the basic Demantra system has been installed you are ready to
begin the configuration process.

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Step Four: Configuration

Step Four: Configuration

Once you have installed Demantra, the next implementation step is to begin the configuration
and customization process. This typically includes:

Configuring the data model to accommodate any gaps that were identified as part of step
one.

Adding any additional series and levels that your data model requires.

Setting the planning horizon and time bucket.

Building new worksheets (or alternately modify existing worksheets) to include the
series, levels, etc. in which youre interested.

After you define the data model and the components, it is often necessary to iterate by making
adjustments to both the data model and the components.
You may need to use the Business Modeler for the following tasks:
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Make series and levels available or unavailable

Further customize the components

You may also need to adjust the worksheets.

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Step Five: Integration and Automation

Step Five: Integration

Since Demantra requires planning data from your ERP system, the next logical implementation
step is to set up the integration. Integration involves defining and building the import and export
process (scripts) that you will use to bring data into Demantra. Integration may also involve
writing database procedures and workflows to maintain data as needed. Finally, its important to
load sample data and test your import and export processes.
Note: Demantra includes built-in integration support for Oracle EnterpriseOne and Enterprise
Business Suite (EBS).
After building and testing the integration, this process can be automated to start importing and
exporting data based on your planning cycle. For example, you can schedule a Demantra
workflow to automatically begin the EnterpriseOne download process, or configure Demantra to
monitor a database/staging table for new data.

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Step Six: Build and Tune the Forecast

Step Six: Tune the Forecast

Demantra generates forecasts using the Analytical Engine by reading the historical demand and
data from the causal factors (such as seasons, price changes. It then generates a forecast for all or
specific item-location combinations. Wherever possible, it generates the forecast at the lowest
possible allowed level (such as SKU-store). If necessary, it aggregates data so that it can generate
a forecast at a higher level and split it to the lower level as needed.
The forecast tree (which you configure) controls how the Analytical Engine aggregates and splits
data when performing this task. When working on a node of the forecast tree, the Analytical
Engine uses a set of engine models, which are mathematical forecasting models. It considers how
well each of those models works for that node and it statistically combines the best results, and
generates the forecast from that.
Here are some useful guidelines when creating the forecast tree:

The forecast tree should contain 3 to 6 levels on which the engine can traverse and
forecast. This number does not include any levels below the minimum forecast level.
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The levels of the forecast tree need to have meaningfully changing data sets per level in
order to be effective. A move from level to level should substantially increase the amount
of data that is being analyzed by the Analytical Engine while maintaining an aggregation
method that makes sense from a business perspective.

The minimum and maximum forecast levels should contain reasonable and relevant data.
The minimum forecast level should have enough data to facilitate a forecast desirable by
the customer, while the maximum forecast level should still be disaggregated enough to
maintain some data granularity.

The default parameters used by the Analytical Engine may not be suitable for all
customers/implementations. Based on the initial forecast, you may choose to adjust these
parameters that control how the individual models work. This fine-tuning allows you to
maximize the Analytical Engines performance.

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Architecture Considerations

Architecture Considerations

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Performance Considerations

Performance Considerations
The Analytical Engines run time is dependent upon several factors:
1.

The number of Combinations that are good for forecast.

2.

The number of levels in the forecast tree

3.

The minimum forecast level.

Use these considerations when performance tuning and estimating your hardware requirements:

Calculate the number of specific item-location combinations.

Make sure that your worksheets are configured correctly (for example, filtered to
a manageable size, based on the user who will use them, and so on).

Tune the Analytical Engine.

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You may also want to consider caching worksheets to improve performance.

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Summary

Summary

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