CN simplifies forecasting, reduces workload with SAS®

With an aging mainframe, forecasting revenue and equipment requirements was a time-consuming and inefficient process for CN. Using SAS forecasting tools, the company has been able to dramatically reduce workload – and a process that used to take four months now takes six weeks. This allows the company to make faster, more relevant forecasts of future demand to dramatically improve customer service.

With the largest rail network in Canada and the only transcontinental network in North America, CN operates over 20,000 miles of track in Canada and the US. CN offers integrated services including rail, intermodal, trucking, freight forwarding, warehousing and distribution. With a commitment to move more freight, more quickly and with fewer assets, CN was in need of a technology upgrade.

The company had an aging mainframe-based system that was no longer being supported by the vendor, so it started looking for a solution that would address future forecasting requirements. "There were no system issues with the mainframe, but it ended up being a data retention tool that displayed what salespeople thought the forecasts should be," said Doug MacDonald, Vice President of Corporate Marketing with CN. "We never used the forecasting component because it didn't really work for us."

Instead, all of the marketing teams came up with their own forecasts, and those numbers were often inconsistent across the organization. Salespeople would have to sift through data on different shipments to come up with their forecasts, which was a time-consuming and inefficient process. So the company looked at various options in the marketplace and decided to move forward with SAS, since it was the only vendor to come up with a working protocol. SAS also offered a clear upgrade capability and an easy-to-use interface to minimize training requirements.

CN is using SAS Financial Management, a solution for enterprise planning, budgeting, consolidation and reporting, along with SAS Forecast Server, which quickly and automatically generates high-quality forecasts, allowing organizations to more effectively plan for the future. "The SAS front end and even the back end were so simple," said MacDonald. "SAS Financial Management has an Excel look-and-feel user interface, which made it easy to train the users of the system – our training requirements were almost nonexistent. We've never had a system go in this easy."

These tools are providing insight into the company's revenue and equipment forecasts. If CN is looking to buy gondola cars to move steel, for example, SAS can help the company decide if it has enough to meet future demand, and if it should be looking to buy more, lease more or get rid of some of its fleet. CN

"SAS has allowed us to take a more proactive stance with our budgeting and forecasting moving forward," said MacDonald. "Overall, it's allowed us to take a longer-term outlook with all of our initiatives."

The use of SAS has dramatically reduced the workload for both sales and marketing. The company's annual budgeting process used to take four months, involving 100 people. CN has been able to cut that down to six weeks – and MacDonald expects to tighten that time frame even further.

Four business analysts are able to generate simple reports from the data warehouse and pass those on to the sales and marketing department. Forecasts are based on all relevant data, plus SAS software's economic indicators, and the sales and marketing departments simply have to look at the data and provide any exceptions. "Instead of having to input all of our data from scratch, now it's strictly an exception management tool and the process of inputting the budget and year-end outlook has been cut by about 90 percent," said MacDonald.

"SAS Software's use of economic indicators has dramatically simplified our forecasting process," said MacDonald. "It helps ensure we'll have the right resources to take advantage of opportunities. Now, with the ability to forecast future requirements, we can meet those demands and dramatically improve our customer relations."

In the past, the company would forecast equipment and labour requirements about three months in advance; now it's looking at forecasting out 18 to 24 months. Not only will this allow the organisation to manage its assets it will ensure it has the right number of employees in the field at the right locations, which will also directly benefit customers.

But SAS provided more than technology. MacDonald credits the SAS technical support team with an easy implementation. "SAS was committed to a timeline – they hit the dollar amount, they hit the timing, they put the resources on it that were required. And it's had a dramatic impact not only in our operating department, but throughout the entire company."

The results illustrated in this article are specific to the particular situations, business models, data input, and computing environments described herein. Each SAS customer’s experience is unique based on business and technical variables and all statements must be considered non-typical. Actual savings, results, and performance characteristics will vary depending on individual customer configurations and conditions. SAS does not guarantee or represent that every customer will achieve similar results. The only warranties for SAS products and services are those that are set forth in the express warranty statements in the written agreement for such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. Customers have shared their successes with SAS as part of an agreed-upon contractual exchange or project success summarization following a successful implementation of SAS software. Brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies.

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