Case Studies – Consumer Electronics

Published by RoadMap Technologies on December 11, 2013December 11, 2013

No industry in the world is as exciting as, or more difficult to forecast than consumer electronics, where waves of better, faster and cheaper products flood the marketplace every six months. RoadMap’s technology planning software was developed in concert with industry leaders such as Dell Computers, General Electric and Samsung.

As with the Life Sciences industry, product life cycle management is critical to an accurate forecast. RoadMap’s ability to phase-in and phase-out forecasts for product lines, as well as the ability to forecast price compression curves are essential to producing accurate forecasts.

In many consumer electronics industries, such as printers and copiers, forecasting sales of spare parts and consumables is as important as forecasting original equipment. Higher margins on sales of these service items allow the manufacturers to lower introductory prices of new models of equipment. However, without accurate forecasts of consumables, it is impossible to forecast margins and overall profits.

RoadMap’s ability to forecast across multiple hierarchies allows high technology companies to forecast their sales by brand, by end-user segment (Home vs. Small Business) as well as by classes of product (e.g. equipment vs. consumables).