Atlas Planning

Pros

Very easy to configure and customize. There are so many options and ways of working. You can accommodate many business processes in this application and make them better.

The ability to create hierarchies and organize data is very important.

Ease of use is a key feature.

Using across the global supply chain and global locations. The application supports multiple business units and processes within our organization.

Cons

Always room for improvement for the software. John Galt is very receptive to hearing our ideas for improvements and they provide monthly releases.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Atlas Planning

Reasons for Switching to Atlas Planning

Pros

The Atlas software works equally well for visually oriented users as well as those that prefer data in table format. The flexibility for the user to modify custom views is very straight forward both in graphical views as well a data tables. The ease of setting up hierarchy views of your data that are drillable makes the tool set perfect for using in all levels of planning process. Atlas is adaptable to various time segments for planning, day, week, month, etc and has proven an ability to adapt to support our changing business.

There is a wide range of forecast tools within the Demand Planning Engine that can support the basic user with time series models or grow with user knowledge into more advanced forecasting methods. Integration with other other systems has been very straight forward with ease of import and export of data.

Cons

A key weakness of the software has been reporting capability within the base package. This is made up for by the ease of data export to other reporting BI tools.

Pros

User friendly, overall IBP process solution, Component and Budget planning capabilities.

Cons

Speed, formatting limitations, non customizable.

Pros

This software is fairly limitless. If you know math, the limits in creating processes to automate your demand and supply planning teams are endless. We have more value added work that we can focus on upon a successful implementation and set up of Atlas. The forecast options are simple to use with as many filters, hierarchies as necessary to view your business anyway you need around your data key and item attributes. Essentially, if you can think of what will make your life easier, Atlas can do it for you. Customer service is spot on, their support is very responsive, and they build a relationship with all of their customers.

Cons

This is a very powerful tool and will take quite some time along with a lot of whiteboarding to set up the way you want the tool to perform for you. This isn't really a con, but more so a point of view if anyone is just looking for something out of the box to work you might need to think of how your supply chain will run 5 years from now. Atlas gives you options to pivot with the changes of the economy and market.

Pros

Atlas gives users detailed insight into their data over a wide range of time. Atlas also helps users see where they have changes in the system that can result in delayed service, missed opportunities and Atlas offers an easy way to make corrections where needed. With the insights gained from Atlas, Rug Doctor has been able to formulate a plan during the Covid-19 season to insure our staff will properly deploy our employees as we redeploy our of pandemic staff reductions. We were able to predict, through forecasting, what areas of the country needed to be fully staffed and when to delay redeployment. Based on the data provided by Atlas, we have not only survived during this time but have slightly increased our profitability by knowing where and when business increased. So in essence Atlas saved our company and saved jobs.

Cons

With so much data in our system, the program can sometimes run slow in it's calculations when all data points are visible. Also, a large amount of server space and great IT team are necessary for a smooth running system.

Pros

The best thing about John Galt is their ability to grow with you. We have now incorporated 6 companies under our umbrella and all are using John Galt. The ease of training new users to the software has been very helpful in getting new people on board with our planning. Additionally because it is easy to use new user likes the system.

Cons

Maybe reporting but I do prefer a separate reporting tool that utilizes the Galt information

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Atlas Planning

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Atlas Planning

Pros

Easy to configure to match current business processes. The software is very flexible, enabling extensive configuration to meet business needs without customizing in a way that would make upgrading difficult. Ability to create and use multiple hierarchies is a huge win, as well as to integrate into our supply planning process.

Cons

The ability to configure everything adds complexity, so you have to get things right on the setup side. The John Galt team has been great in helping us in this regard, both adding insight into best practices and making the tool work the way we need it to.

Pros

Flexibility, able to adhere to current processes while also able to be customized to our business needs.

Cons

The software can be cumbersome to navigate, however I think it comes with time and it is a learning curve like any other ERP/MRP SaaS.

