Trace Consultants – Demand Planning as a Service
If you’ve ever tried to fix forecasting and inventory, you’ll recognise the pattern. A new tool is rolled out, a pilot sings, and then BAU hits. Planners are stretched, the data isn’t quite right, a few manual “shortcuts” creep in, and the shiny new process starts to wobble. Meanwhile, sales wants more stock “just in case”, finance wants working capital back, and suppliers are quoting longer lead times. Everyone is busy. Not everyone is confident.
Demand Planning as a Service (DPaaS) is a different way of solving the problem. Rather than buying software and hoping for the best, you subscribe to an outcome: a standing planning capability with the right people, cadence, and pragmatic tech—measured on results, not rhetoric.
This article sets out what DPaaS looks like for Australian and New Zealand organisations, when it makes sense, the common traps to avoid, and how Trace Consultants stands it up and runs it with you.
What is DPaaS—really?
Think of DPaaS as renting a high-performing planning engine. You get:
- A weekly and monthly rhythm that matches your commercial cycles, with clear decision gates.
- Forecasting that blends statistics, causal drivers (promotions, price, events, weather), and human judgement.
- Inventory policies that connect the forecast to safety stock and replenishment in a transparent, auditable way.
- Clean data practices and parameter governance, so settings don’t drift over time.
- Performance management that focuses on the right metrics—forecast accuracy, bias, service, and working capital—and turns those metrics into action.
It’s not a system, a single contractor, or a deck of recommendations. It’s a capability that runs, every week.
Why it matters now in Australia & New Zealand
Our geography and market dynamics magnify the cost of error. Long import lead times. Interstate transfer lags. Seasonality, tourism cycles, and event spikes. Shelf-life constraints in food and healthcare. The result is a constant balancing act: carry too much and costs swell; carry too little and service falls over. Add tight labour markets—especially for experienced planners outside the capitals—and the challenge deepens.
DPaaS helps by right-sizing the team, solidifying the operating rhythm, and using tech where it earns its keep. You get quicker time-to-value, fewer firefights, and a planning practice that sticks.
Who gets the most benefit
- Retail and FMCG. Promotions, pack changes, supplier MOQs, and DC constraints make accuracy and parameter discipline critical.
- Manufacturing. Multi-stage BOMs, changeovers, and component variability demand a planning approach that is hierarchy-aware and grounded in reality.
- Healthcare and Aged Care. Critical item availability with stewardship expectations and expiry risk requires service-based policy, not guesswork.
- Hospitality, Integrated Resorts, and Venues. Event-driven spikes, perishables, and central kitchens benefit from a tight weekly drumbeat and clear hand-offs.
- Public Sector and Universities. Budget cycles and service targets need a repeatable, transparent planning cadence more than another tool.
If you’ve got stock-outs on some lines and slow movers gathering dust on others, DPaaS was built for that situation.
Outcomes you should expect
A credible DPaaS engagement ties effort to outcomes. In practice, that looks like:
- Higher forecast accuracy at the level where decisions are made, with bias trending down—not hidden in overrides.
- Service levels that improve without simply throwing stock at the problem.
- Inventory that is healthier, with smarter safety stocks, fewer expedites, and less waste.
- Shorter, more predictable planning cycles so Sales, Supply, and Finance can decide faster.
- Master data and parameters that stop drifting and start behaving.
The anatomy of good DPaaS
A working cadence
There’s a weekly demand review with exception lists and promotional overlays, and a monthly demand sign-off into S&OP/IBP. Quarterly reviews recalibrate policy: safety stock logic, target service levels, planning horizons, lead times. Meetings start on time, decisions are recorded, and next steps are owned.
Forecasting that respects the signal
The statistical base detects seasonality and trend, uses intermittent logic where needed, and avoids forecasting at a level that is just noise. Causal drivers (price, promotion mechanics, events, even weather when relevant) adjust the base. Human judgement is invited—but tracked—so it helps rather than harms.
Policy that is explicit
Service targets are clear. Safety stock is calculated from actual variability and supply risk, not a blanket “days’ cover”. MOQs and lot sizes are modelled so planners see the trade-offs. Parameter changes are governed and auditable.
Data care and light integrations
We align to your source of truth (ERP/WMS/OMS) and fix the basics: phantom lead times, messy calendars, late orders, short shipments. Interfaces start simple and harden as value is proven. There’s no mystery master data living in a spreadsheet on someone’s desktop.
