Understanding modern supply and demand planning for SMBs

Editor's Note: This episode is sponsored by Netstock.   Netstock CTO Barry Kukkuk and his co-founders wanted to bring advanced inventory management capabilities enjoyed by enterprises to the SMB market. It was a business opportunity for sure, but democratizing these tools by using new pricing enabled by cloud computing and SaaS business models was also part of the team's ethos, he explains. After all, who wants a business landscape controlled solely by the Amazons and Walmarts of the world?   On this episode we discuss the modern capabilities in supply chain software, starting with big data and its accessibility for SMBs. Barry also discusses the lessons that Netstock customers have learned since 2020 about managing changing trends in demand forecasting, stock models, and inventory management. The idea of "future-proofing" a supply chain can take a lot of forms today, with opportunities ranging from supplier performance management to near-shoring to tools that build better vendor and client relationships.   From Netstock: Unlock the data in your ERP and drive smarter supply chain decisions. Learn more.   Show Notes: 1:15 - The founding of Netstock 4:15 - Bringing more advanced computing tools to the SMB space 6:00 - The impact of the pandemic on inventory management 8:30 - Planning mistakes organizations made in the start of the pandemic 10:00 - What supply chain professionals know about today's supply and demand planning tools 13:30 - What signs are businesses seeing change in their demand forecast today? 17:00 - How Netstock's clients are adapting to optimize supply chains today? 19:45 - Planning for new capabilities based on customer needs, trends 21:30 - How supplier performance influences planning 25:00 - How supply and demand planning influences customers