Byron Waugh, Demand Planning and Forecasting Manager
SaskTel
Customer Story
SaskTel Inventory Forecasts Save the Day
See how SaskTel started using inventory and demand planning forecasting to get ahead of supply chain issues and better serve its customers.
SaskTel Key Stats
Industry: Telecommunications
Department: Multiple (Demand Planning, Finance, Operations, Procurement)
Location: Canada
1 Year
inventory forecasting process updated to take 3 minutes
$250,000+
saved by building reports in house
Happier
customers with timely service installs
Bringing telecommunications to 1.4M customers
Founded in 1908, SaskTel is a telecommunications company that prides itself on connecting its 1.4 million customers to the people and places they care about. Whether through new equipment or lightning-fast Internet, SaskTel provides customers and businesses the solutions they need
Being in business for over 100+ years, SaskTel knows how to adapt to best serve its customers. Since 2020 they’ve been using analytics with Alteryx to do just that — tackle inventory and supply chain challenges to meet service install timelines and increase customer satisfaction.
The frustrations of manually forecasting inventory
In 2021, SaskTel realized the need for inventory forecasts. Byron Waugh, who has been with SaskTel for 15 years, took on the new role of Demand Planning and Forecasting Manager.
There was no one doing forecasting or even looking at stats. It was frustrating because we were constantly out of materials, which meant the operations department couldn’t finish jobs and customers didn’t have their service working.
At first, Byron started to manually forecast inventory. There was no easy way to get the data out SAP so he would bring up one material number at a time, look at the history, and type the information into a spreadsheet. The time it took him to do that for just 30 material numbers was lengthy and frustrating. He realized it wasn’t a sustainable process for all 3,300+ active material numbers that SaskTel used.
Creating 5-year forecasts
Byron was in luck. Around the time he was beginning his inventory forecasting initiatives, SaskTel started offering Alteryx training. With just five weeks of training and a sample time series forecast, Byron built a highly accurate forecasting report.
His forecasting report has proven especially important during the pandemic with material lead times 2.5-3 years out. Byron is forecasting a minimum of five years to make sure SaskTel has the materials they need when they need it and has been working closely with a business analyst to automate these processes.
Before it would have taken me a year to create this one report on 5-year forecasts and now we can run 3,300 active material numbers in less than 3 minutes. The time savings that we’ve experienced with just this one report is astronomical. I don’t think I could even do this role without Alteryx. I’d only be able to do a handful of material numbers instead of all of them.
Byron Waugh, Demand Planning and Forecasting Manager
SaskTel
Benefits that keep on multiplying
Previously SaskTel would only order a material a few months in advance, leading to 30 purchase orders a year for just one active material number, many which were rush orders thereby adding additional costs. The goal is to get the number of POs down to 4 per year, which would save SaskTel both money and time.
SaskTel is well on its way to reaching this goal. In February 2022, they ordered everything they needed for 2023 and 2024 to get ahead of supply chain issues.
I can’t even imagine where we’d be today if we didn’t have this report because it has allowed us to see so far in advance.
Byron Waugh, Demand Planning and Forecasting Manager
SaskTel
Previously to get a report built like this, SaskTel would hire a consultant and it would have cost a quarter of $1M and taken months. SaskTel can now build the reports and dashboards they need internally and is improving timelines for both buyers and customers.
3 Reasons SaskTel Chose Alteryx:
Easy
Alteryx is user friendly and easy to follow.
Time savings
Turned a 1-year process into a 3-minute process
Cost savings
Creating reports internally has led to $250K+ in savings
What’s next?
Byron has already created two more big reports for inventory management that flag when leads times on a product extend past what safety stocks are set to — helping them adjust to meet new lead times from vendors. His plan is create an interface so that buyers and procurement managers are able to access the reports themselves and see what they should be ordering.
Byron’s goal is to continue to use analytics to tackle new challenges within the company.
My goal is to automate as much as our inventory forecasting as we can so we can focus on new challenges within the company.
Byron Waugh
Demand Planning and Forecasting Manager
SaskTel
15 MINUTES OR LESS
Assess Your Analytics Maturity
Get a better understanding of where you stand on the analytics maturity scale – and where you want to be.
Recommended Resources
Historia de cliente
SKOPOS ofrece insights diarios sobre el sentimiento de los clientes a través de Alteryx Analytics Automation
Descubre cómo SKOPOS utiliza los datos y la analítica para proporcionar insights diarios sobre el sentimiento de los clientes.
Leer ahora
Historia de cliente
Veritone Unlocks Game-Changing Insights into Advertising Spend
AI company Veritone analyzed 250 broadcast campaigns and spends 88% less time on manual spreadsheet analysis.
Leer ahora
Historia de cliente
Verato accelerates time-to-value With Alteryx
See how Verato transformed the way they work with healthcare patient-matching data.
Leer ahora