Part-1 FUNDAMENTALS

1. The Collaborator Workbench is the launch point to using Demantra applications. It provides:
System and user-defined contents such as worksheets, tasks, who's online and the dashboard.
Provides role-based access and user-secured environment.

Provides real-time automatic or manual alerts and messages.

2. Demantra solutions consist of a set of worksheets that are designed especially for a customer or a
particular business process. In this topic, you will set the number and order of worksheets that are
displayed in the Collaborator Workbench.
3. Demantra worksheets contain a mixture of non-editable series imported from your ERP system
(such as History) and editable series you can manually change (such as History Override).

4. Worksheets are the tool used by Demantra to create forecasts. Worksheets are very flexible and
can be customized to meet your forecasting requirements. If you want to see the new worksheet displayed
in the Collaborator Workbench, you must personalize the Collaborator Workbench's worksheet list to
include the new worksheet.

5. The term "series" refers to the data that appears in data tables and graphs. There are many types
of series such as:
Uneditable series imported from ERP systems (for example, History).
Editable series that allow manual edits (for example, History Override).

Calculation series that perform specific calculations.

Simulation series.

Series that indicate whether a forecast has been approved, and by whom.

6. The time periods, time buckets and the way time is displayed is modifiable in worksheets.

7. Levels control how data is aggregated and organized. Levels are used in worksheets, in filters, in
import and export, and in forecasting.

Levels generally reflect organizational or business needs of your customer. For example, the Retailer level
might consist of aggregated sales data for all brands the retailer sells.

Levels are also used in integration:

To specify the level at which data is imported or exported.
To specify how to filter imported and exported data.

8. Open With gives you the option of opening any worksheet filtered for a specified member. The
Open With context can be configured as follows when opening a worksheet to include:

Just the member you clicked.

The complete context of that member where you clicked it. The context for the Open With options is
configured within the worksheet definition.

In this topic, you will filter the Waterfall Analysis Product Category & Org worksheet by the
Automotive product category

9. Within each worksheet, there can be multiple views of the same data. You can change from one
view to another using worksheet tabs. From the Layout Designer, you can add, delete, rename, enable
and synchronize views.

10. The Layout Designer determines the appearance of the worksheet including:
 Layout of level members and series.
Series visibility: Table, graph, both, or none.

Series order.

Appearance of worksheet components.

11. The Crosstab feature provides you with enhanced reporting options. Using the Layout Designer, the
crosstab feature can be configured to:

Compare series values side by side.

Control how data is summarized and where those summaries appear.

Freeze summaries at the top/left of table.

Hide empty columns or rows in the table.

Hide levels.

12. Embedded worksheets (also known as sub tab worksheets) enable you to view a worksheet within a
worksheet. A worksheet can include an embedded worksheet that is associated with any of the levels in
the main worksheet. When you select a member in the main worksheet, the embedded worksheet shows
the details. The embedded worksheet is displayed in a sub tab.

Unlike regular worksheets, embedded worksheets can include levels not used in the main worksheet. An
embedded worksheet can also be aggregated differently. For example, you can create an embedded
worksheet that is associated with any of the levels in the main worksheet. Then, when you select a
member in the main worksheet, the embedded worksheet shows the details for that level.

Embedded worksheets are not necessarily synchronized with the rest of the worksheet. You can configure
Demantra to either synchronize these worksheets automatically, or on demand. If embedded worksheets
are set to synchronize on demand, you can use the Synchronize Activities right-click option to refresh
them with whatever is currently selected.

In this topic, you will embed the Demand Analysis Item & Org worksheet into a new worksheet. First,
you will review the embedded worksheet in the Demand Analysis Product Category & Zone
worksheet.
13. A content pane displays a graphical view of data associated with a worksheet to provide you with
current, at-a-glance information that meets your needs. You can display content in formats such as the
following:
Members Browser, which is a collapsible tree hierarchy of data levels
Tabular format

Chart formats including line, bar, and pie charts

Calendar format

You use content panes to view simultaneously many presentations of demand chain information. Each
content pane can be filtered to suit your needs. And you can make content panes available to other users
so that you can share your work with your enterprise partners.
Working offline
1. The first time you save a worksheet offline, Oracle Demantra sets up your offline environment so
that you can work while you do not have access to the Oracle Demantra server. This is a one-type setup,
per user, per machine. You must have network access to the Oracle Demantra server when you set up the
offline environment.
Once the offline environment has been set up, you can save data from a worksheet (or part of it) in an
offline format. Your options are:
Current combination.
All loaded combinations of worksheet.

