Software from Steelwedge to consolidate and replace internally developed forecasting systems
Pleasanton, CA — August 29, 2005 — QLogic Corp., a supplier of Fibre Channel host bus adapters, blade server switches and stackable switches, has selected Steelwedge for collaborative sales forecasting and planning.
QLogic expects to be able to create a single sales forecasting environment to capture real-time customer demand and enable the stakeholders to collaboratively work together off the same plan. Sales reps will use the system to create sales forecasts and use the analytics to track and measure their performance against quota at any given time.
The solution also allows sales management to review their team's plans, make adjustments, see rollup views, approve the revenue plan for senior management review and measure the performance of their sales reps. Product Management will review and provide the final demand plan to Operations. Finance will see the impact of a sales forecast by a region or business unit on expected revenue and margins.
The Steelwedge solution will replace QLogic's internally developed systems previously used to roll-up and review account-based forecasts. Various business units and the centralized finance and operations organizations have been using spreadsheets for review and reconciliation of the 12-month financial plan. heir recent growth has outstripped company's ability to perform this manual reconciliation as effectively as they had in the past. In addition, the current sales forecasting process cannot easily incorporate pricing trends or standard costing changes in order to quickly determine the impact of a sales forecast on expected revenue and margins.
Unlike a sales force automation (SFA) system, which is used by the sales management to manage pipeline and enforce a selling methodology, Steelwedge said its sales forecasting and planning system is used to forecast from the customer/stock-keeping unit (SKU) level and up to provide visibility into expected demand for each of the products. Accurate and clear visibility into expected demand enables operations, finance and marketing organizations to evaluate potential issues between demand and supply or potential gaps between forecasted and expected margins, QLogic said.
Todd Jones, senior director of Worldwide Sales Operations at QLogic, said that after evaluating multiple vendor applications, QLogic decided to standardize its sales forecasting processes on the Steelwedge solution. The Steelwedge solution and its capabilities align well with the dynamic sales forecasting processes of a high-tech company like QLogic, he said. With specific requirements for seamless integration with multiple financial and manufacturing systems, the ability to deploy the solution quickly and to support many unique attributes associated with QLogic's broad market presence in the [original equipment manufacturer (OEM)], Channel and Enterprise markets Steelwedge became the logical choice for us.
Jones went on to say that another Steelwedge offering QLogic found compelling included the embedded best practices in sales forecasting via their relationship with Dr. Mentzer, executive director of the Integrated Value Chain Forums, at the University of Tennessee. By leveraging this relationship we will continue to drive process improvements across the organization resulting in increased employee productivity and improved response times to our customers increasing demand.
