Sydney, Australia (October 17, 2007) – A retailer’s ability to have on hand just what a customer wants has improved because of SAS. The leader in business intelligence has announced that an enhanced version of SAS® Demand Forecasting for Retail now offers retailers a common forecasting platform for the entire enterprise. SAS Demand Forecasting for Retail enables improved forecast accuracy and consistency; better decision making; and enhanced allocation and replenishment precision that reduces stock-outs and manual interventions to make both the top and bottom line healthier. Key enhancements include new fashion forecasting capabilities, streamlined workflows that enhance usability and upgraded exception management that reduces workloads.

Experts say retailers may lose 20 to 25 per cent of potential sales because they run out of a product or don’t stock the style, colour or brand that a customer wants to buy. SAS Demand Forecasting for Retail directly addresses that specific business need by engaging SAS® High-Performance Forecasting and SAS® Forecast Server to automatically diagnose, model, execute and reconcile forecasts across multiple merchandise levels and store locations. SAS Demand Forecasting for Retail produces results at any level of product or location hierarchy down to the SKU/store level.

“Many retailers still rely on rudimentary methods to produce multiple forecasts that can’t be reconciled,” said Jeff Levitan, General Manager of SAS Global Customer Intelligence and Retail Solutions. “By bringing this enhanced demand forecasting product to the market, we’re confident our customers will experience improved speed, accuracy and efficiency in their ability to forecast demand for the products they offer.”