Motor Coach Industries Uses SmartForecasts to Improve Parts Inventory Planning at Service Centers

Belmont, Mass., June 19, 2007 - Smart Software, Inc., provider of industry-leading demand forecasting, planning, and inventory optimization solutions, today announced that Motor Coach Industries (MCI) has purchased Smart's flagship product, SmartForecasts^® Enterprise, to help improve inventory management in its aftermarket service parts operation. With headquarters in Schaumburg, Illinois, MCI designs, manufactures and markets intercity motor coaches, along with bus replacement parts, in the U.S. and Canada.  The company, which has more than 2000 employees, will use SmartForecasts' patented intermittent demand forecasting and planning capabilities to improve forecasting and inventory stocking processes at its twelve North American facilities.  SmartForecasts will also help MCI streamline its vendor managed inventory business, increasing parts availability and providing better customer service.

MCI's service centers provide repair services to customers.  The company has 41,000 active part numbers, and close to 75% of these parts have hard-to-forecast, intermittent demand patterns.  Before SmartForecasts, MCI forecasted about half of the parts manually at each of its service centers.  This process was time consuming and did not lead to optimized inventory levels.  MCI knew it could improve its forecasting and planning procedures and began an evaluation of leading demand planning, forecasting, and inventory optimization software systems.

MCI chose SmartForecasts because of its intermittent, "slow-moving" demand forecasting capabilities and its installed base of customers in the service parts aftermarket.  They were also impressed with Smart Software's ability to demonstrate accurate results upfront.

"An important part of our evaluation compared stocking level estimates provided by the different vendors.  SmartForecasts' stocking level estimates were the most accurate and resulted in not only lower projected inventory costs but also a higher projected service level," said Stan Dzierzega, inventory planning manager and project leader at MCI.  "In addition to improving our service levels and reducing costs, we expect SmartForecasts will help us to reduce our demand planning workload.  Manual planning takes too much time, and with SmartForecasts, we look forward to shortening the process, forecasting more items, and getting better forecast results and inventory recommendations."

SmartForecasts is a cross-industry solution for demand forecasting, demand planning, and inventory optimization.  Its intermittent demand forecasting technology is deployed by scores of companies with service parts operations, as well as industrial tools and capital goods manufacturers.  SmartForecasts automatically generates accurate safety stock and inventory level requirements for any desired service level, and it integrates directly with Oracle, IBM DB2, and Microsoft SQL Server, as well as ERP and SCM systems such as Epicor, Adonix, and SAP.

About Smart Software, Inc.
Founded in 1984, Smart Software, Inc. is a leader in providing businesses with enterprise-wide demand forecasting, planning and inventory optimization solutions.  Smart Software's flagship product, SmartForecasts®, has thousands of users worldwide, including customers at mid-market enterprises and Fortune 500 companies, such as Monsanto, Mitsubishi, Siemens, Disney, Pfizer, GE and The Coca-Cola Company.  SmartForecasts gives demand planners the tools to handle sales seasonality, promotions, new and aging products, multi-dimensional hierarchies, and intermittently demanded service parts and capital goods items.  It also provides inventory managers with accurate estimates of the minimum inventory and safety stock required to meet future orders, thereby ensuring the most cost-effective inventory allocation to achieve desired service levels.  Smart Software is headquartered in Belmont, Massachusetts and can be found on the World Wide Web at www.smartcorp.com.

SmartForecasts is a registered trademark of Smart Software, Inc.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

For more information, please contact Smart Software, Inc., Four Hill Road, Belmont, MA 02478.
Phone: 1-800-SMART-99 (800-762-7899); FAX: 1-617-489-2748; E-mail: info@smartcorp.com

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