Pros

Atlas planning has demonstrated remarkable flexibility and user-friendliness, particularly post-integration. The software seamlessly adapts to our organization's unique requirements, enhancing the overall user experience. Additionally, we have found the customer support to be highly effective and responsive, providing valuable assistance whenever needed, which further strengthens our confidence in the system.

Cons

The implementation/integration phase has presented certain challenges. This was primarily due to the significant reliance on the efforts and commitment from the organization itself and its data structure.

Pros

Ease of use and the customisable dashboards

Cons

Due to complex data, some tasks take awhile to perform.

Pros

The forecasting is outstanding and makes us confident that good information is flowing from the demand side to the supply side.

Cons

The setup can be a challenge, along with maintaining resources and BOMs.

Pros

The product is extremely easy to use and highly configurable for specific business needs. Additionally, we are able to leverage the automation features to achieve dynamic results without the need for ongoing manual intervention or maintenance.

Cons

Because we use the on-prem version of Atlas Planning Suite, it is very important to work closely with IT Infrastructure Team to ensure that available server resources are sufficient to fully leverage the capability of the software.

Pros

One of the things I like about Atlas is how configurable the software is. The team at John Galt is very open and receptive to reconfiguring back end operations to meet customer needs. Having the capability to mold the software and shift to meet consumer needs year over year is critical; this is where John Galt excels.

Cons

My dislikes also play on how detailed the software (Atlas) is. There are many configurations which is beneficial larger picture, but it makes internal adaptation more difficult. Users have to adapt to the new language and configurations, which can take significant time and resources. Knowing this prior to implementation would be useful and allow for internal teams to get proper software training and experience. Many of the calculations and software infrastructure require coding language to function. This sometimes limits the ability for internal development & design (depending company to company of course), which puts more development reliance on the John Galt team.

Pros

The Atlas Planning Suite offers flexibility in forecasting and configurability.

We are able to employ several different forecasting techniques to get the best forecast by customer/product. The system is highly configurable to bring in outside data needed to build forecasts (Weather info) and able to bring in IOT data to impact forecasting.

The system offers flexibility to perform dynamic calculations within the software. We are able to perform static calculations at every level of the hierarchy, or turn those calculations into dynamic calc's based on various inputs. If the input doesn't exist, but the data does, we are able to bring that into the planning system.

Cons

Atlas is an execution system. With that said, reporting features are standard and are looking forward to the reporting enhancements that are coming soon.

Pros

Comparison of different forecast results. Ability to adjust forecasts at different levels of the hierarchy.

Cons

Integration was a challenge. Custom programming written to aggregate our data, and populate the tables for data load into the software.

Pros

Atlas Planning allowed us to consolidate multiple databases with multiple servers to move to an App and Database server and reduce daily processing time from 28 hours / day to under 3. This with a dramatic reduction in batch errors and system fragility.

The ability to configure the software for use and tailor it to our needs was also very well received.

Cons

There are almost too many features to learn in the implementation process. If anything better user documentation would be of great benefit, although the Consultants are very knowledgeable and can provide responses as needed.

Pros

The reality is, our transition to using Atlas has not been completely smooth sailing due to various issues with our own internal systems but generally speaking, we have been able to get the tool to do most if not all of what we need it to do.

Cons

There is definitely a learning curve that you must prepare for.

Pros

The software enabled us to continuously refresh our estimation of demand, by day, using POS data, forward looking weather data, seasonal trends, day of week patterns, special event impacts and many other demand drivers. Atlas is robust, but also very customizable -- we were able to drive meaningful reduction in both deliveries and out-of-stocks.

Cons

Some of the features did not line up exactly with our needs, and the support team was able to customize the software to address this.

Pros

The ability to have multiple streams of forecasting (new business planning, new item planning, basic, etc) was a great selling point. It gave us the opportunity to build new business planning onto to the base forecasts. This instantly cut down on work load of adding to, moving, and removing as needed.

Cons

On the whole I can't think of an insurmountable con.

Pros

I've seen this software improve and expand over the 15+ years that I've used it. It is a solid and reliable hub in our processes.