Performance management that leads to action
MAPE and weighted accuracy for the important SKUs and families. Bias split by over- and under-forecasting. Service (OTIF/DIFOT) with root causes. Inventory health by segment, plus aged stock and write-off trends. Plan adherence. These are presented together so trade-offs are visible, not buried.
“Buy a tool” or “hire a planner” vs DPaaS
Software has a place; great planners do too. But tools alone don’t create adoption, and a single senior hire is a single point of failure. DPaaS brings the trio—people, process, tech—together from day one, with time-to-value as the test. You can absolutely introduce heavier tooling later; it’ll land cleaner when the rhythm is already humming.
A pragmatic technology stance
Many organisations already own capable tools inside their ERP landscape. Often they’re under-used. Our bias is to start lean, automate the boring parts, and scale once the operating rhythm is steady. When a heavier Advanced Planning System makes sense, we implement it against a validated blueprint—less risk, better adoption, and no illusions.
Trace also offers a modular toolkit (our .Solutions suite—such as .Planner for demand and replenishment) to accelerate early wins. It’s not a black box. It’s transparent, governed, and designed to play nicely with your systems or step aside later if you choose.
How we structure a DPaaS engagement
Phase 1: Diagnostic & Design (about four to six weeks).
We scan the current forecast flow, understand where it breaks, and segment SKUs by value, volatility, and supply risk. We baseline metrics—accuracy, bias, service, inventory health—at a sensible decision level. Then we design the operating cadence, roles, policy, and “minimum viable tech” you need now. The output is a 90-day plan and a 12-month roadmap.
Phase 2: Mobilise & Prove (first 90 days).
We stand up the weekly rhythm, build exception lists, and establish promotional overlays and sign-offs. We refresh key parameters—safety stocks and lead times—on the high-value, high-volatility items first. Quick wins typically include stabilising noisy SKUs, reducing expedites, and getting a realistic picture of aged and slow-moving stock.
Phase 3: Run & Improve (months four to twelve).
We operate the cadence with your team, shift manual work into automation where it’s proved its value, and embed policy governance. Quarterly reviews with Finance and Supply reset service vs working capital posture deliberately, not accidentally. We invest in knowledge transfer so you can insource later if that’s your plan.
Roles and ownership that prevent confusion
Your Category or Sales teams contribute range changes, promotional mechanics, and price moves, then sign off the demand plan at the agreed gates. Supply brings constraints, capacity, and supplier reality to the table. Finance sets service posture and working capital expectations and ensures the plan connects to budgets. An executive sponsor removes blockers and keeps the cadence visible. Trace runs the engine: statistical models, exception management, parameter governance, facilitation, reporting, and continuous improvement. Clear roles keep everyone away from the “who owns the number?” loop.
What good looks like in practice
There’s one calendar and a shared cadence. Inputs are clear and short. Exceptions are queued; people aren’t hunting through four versions of the same report. Safety stock and service targets are visible and defended. Overrides are tracked and debated with evidence. Misses are reviewed for learning, not blame. The cycle gets smoother, then faster.
Common pitfalls—and how we avoid them
Forecasting at the wrong level.
When SKU-store is pure noise, we move up a level and disaggregate intelligently. Accuracy at the wrong level is still error.
Hidden bias.
We make judgement transparent and track bias by person, category, and horizon. People respond to facts, not finger-pointing.
Promotions without mechanics.
We capture uplift assumptions and cannibalisation explicitly, then review post-event so the model improves. “Because it’s promoted” isn’t a plan.
Parameter rot.
We put governance in place so safety stocks and lead times change with evidence. No folklore. No “set and forget”.
Tech before people.
We sequence tooling to support the rhythm, not to replace it. Adoption follows usefulness.
The KPIs that matter—and how to talk about them
Forecast accuracy and MAPE should be reported at the level where decisions are made—top families, top value SKUs, or key channels. Bias deserves equal airtime; it’s the quiet killer of inventory and service. Service (OTIF/DIFOT) needs root causes tagged so action can follow. Inventory health is about stock cover by segment, aged stock, and write-offs, not just a total number. Plan adherence shows whether the plan holds or whether firefighting drove outcomes.
We present these together because each tells only part of the story. Accuracy without service is a party trick; service delivered purely by stock is expensive.
What we need from you
We don’t need a data lake and a multi-year programme to start. We do need willingness to simplify, a visible sponsor, and access to enough data to plan properly—sales history, inventory snapshots, lead times, and a promotions calendar. We also need honesty about constraints so we can plan to them, not around them.
How Trace Consultants helps
We’re operators first.
