Bringing more innovation to the table
乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 helped a global food products manufacturer leverage predictive analytics for faster and more accurate financial forecasting.
Client
A global food products manufacturer
Sector
Consumer packaged goods
Project
Intelligent forecasting using predictive analytics
Client challenge
Though it has been bringing iconic products to the global market for more than 125 years, our client was not content to rest on its laurels. The company realized that manually produced forecasts took too long and were often inaccurate and out of date. They were looking for more transparency and better visibility into the drivers of its business. In order to reach their goals, the food product manufacturer chose 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 to help leverage advance analytics and predictive modeling, all while reducing time and effort.
Gain insights to drive better decisions
Watch how 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 designed an intelligent forecasting engine using artificial intelligence and machine learning to help a global manufacturing company harness their data, uncover new markets and threats, and gain a sizeable advantage.
With intelligent forecasting, this client achieved a 50 percent improvement in accuracy and an estimated time savings of 30 to 40 percent.
Approach
The company turned to 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 to help the company innovate its volume, margin and earnings forecasts with intelligent forecasting, incorporating a variety of Al and machine learning capabilities. We conducted two proofs of concept over four months鈥攁 bottom-up approach approach for a specific brand and a top-down approach for enterprise-wide revenue and earnings.
Our work proceeded in three phases:
1
Understand our client鈥檚 data sources, business drivers, and current planning processes and forecast accuracy so that we could analyze the data for consistency and develop a 5-to 10-year baseline.
2
Determine which data modeling techniques would produce the greatest accuracy and visibility.
3
Build a roadmap to expand the brand and corporate finance models across other brands.
Working with the 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 Lighthouse team of data scientists, data engineers, and advanced analytics consultants, we were able to quickly explore and analyze the company鈥檚 data in multiple ways. The team used Al technologies in the 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 Ignite platform to compare different types of modeling techniques and ultimately recommend specific customized models. We also leveraged a suite of proprietary technology accelerators, including the global 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 Signals Repository, which contains more than 50,000 external data signals, continually refreshed to significantly improve the accuracy of predictions.
Ultimately, we were able to help company executives more completely understand the drivers of their business. We also gave them greater visibility into the internal and external data that should drive each model. By taking advantage of 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网鈥檚 Al and machine learning capabilities, the company can rapidly produce an intelligent forecast for its brands and integrate it into the company鈥檚 overall financial planning process.
The result is an iterative process that automatically updates the forecast engine with new financial results, data, and signals and produces increasingly accurate forecasts over time.
Based on this proof of concept, our client is now expanding it鈥檚 modeling across brands and varying financial scenarios.
Benefits to client
乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网鈥檚 intelligent forecasting models drove significant improvements in our client鈥檚 forecasting performance and insights, including:
1
50 percent improvement in forecast accuracy.
2
Improved insights by incorporating new internal and external data points and signals.
3
Estimated time savings of 30 to 40 percent by using predictive analytics rather than manual models to create forecasts.
Artificial intelligence (Al) and machine learning, combined with advanced modeling techniques, are expected to refine the company鈥檚 planning models and continue improving their ability to learn and predict over time.
乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 insights
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Artificial intelligence produces better forecasts, but it can鈥檛鈥攁nd shouldn鈥檛鈥攔eplace the people who are running the business
Intelligent forecasts are considerably faster and more accurate than those generated manually. By leveraging these benefits, managers are freed up to do what they do best: strategic thinking and creative execution.
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The intelligent forecasting process can generate competitive advantage
By introducing data signals that haven鈥檛 historically been considered, the organization can gain greater insight into what drives the business and uncover new competitive threats as well as new markets.
Meet our team
Sanjay Sehgal
Head of Markets, Advisory, 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 US
Brett Benner
Partner, Finance Transformation, 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 US
Peter Irwin
Principal, Advisory, Lighthouse, 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 LLP
Sanjay Sehgal
Head of Markets, Advisory, 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 US
Brett Benner
Partner, Finance Transformation, 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 US
Peter Irwin
Principal, Advisory, Lighthouse, 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 LLP