All combinations in worksheet.

2. The Demantra Offline Worksheets application allows you to open and work on exported
worksheets when you are not connected to the web server. When working offline, you can change data and
format your worksheet. The changes are synchronized with the online worksheet when you connect with
the web server. You can start the Offline Worksheets application from a shortcut located on your desktop,
or from the Java Application Cache Viewer.

3. After working with data offline, you can reload it into Oracle Demantra. When you bring a worksheet
back online, Oracle Demantra saves the data back to the database, just the same way it saves data from
any other worksheet. When you reload offline data, Oracle Demantra uses information that it has recorded
in an audit trail. When it does so, it moves that audit trail information into the database. It means that the
local record of changes is no longer available. In practice, this means that you should delete an offline
worksheet as soon as you reload all the desired data, and then take the worksheet offline again if needed.
4. You can export a specific worksheet combination or view to Excel for further manipulation and
formatting. This option is not as powerful as Oracle Demantra Offline Worksheets, but is suitable if you just
want to work on a single combination. With Dynamic Open Link, the data in your Excel worksheet can be
automatically updated when data changes are made in Demantra.

PART-2

Oracle Demantra Demand Management enables you to sense, plan for, and proactively respond to demand
by sharing a one-number plan that aligns your organization across departments and users. Demand
Management allows you to model new products based on the lifecycle of existing products, or you can
model new products or versions that supersede existing products.

Oracle Demantra Demand Management is the main pillar of the Demantra line which also includes Real-
Time Sales & Operations Planning, Predictive Trade Planning, and Deductions and Settlement Management.

Oracle Demantra Demand Management integrates with both the Oracle Enterprise Business Suite (EBS)
and the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne to retrieve the most up-to-date customer, item and sales information,
returning a forecast.

The Demantra Fundamentals UPK is a prerequisite to this UPK.

Upon completion of this module, you will be able to:

Use worksheets and the simulation engine to forecast.
Analyze forecast accuracy and set exception filtering.

Use configure-to-order worksheets to plan for product options based on the bill of materials.

Introduce new products based on existing products.

Use Member Management to define members and combinations.

Forecast for new product combinations using chaining and shaping.

FORECASTING
1. The Demantra Analytical Engine is an advanced statistical engine capable of multidimensional
forecasting with mixed modeling techniques.

Within a Demantra Spectrum solution, the Analytical Engine runs in the background when scheduled by
the administrator, reading data from the database and generating forecast data. The forecaster uses a
worksheet to view the forecast and make adjustments, saving those changes to the database. The updated
forecast is available to all users with the appropriate authorization.

In particular, in the batch mode, the Analytical Engine:

Runs when scheduled by the administrator in the background or when system is offline.
Refreshes the entire forecast set.

Traverses the large forecast tree.

Calculates large number of combinations.

Writes data series to the database.

Performs post-run scan of data.

Start the Analytical Engine to run to run forecasts in bath mode. The Analytical Engine is a separate
application in the Demantra suite. It is started from either the Desktop or the Start menu.

Upon completion of this topic, you will be able to run the analytic engine and review forecast details.
2. With Demantra Demand Management, you can change a forecast and then simulate the effects of
the change.

A forecast is driven by time series analysis. Historical information is divided into two parts:
Historical demand.
Causal factors used to explain historical demand.

Notes can be attached to the combinations you change for tracking purposes. The worksheet table
displays note symbols on those dates. Notes appear in two different areas: Notes dialog or the
Notes/Attachments sub tab.

In this topic, you will make some changes to the Demo Worksheet forecast and use notes to document the
changes.

3. You can perform "what if" simulation of the effects of changes on a forecast. After the simulation
has been run, you can either accept or reject the simulation results.

The simulation mode is similar to a batch run in terms of steps. The differences between simulation mode
and the batch run are:
Runs only on a designated subset of combinations.
Runs on a much smaller section of the Forecast Tree.

Faster than batch run.

Used for what-if analysis.

Useful for quickly evaluating changes in history, causal factors or promotions.

Simulation mode is launched by users on an as-needed basis.

Results can be accepted or rejected.

4. After a simulation has been run, you can either accept or reject the simulation results until you are
satisfied with your forecast. Worksheets can be formally approved and locked by management once
agreement has been reached. Demantra workflows can notify the administrator when a forecast has been
approved and is ready for upload to the ERP system.
5. Worksheets and attachments can be sent to your colleagues for further review and feedback
directly from an open worksheet. Alternatively, you can send and receive tasks from your colleagues in the
Collaborator Workbench in the My Tasks content pane. (ie, send the Demo Worksheet forecast to your
manager for approval).

