Smart Software Sponsors Aberdeen Group Research on Demand Management

New report finds best-of-breed demand forecasting systems increase forecast accuracy rates

Belmont, Mass., February 7, 2007 - Smart Software, Inc., provider of industry-leading demand forecasting, planning, and inventory optimization solutions, today announced that it has underwritten a new research report from Aberdeen Group, a global provider of fact-based research and market intelligence.  The new report, entitled Demand Management in Consumer Industries, focuses on technology strategies for managing demand in today's dynamic business environment.  It finds that consumer products companies that use best-of-breed demand management technology enjoy increases in their market share and gross profits.

For this report, Aberdeen surveyed 150 consumer industry companies, including consumer packaged goods, apparel/footwear, consumer electronics, consumer durables, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and food and beverage enterprises.  One of the more startling conclusions made in the Aberdeen report is that companies using best-of-breed demand forecasting systems are three times more likely than their peers to have forecast accuracy above 70%.  Aberdeen also credits two specific types of capabilities with helping best-in-class consumer products companies improve performance on key business metrics such as market share and gross profit margin--demand shaping (promotion optimization) and demand collaboration (working collaboratively with internal staff members and customers to achieve a consensus forecast).

Smart Software's SmartForecasts®, a cross-industry solution for demand forecasting and management, includes tools for demand shaping among its many features.  It also integrates with SmartCollaborator^TM, a companion, web-based product that enables stakeholders both inside and outside an organization to participate in a collaborative forecasting and planning process.  SmartForecasts is used by many consumer industry companies, including Godiva Chocolatier, The Coca-Cola Company, Kimberly-Clark, Purdue Pharma, Schutt Sports, Sony, and others.

"Among the consumer goods companies we surveyed, those that have the ability to sense changes in consumer demand faster and respond quicker are able to achieve rapid results," said Nari Viswanathan, research director, supply chain at Aberdeen Group. "Our research shows that technology solutions that enable collaborative demand planning, demand shaping and product lifecycle forecasting help companies significantly reduce inventory and improve gross margins."

Aberdeen's study also found that "nearly half of the [consumer industry] companies surveyed report that they are challenged because their supply chains do not have normal demand distributions, making traditional forecasting difficult."  As part of its forecasting capabilities, SmartForecasts contains award-winning, patented technology for forecasting hard-to-forecast products that lack normal demand distributions, items commonly referred to as having intermittent, or "slow-moving", demand.  This unique technology yields nearly 100 percent accurate estimates of inventory stocking requirements for any lead time and desired service level, and is being used by scores of companies.

About Smart Software, Inc.
Founded in 1984, Smart Software, Inc. is a leader in providing businesses with enterprise-wide demand forecasting, demand planning and inventory optimization solutions.  Smart Software's flagship product, SmartForecasts, has thousands of users worldwide, including customers at mid-market enterprises and Fortune 500 companies, such as GE, Monsanto, Mitsubishi, Siemens, Disney and Pfizer.  SmartForecasts gives demand planners the tools to handle sales seasonality, promotions, new and aging products, multi-dimensional hierarchies, and intermittently demanded service parts and capital goods items.  It also provides inventory managers with accurate estimates of the minimum inventory and safety stock required to meet future orders, thereby ensuring the most cost-effective inventory allocation to achieve desired service levels.  Smart Software is headquartered in Belmont, Massachusetts and can be found on the World Wide Web at www.smartcorp.com.

SmartForecasts is a registered trademark and SmartCollaborator is a trademark of Smart Software, Inc.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

For more information, please contact Smart Software, Inc., Four Hill Road, Belmont, MA 02478.
Phone: 1-800-SMART-99 (800-762-7899); FAX: 1-617-489-2748; E-mail: info@smartcorp.com

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