Our team has run planning and supply functions inside retail, healthcare, hospitality, and manufacturing. We’ve felt the pain of messy cut-offs, short shipments, and late promotions. We design DPaaS for the real world: the dock, the line, the DC, the store.
We bring a right-sized toolkit.
Our .Solutions components (including .Planner) reduce the manual grind and surface exceptions quickly. They’re transparent and auditable, and they integrate with your environment. If you later adopt a heavier suite, we’ll help you make the switch cleanly.
We design for insourcing.
Some clients keep the service long-term. Others prefer to build in-house capability once the rhythm is embedded. We document, train, and progressively hand back, so you’re not locked in.
What we won’t do.
We won’t fabricate case studies. We won’t sell technology for its own sake. We won’t bury you in jargon or 80-page reports that never get used. The test is whether service, accuracy, and working capital move in the right direction—and stay there.
A straightforward roadmap to get started
Weeks 0–2: Orientation and access.
Confirm scope (categories, channels, sites) and success measures. Agree data extracts. Identify obvious early wins.
Weeks 3–6: Baseline and design.
Establish baseline MAPE, bias, service, and inventory health. Draft the cadence, roles, and first parameter refresh plan. Build the first set of exception views and reporting.
Weeks 7–12: Run the rhythm.
Operate the weekly demand cycle live, including clear decision gates. Refresh parameters for the top value and volatility items. Stabilise critical SKUs, reduce expedites, and make aged stock visible with a plan.
Month 4 onwards: Scale and improve.
Extend to remaining ranges and sites, automate what has proved valuable, and formalise quarterly reviews to reset service and inventory posture with Finance and Supply.
Commercial models that encourage the right behaviour
We favour simple commercial models that reward durable improvement. A base service fee covers the standing capability, with a sensible portion linked to agreed measures—accuracy uplift at the decision level, service improvement within an inventory posture guardrail, or plan adherence where it matters. Scope can start narrow (a range, a channel, a region) and scale as results show. From day one, we document what you eventually want to insource and when, so the pathway is clear.
Change management that actually sticks
People adopt what makes their week easier. That means role clarity, short training bursts anchored to the cycle, and visible wins that are shared widely. It also means retiring redundant reports and meetings rather than running the old and the new in parallel forever. Leaders set the tone by backing the cadence and using the same numbers the teams use.
Frequently asked questions
Do we need a new system to begin?
Not necessarily. We often start with your current ERP and a light layer of tooling. If a heavier suite is warranted later, you’ll implement it against a proven rhythm with clear requirements.
How do you handle promotions and events?
We capture mechanics—discount, placement, media—and select historical analogues. After the event, we compare actual uplift to the plan and refine assumptions. Over time, the model stops guessing and starts learning.
Can parts of the process stay in-house?
Yes. Many organisations keep category overlays and final sign-off while Trace runs the statistical engine, exceptions, and parameter governance. We design to your capability and appetite.
What about supplier collaboration?
Where it helps, we align the cadence with supplier lead times and share meaningful forward views. We also clean up noise so suppliers aren’t reacting to fiction.
When do results show up?
Most teams feel stability and planning discipline in the first 90 days as parameters refresh and the weekly cycle matures. KPI movement follows with fewer expedites, steadier service, and clearer inventory posture.
Signs you’re ready for DPaaS
Inventory is climbing but service isn’t improving. Forecast accuracy feels like a circular conversation. Planners are spending hours in spreadsheets and fire drills. You’ve tried “tool first” and adoption stalled. Finance is asking for a plan that people trust. If a few of these sound familiar, a managed planning capability can relieve the pressure quickly and build a platform that’s worth keeping.
How to brief us
Keep it simple. Tell us the relevant categories, channels, and sites; your target service posture and working capital expectations; key constraints (capacity, shelf-life, regulatory), and where planning breaks most often today. We’ll take it from there—cadence, exceptions, parameter governance, and the training rhythm to make it stick.
Final word
DPaaS isn’t a silver bullet. It’s a practical way to get the fundamentals right—every week—so your organisation can make better calls with fewer surprises. In Australia and New Zealand, where distance, seasonality, and capacity constraints make errors expensive, a disciplined, right-sized planning service delivers outsized value.
Trace Consultants can help you stand it up quickly, run it well, and—if you choose—bring it in-house on your terms. No theatrics. No jargon. Just a consistent planning engine that lifts accuracy, protects service, and releases working capital.
Interested in exploring DPaaS with Trace Consultants?
Let’s have a short conversation about your categories, channels, and targets. We’ll outline a 90-day plan you can execute.