HANDLING EXCEPTION

1. Batch/simulation engines generate forecasts either manually or on a predefined schedule. When

forecasts are rerun, the older forecasts are kept so that they can be analyzed for accuracy. The number of
saved forecasts is set by the Demantra administrator. For example, the most current forecast is Fore_0.
The last forecast is saved as Fore_1. The older forecasts are available for review from a lag forecast series.

Demantra calculates a wide variety of key performance indicators (KPIs) that highlight the true
effectiveness and efficiency of your planning process and its results. These KPIs include statistical
measures of forecast accuracy such as:
Mean absolute deviation (MAD).
Mean and absolute percentage error (MAPE).

Weighted MAPE.

For each lag forecast, accuracy metric series can be created such as:
# week lag absolute deviation
# week lag absolute error

# week lag percent error

Worksheets with predefined forecasts and accuracy metrics ship with Demantra. They include:
Waterfall: 4 week, 8 week and 13 week lag forecasts and accuracy metric series are available.
Demand Analysis: Accuracy series for the current forecast are available.

2. The Exception Filter indirectly controls which combinations the users can see. When you apply an
exception, you specify a true/false expression that specifies a series, an operator, and a value. For
example: Sales > 50000. Combinations are only displayed if this expression is true for at least some of the
time buckets in the time range of interest. You can specify multiple expressions and relate them by logical
AND or logical OR.

In this topic, you will create an exception rule in the Waterfall Analysis Product Category & Org
worksheet.

3. A workflow is a set of user-defined steps connected together in a logical order. Each step can be
automated, or can require interaction from one or more users or groups. Workflows can do all the following
kinds of actions:
Run integration interfaces.
Run stored database procedures.

Run external batch scripts and Java classes.

Pause the workflow until a specific condition is met, possibly from a set of allowed conditions. For
example, a workflow can wait for new data in a file or in a table.

The Waterfall Analysis Product Category & Org worksheet has a defined exception filter that has flagged a
number of instances where Adjusted History < 100.

Configure to order
 Configure to order products are configurations of components depending on the customer's preference. In
most cases, this includes a selected base product (the model), the mandatory components, and the
options.

Configure to order works on the principle of dependent demand forecasting. Dependent Demand
Forecasting is the capability to forecast demand for partially or fully dependent products whose demand
depends wholly or partially on the demand for another product.

To forecast the dependent demand for an option, you must first determine the probability or likelihood that
an item will be purchased when another item is purchased. Either the EBS planning percent (known as the
Plng Pct Existing) or the sales history (known as the Plng Pct History) can be used to specify the
probability for Demantra forecasting. For:
Mandatory items, the probability is 100%
Optional items, the probability of all the options together usually total 100%. In some cases, options
can be greater that 100%. For example, tires have a 400% planning percent for a car.

Configure to Order (CTO) worksheets provide you with planning information about base models, their
associated bill of materials (BOM), and planning percentages. The base model, BOM, and planning
percentages are downloaded from EBS to help you plan the options associated with base models.
2. The Configure to Order (CTO) worksheets allow you to override the planning percentages, forecast
dependency demand and consensus forecast to create forecasts that are in turn, uploaded to EBS for
further processing.

When the consensus forecast is updated for a parent item in a base model, it changes the amounts
planned for the dependent options. You can specify which planning percentage you want to use (EBS
existing or sales history) for each item, and override the planning percentages if desired.

Introducing New Product

1. From the worksheet, the Create Similar Product method can create a new product or be executed
on an existing product with no historical data.

The Create Similar Product method is context based: the product on which it is initiated serves as the basis
for population and data for the new item. The launch date, end launch date and cannibalization percentage
can be set, and forecasts simulated.

2. When you create a similar product, the combinations generated depend on the filters in place on
the originating worksheet.

3. Sometimes a new product you create will supersede an existing product. Within the Create New
Product form, Cannibalization Percentage is used when the new item's launch is expected to negatively
impact sales of the source item. The value entered in the Cannibalization Percentage can be between 0
and 100, and signifies how much of the source product's volume is expected to be cannibalized by the new
item. If the new item is replacing the existing product, set this field to 100.

If cannibalization is set above 0%, the Launch Date and End Launch Period fields drive the period of time
over which the cannibalization will be used. The expectation is that cannibalization will be zero before the
Launch period and will ramp up during the ramp period reaching the full cannibalization percentage at the
last date of the launch period. For example, if the Launch Date is June 1, 2009, End Launch Period is June
29, 2009, and Cannibalization Percentage is 100%: This is a 5 week period and therefore cannibalization
will be 20,40,60,80 and 100% for the 5 weeks. When The cannibalization percentage reaches 100%, it is
assumed the source product will cease selling from that day forward, as it is completely superceded by the
new product.

