Avercast® Launches Popular Platform In the Cloud

Online, June 16, 2011 (Newswire.com) - The forecasting and planning platform of choice for many of the world's best-run companies is available today as a service, offering unprecendented ROI for medium-sized companies who seek to compete for larger market share and reach major customers. The announcement was made at the two-day APICS & IBF Best of the Best Sales & Operations Planning Conference that began at the Hilton Chicago today.

"This levels the playing field for companies who target growth opportunities in their industry," said Avercast's Executive Vice President Jason Averill. "The same high-level technology that has been available to large manufacturers and importers for years is now available in the cloud with a la carte access to any of the Avercast components. It has been thoroughly tested with the help of several customers over the past 12 months and it has proven to be a solid, secure and viable answer for the small- and medium-sized enterprise."

"There are a number of reasons the cloud made sense for Avercast," said Clark Johnson, COO. "The reduced implementation time and cost, the ability to plan with multiple facilities worldwide, real-time collaboration with suppliers and the power to make on-the-fly decisions that have huge impacts on the cost of goods. If you are trying to manage even the most marginally complex demand chain using spreadsheets, I can guarantee you Avercast will create savings that your current process is missing now."

Company officials said the transition to Avercast in the cloud can take as little as two weeks. Avercast supply chain professionals will set up a daily exchange of data with the company's ERP system that is automated, safe and secure.

"We are way ahead of many competitors because we're good at interfaces," said Johnson. "We have implemented Avercast Software as a Service with no IT people involved, though of course with their blessing. And if our self-selecting algorithms don't get the job done then we can provide the forecast, too," adding that Avercast has highly educated, trained planners who can assemble forecasts and replenishment plans.

Avercast's co-founder, Gene Averill, authored the world's most widely used replenishment software, in use today by more than 10,000 people in 74 countries. Averill also has deep experience in Sales & Operations Planning, hence their decision to participate in the Best of the Best S&OP Conference. Avercast continues to be one of the few vendors with a dedicated S&OP offering.