What Is It?

Forecast collaboration is covered with SNC. As we note in other areas, SNC is somewhat misnamed as it performs a number of different types of collaboration, not just supplier collaboration.

At a High Level How it Works

Once internal forecasting is complete, business partners can be notified by email to check the forecast. They are then given the opportunity to confirm the demand plan, or to adjust it. This process is repeated until a final confirmed forecast is agreed upon by both partners. Although we have made it sound rather cut and dried, in reality, the ideal collaborative process is more dynamic than can be described in a short paragraph.

Dominant Members

The dominant member is typically the company that is managing collaborative the software. For instance, when a following collaborator logs into the system, they are logging into the system of the leading collaborator. If this sounds a bit inflexible, it is. A more flexible arrangement would have forecasting hubs where suppliers and buyers would share forecasts without one of the partners in essence running the show. However, this is the reality of how companies interoperate currently, and marketplaces for collaboration are rare. The larger company in the relationship tends to have a larger IT budget and can dictate terms to its suppliers.