Smart IP&O Application Suite vs. Thrive Technologies

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Smart IP&O Application Suite
Score 0.0 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
Smart Software is a provider of demand planning, inventory optimization and supply chain analytics solutions headquartered in Belmont, Massachusetts, USA. Founded in 1984 Smart boasts having helped thousands of customers plan for future demand utilizing statistical analytics. Smart Inventory Planning & Optimization (IP&O) is the company’s suite of native web applications, helping inventory carrying organizations reduce inventory, improve service levels and streamline Sales, Inventory and…N/A
Thrive Technologies
Score 6.7 out of 10
N/A
Thrive is an inventory management software offering from Thrive Technologies. It is built to help distribution and retail companies needing to improve demand forecasting, and it helps inventory replenishment functionality in ERP systems.N/A
Pricing
Smart IP&O Application SuiteThrive Technologies
Editions & Modules
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Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Smart IP&O Application SuiteThrive Technologies
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Smart IP&O Application SuiteThrive Technologies
Top Pros

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Top Cons

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Best Alternatives
Smart IP&O Application SuiteThrive Technologies
Small Businesses
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Medium-sized Companies
QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise
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Score 8.3 out of 10
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Score 8.3 out of 10
Enterprises

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User Ratings
Smart IP&O Application SuiteThrive Technologies
Likelihood to Recommend
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Smart IP&O Application SuiteThrive Technologies
Likelihood to Recommend
Smart Software
No answers on this topic
Thrive Technologies
No solution is perfect, but I would say that Thrive is a particularly robust and complex solution that's intended to tackle major demand management and inventory forecasting problems. Smaller companies simply won't need a solution that's so all-encompassing. I would recommend waiting unitl you know that you need it before moving forward with a solution like Thrive.
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Pros
Smart Software
No answers on this topic
Thrive Technologies
  • Cloud-based, accurate forecasting system saves lots of time and can tangibly boosts ROI
  • Robust demand management down to the SKU level
  • Optimized replenishment prevents too much money from being tied up in inventory
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Cons
Smart Software
No answers on this topic
Thrive Technologies
  • Although it's simpler than many alternatives, it's a highly complex system and at times we felt lost during the transition period.
  • We didn't get the results we had imagined when looking at their case studies and marketing materials. I understand many factors go into those things, and their case studies are not necessarily indicative of typical results, but your mileage may vary.
  • Inventory replenishment alerts about potential stockouts weren't always reliable.
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Alternatives Considered
Smart Software
No answers on this topic
Thrive Technologies
Abas ERP was what we had used previously, and though it did its job adequately, it lacked the forecasting, demand management, and inventory replenishment sophistication of Thrive. We reached a point where we felt it was untenable to supplement the previous system on our own which necessitated the switch to Thrive.
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Return on Investment
Smart Software
No answers on this topic
Thrive Technologies
  • We were able to reduce the amount of resources tied up in inventory
  • Forecasting tools meant significantly less time spent trying to wrangle spreadsheets
  • The transition was painful, causing initial doubts, but it was certainly worth the growing pains
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ScreenShots

Smart IP&O Application Suite Screenshots

Screenshot of Smart Demand Planner™ is a consensus demand planning and statistical forecasting solution available on Smart’s Inventory Planning and Optimization Platform, Smart IP&O. Smart Demand Planner, powered by the SmartForecasts® Engine, aligns strategic business forecasting at any level of your product hierarchy with granular forecasts of the item mix to improve forecast accuracy. It provides a statistically sound, objective foundation for your sales and operations planning process (S&OP).  Smart Demand Planner’s collaborative workbench enables forecast overrides to be applied, imported, reviewed, and approved by authorized users driving the consensus plan. Forecast accuracy is measured, helping ensure that the best possible forecast is delivered to the business at both the aggregate and item mix levels. The result is more efficient sales planning, budgeting, production scheduling, ordering, and inventory planning.Screenshot of Smart Inventory Optimization (SIO™) is available on Smart’s Inventory Planning and Optimization Platform, Smart IP&O.  It delivers inventory policy decision support and the means to share, collaborate, and track the impact of your inventory planning policy. This can help realize millions in savings by improving customer service and reducing excess stock. You can forecast metrics such as service level, fill rate, holding costs, ordering costs, and stock out costs. Users can identify overstocks and understocks, adjust stocking policie when demand changes, share proposed policies with other stakeholders, collect feedback, and establish a consensus inventory plan.  And unlike traditional inventory planning systems that rely on rule of thumb approaches or require the user to arbitrarily set suboptimal service level targets, Smart Inventory Optimization prescribes the optimal service levels for you.  Users can optionally assign service level constraints to ensure the optimization engine respects business rules. SIO provides the required inventory planning parameters for a variety of replenishment policies such as Reorder Point/Order Quantity, Min/Max, Safety Stock Planning, and Order Up to levels.Screenshot of Smart Operational Analytics (SOA™) is a native web reporting solution available on Smart’s Inventory Planning and Optimization Platform, Smart IP&O.  It provides a fast, easily understood, current perspective on the state of your inventory, its performance against critical metrics, actual supplier lead times, opportunities to rebalance stocks across facilities, and helps you uncover root causes of operational inefficiencies.  SOA automatically refreshes as often as you’d like providing all stakeholders immediate, up-to-date reporting on your operations and performance.  You’ll have constant visibility of inventory levels, orders, shipments, and supplier performance to ensure you’ll always be in tune with the state of your operations and resolve issues before they become problems. Enhance visibility. Improve responsiveness. Increase your bottom line.