4. When an item is created using the Create Similar Product method, links are made to the source
product to produce a realistic forecast now and in the future. Sometimes, during the planning cycle, you
may want to change the assumptions that link the source and target products such as the launch date, end
launch period or cannibalization. To help you with this task, you can use the Edit Lifecycle Definition
worksheet and method. After running the method, the links between the source and target products will be
updated for all the affected combinations.

5. When introducing new products using the Create Similar Product method, you may inadvertently
create wrong combinations, or need to streamline the combinations in your forecast. The Remove
Combinations worksheet and method have been designed to help you manage your combinations quickly.
This feature is only available to those users who have been granted the appropriate permission level to
remove combinations.

MANAGING THE MEMBERS

1. Demantra Demand Management provides shortcuts for performing specific functions. These
shortcuts are called methods. Configured by the administrator, methods can be made available from
worksheets, the Collaborator Workbench Dashboard, or other content pane.
In particular, methods can be created to assist certain users with adding, editing, viewing and deleting
items. Methods are run from the worksheet using the right-click menu.
2. The Member Management tool within the Demand Planner enables you to manage your existing
item/location combinations. From this tool, you can copy, edit, rename, and delete members. In addition,
the Member Management tool enables you to create item/location combinations to represent new products
for forecasts. Combinations are stored in the mdx_matrix table.

The Member Management tool works with the Chaining Management tool to allow you to build sample
historical data which you can use for forecasting.
3. The Member Management tool within the Demand Planner application enables you to create
item/location combinations to represent new products for forecasts. Combinations are stored in the
mdx_matrix table. If desired, you insert placeholder historical data with zero values into the database for
each combination prior to generating sample historical data with the Chaining Management tool.

CHAINING
1. A Chaining Workflow needs to be running in the background to enable the chaining functionality to
work. You can create and start the Chaining Workflow through the Workflow Manager.

2. Chaining is the process of copying series data from source combinations to target combinations.
Typically, you do this after you have created a new member or new combinations, so that Oracle Demantra
has data to use when orecasting. While you set up a chaining operation, you specify each series data to
copy, a range of dates to copy from, a date to start pasting to, and an optional multiplicative factor for that
series. During the chaining operation, Oracle Demantra aggregates the series data and then splits it across
the target combinations, according to your choice of split mechanism. Oracle Demantra saves the details
of the chaining operation, which means that you can run the same operation later if needed.

Shape modeling/Alignment

Shaping data is another technique used for creating accurate forecasts for new products. If there is a
pattern evident when introducing similar products, that pattern can be applied to the forecast for a new
product. Demantra Demand Management provides the tools to record the pattern and specify the time
periods to which the pattern will be applied. Another technique, shape alignment, helps to align the
forecast with the actual results as they become available, ensuring that your forecast accuracy is
maximized.

Part-3: Demantra Deduction and Settlement Management

Oracle Demantra Deduction and Settlement Management (DSM) is a Web-based, configurable tool to help
you resolve settlements with customers (usually retailers) who have run promotions, sold your products,
and now need reconciliation. You view the promotional events that Oracle Demantra Deduction and
Settlement Management provides as possible matches, select a promotion, and finalize the match. You can
then attach proof of performance for the promotion, approve the match, and request a check to be sent to
the customer (if appropriate). You can also mark a settlement as a duplicate, split a settlement (typically to
match only part of it), or deny a settlement.

Upon completion of this module, you be able to:

Get started with Oracle Demantra Deduction and Settlement Management.
View and resolve settlements.

Create a settlement worksheet.

Work with promotions.

Part-4: Demantra Predictive Trade Planning

Predictive Trade Planning (PTP) provides a fully functioning trade promotion management capability for
trade funds, promotion entry, execution, tracking, and analysis. PTP uses advanced data mining
technology, enabling organizations to analyze sales history, efficiently manage trade funds allocation, and
understand how promotional strategies shape demand.
Get started with PTP.
Work with PTP data.

Manage PTP worksheets.

Use PTP within the Oracle Demantra Dashboard.

Planning promotions.

Run simulations and optimizations.

Examine and compare promotions.

Part-5: Demantra Real-Time Sales and Operations Planning

Access Real-Time Sales and Operations Planning / Perform a Demand Review.

Perform a Supply Review / Perform a Financial Review.