Custom Demand Planning Software
Features, Integrations, Benefits, Costs
ScienceSoft applies 34 years of experience in AI and 11 years of experience in designing and developing supply chain management software to create effective solutions for analytics-driven demand planning.
Demand Planning Software: The Essence
Demand planning software helps companies optimize inventory, production and distribution. It analyzes historical demand data and provides accurate, data-driven demand forecasts for users to spot optimal time for trade promotions and new product launches. Custom demand planning software is especially helpful for enterprises with a large number of product categories, complex and unique S&OP processes, multiple teams involved in demand prediction.
- Necessary integrations: ERP, CRM, an inventory management system, order management software, etc.
- Implementation time: 6–10 months for custom demand planning software.
- Development costs: $160,000–$350,000, depending on the solution’s complexity.
- ROI: 260%+.
Demand Planning Software: Key Features
Demand planning solutions offer comprehensive functionality for multiple user groups – inventory specialists, product managers, supply chain planners, pricing specialists, financial analysts, the sales and marketing team, and others – to streamline their daily workflows. Below, ScienceSoft shares a sample feature set of demand planning software.
ERP
- To take into account production constraints when planning demand.
- To leverage relevant demand data at all levels of operational, financial and strategic planning.
CRM
For data-driven omnichannel demand forecasting.
Alternatively to CRM, demand planning software can integrate directly with selling channels (e.g., a company’s ecommerce website or a point-of-sale system).
Inventory management software
- To analyze inventory levels across various locations, generate recommendations on optimal safety stock and reorder points.
- For accurate inventory planning and multi-echelon inventory optimization.
Promotion management software
- For promotional demand forecasting.
- To launch effective promotional campaigns for maximized demand and profitability.
Product life cycle management software
- To forecast demand for new and existing products.
- To plan optimal product life cycle, new product launch and product retirement across product categories.
Order management software
- For accurate demand planning.
- For data-driven planning of order fulfillment location (for omnichannel selling), picking, packing and shipping while minimizing distribution costs and ensuring timely order fulfillment.
Pricing software
- To analyze price elasticity of demand and model demand for different prices.
- To plan optimal product pricing.
The use of the maximum of data sources
including social media, competitors’ websites, relevant governmental and legal portals. To forecast demand taking into consideration all available internal and external demand factors.
AI-powered prescriptive analytics
to get AI recommendations, for example, on optimal product pricing, production scenarios, omnichannel stock levels for maximized demand and profitability.
Demand sensing functionality
to create precise short-term demand predictions based on the current realities of the supply chain and the product market.
Automated demand plan adjustment
as new relevant data appears. To eliminate low-value manual tasks of demand planners and speed up the demand planning cycle.
Role-based access control
to adjust the right to create, edit, view or share demand plans based on the user role (a sales rep, an inventory specialist, a category manager, etc.) to protect sensitive demand data.
Demand Planning Software Development: Success Story by ScienceSoft

Supply chain e-collaboration network for 1,700-store retailer
- Advanced analytics for demand planning.
- Real-time monitoring of inventory levels across warehouses and stores.
- Template-based creation of purchase orders.
- Role-based access control for category managers, store managers, suppliers, accountants, etc.
Customer’s benefit: Faster and more accurate demand planning.
1
Business needs analysis and eliciting requirements for the demand planning system.
2
Designing the functionality, architecture, and tech stack for the solution.
3
Planning the implementation project: scope, deliverables, team, duration, budget, etc.
4
Demand planning software development.
5
Quality assurance.
6
Integration with the required corporate systems and third-party data sources.
7
User training.
8
Support and evolution of the demand planning solution (optional).
Off-the-Shelf Demand Planning Software ScienceSoft Recommends
Infor Demand Planning
Best for
Collaborative demand planning.
Features
- Seamless integration with Infor Ming.le for facilitated collaboration on demand planning with remote teams, suppliers, contractors, and customers.
- Configurable demand planning dashboards and KPIs for different user roles.
- Automated generation of aggregated demand forecasts for integrated business planning.
- ML-powered demand forecasting across the product life cycle.
- Demand scenario modeling and what-if analysis.
- AI recommendations on optimal safety stock across multiple locations based on the planned demand.
- Alerts on user-defined events, such as rapid demand spikes.
Pricing
Upon request to a vendor.
Logility Demand Planning and Optimization
Best for
Comprehensive demand analytics.
Features
- AI/ML-based demand analysis and forecasting.
- AI-powered analysis of social media sentiment for various brands, products, product segments.
- AI recommendations on optimal product pricing, production levels, multi-echelon inventory optimization.
- Demand forecasting for new, short-life, seasonal, end-of-life products.
- Promotional demand forecasting.
- Real-time demand tracking and sensing.
- Configurable demand plan templates for different teams (e.g., sales, marketing, logistics, finance).
Pricing
Upon request to a vendor.
Kinaxis Demand Planning
Best for
Promotional demand planning.
Features
- Native integration with Rubikloud for end-to-end demand-driven promotion planning and optimization.
- Automated analysis of promotional demand forecast accuracy using Volume Error, MAE/Mean, Bias, and other methods.
- Modeling and analyzing the impact of promotions, holidays and new product introductions on demand.
- Real-time demand tracking and sensing.
- Consensus-based demand planning.
- Real-time monitoring of actual vs. targeted demand planning KPIs for supply chain, S&OP, marketing and finance teams.
Pricing
Upon request to a vendor.
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You have large teams involved in demand planning and want to avoid a considerable subscription amount for platform-based demand forecasting software, which scales with the number of users. |
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You need a flexible demand planning system that is easy to evolve with advanced analytical capabilities, e.g., for real-time demand sensing, when required. |
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You need demand planning software providing case-specific functionality, for example, dynamic demand forecasting for companies that rely on a dynamic pricing model or demand forecasting for products with no demand history for startup businesses. |
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You need to integrate demand planning software with legacy internal systems (ERP, CRM, inventory management software, an order management system, a pricing solution, etc.). |
Demand planning consulting
- Analysis of your demand planning needs.
- Suggesting optimal demand planning features, solution architecture, and tech stack.
- Preparing a plan for integration with ERP, CRM, an inventory management system, pricing software, etc.
- Implementation cost & time estimates, expected ROI calculation.
Demand planning software development
- Demand planning needs analysis.
- Demand planning solution conceptualization.
- Architecture design.
- Demand planning software development.
- Integrating the solution with existing corporate systems (ERP, CRM, an inventory management system, pricing software, etc.).
- Quality assurance.
- User training.
- Continuous support and evolution (if required).
About ScienceSoft
ScienceSoft is a global IT consulting and software development company headquartered in McKinney, Texas. Since 2012, we help organizations build effective demand planning software tailored to their unique needs. Being an ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certified company, we apply a mature quality management system and guarantee that cooperation with us does not pose any risks to our customers’ data security. If you are interested in getting a reliable demand planning system, feel free to turn to ScienceSoft’s team.