Cons

All aspects that were pain-points early on for us have been resolved in later versions over the years due to constant feedback with the vendor.

Pros

The ability to scale with our business needs and the simplicity to integrate as we add additional ERP systems and data sources. The knowledge of the service and support team has also been critical in helping us evolve over time.

Cons

There is plenty of training documentation and material for the standard functionality of the system but would like additional material for our specific setup

Pros

Our business has seen tremendous growth over the last decade and John Galt Solutions has helped us adapt as we continuously innovate. The configuration of the software evolves rapidly to keep up with our ever improving processes.

Cons

The documentation for some of the tools could still be expanded, but this is an area that has seen great improvement in recent years.

Pros

We are finally able to see data from other parts of the organization that we would never have been able to put together under one roof without this software.

Cons

The implementation is difficult- it all depends on the organization itself and how data is housed. It is a great check against data integrity and organization to get this started.

Pros

Reliable--John Galt is never "down" for any reason. Integrates well with our QAD system.

Cons

Retagging item/customer demands to other new or promo items can fail without a clear explanation why. Usually can get it on after trying again, or meticulously processing one individual item at a time, when that is not necessary other times.

Pros

We have developed a robust process around the Atlas Planning process that gets us the results we need. We trust that we understand the tool well enough to provide Forecast accuracy.

Cons

Retagging. Would like to see this built out better.

Pros

The greatest benefits are the power and accuracy of the software and the ease of use. I have used SAP's and Oracle's software in the past and Atlas is far better.

Cons

There isn't anything that I do not like about the software.

Pros

Atlas Planning provides excellent flexibility, allowing our team to apply the most accurate forecasting methodologies by customer/by day, to adjust calculations as needed, and to implement new logic to maintain alignment with our dynamic market demands.

Cons

The data that Atlas Planning provides is great! I would like to see increased reporting and summarization capabilities.

Pros

Demand Engine Machine, specifically the forecast capabilities: it works as expected for series with defined seasonality .
Having the batch scheduler inside the application facilitates the use of the tool.

Cons

Reporting features have improved, but according to our own needs we had to customize some .

Pros

Flexibility: If you can spec out your requirements, the John Galt team can find a way to make it happen.

Cons

Not necessarily a fault of the design, but with it’s vast capability comes great complexity and, like any complex system, everything you change may have unintended consequences.

Pros

One of the best features is the customization. Our supply network is extremely dynamic and differs by geography. John Galt's demand planning software allows us to model all situations and keep our customers in-stock.

Cons

Our deployment was longer than expected and some aspects are over-engineered.

Pros

Integration with our existing ERP software was seamless.

Cons

Glitches have been present here and there. Nothing major and have been easily resolved with the excellent customer service.

Pros

System really easy to use.
Amazing customer service. John Galt is a partner to work with long term.
Integration between different planning modules
Galt updates new versions periodically
Tool is well designed to structure the planning process

Cons

Reporting capabilities can be improved
Online manual are general sometimes.

Pros

Best features are the ability to quickly reforecast and adjust forecast settings. We also leverage the automation in the tool extensively. Integration with our BI platforms is seamless as well.

Cons

Would like to better leverage additional advanced consumption features.

Pros

We have been using Atlas Planning Suite for more than 10 years. It's been a great tool for our Supply Chain team. We recently upgraded to their latest Planning Portal to better manage our customer demands and to leverage their KPIs and new user interface. Their customer support team is super helpful and always responsive. The solution was easy to implement and very flexible to support our business requirements.

Cons

Reporting could be better even though it comes with dashboards and KPIs.

Pros

Our company has volatile demand and historic difficulty in knowing the best method to forecast demand. With the use of a test server, we were eventually able to figure out the right model to use, from a range of models available in the tool, and to implement rules and other functions to support a final forecast.

Cons

The interface is a work-in-progress. Simple, but occasionally requiring more steps to configure a model or calculation than I think will be required as they consolidate and simplify the tool further. Better free support seems like a secondary need. We found we needed to spend some money for the level of support we needed to implement the test server.