E/Step Software Inc.

Forecasting and inventory software for stock-heavy businesses

E/Step Software describes its Finished Goods Series, known as FGS, as the most capable demand forecasting and inventory planning system available. It is aimed at companies that carry a substantial inventory and also need high customer service, such as manufacturers, distributors and service parts operations. The firm says it has worked with businesses like these since 1983, and its material is written for organizations that share the same concerns.

Problems the software is built to address

The material sets out a list of concerns that such companies commonly raise. Customer service is too low, inventory is too high for some products and too low for others, demand forecasts prove inaccurate, and too much time goes on expediting. Cash is tied up in stock, turns are low, warehouses are too small and manufacturing capacity falls short. The firm's argument is that an ERP system alone is not designed to solve these problems. Large ERP suites take a wide but shallow approach, whereas FGS is narrower in scope and goes much deeper in forecasting and inventory.

How FGS sets stock levels

The software forecasts demand and sets the minimum inventory required to meet customer service targets that a company specifies. The firm describes it as an integrated suite of tools that can run both interactively and in batch. It is designed to interface with ERP, MRP and warehouse systems, and its user-level interfacing tool is meant to talk to any system, standard or custom. The site says it integrates easily with existing systems such as Oracle and SAP.

Who uses the product

The firm says FGS serves manufacturers, both process and discrete, along with distributors, service parts operations and service shops. The firm says its customers run from very large corporations down to small private firms. The firm says the company it first sold to in 1984 still runs the product today, and presents that as proof of staying power.

Implementation and support

The firm describes a structured route for implementing FGS, and says the people who support and train clients have worked in the field for many years. The product is presented as extremely flexible, so that a company can adapt it to its own inventory policy and service targets rather than fitting its business to the software. The firm presents this combination of product depth and engineering support as the reason customers stay with it.