Quantics focuses on large manufacturing companies with erratic demand patterns

The young Austrian company Quantics, which specializes in forecasting and planning, sets the bar high for itself. It targets large companies with numerous departments and erratic demand patterns. “I have found that we do best with companies that already work with a planning solution, preferably from a reputable supplier,” says CEO Christof Bitschnau.

Start-up Quantics was founded in 2020 by three men: Christof Bitschnau (pictured), Johannes Matt and Resul Akay. Their motivation was to build an AI-driven solution that addressed the shortcomings of the most widely used supply chain planning tools at the time.

“In his previous profession as a data scientist, my colleague Resul was often asked by companies if he could create an add-on for their existing demand forecasting tools. We saw that there was a great need for best-of-breed solutions for companies with very difficult-to-predict customer demand. That’s exactly where we stepped in. We wanted to build a solution for manufacturing companies with very irregular demand patterns due to delivering in batches or on a project basis, for example.”

Supporting collaboration

Since then, Quantics has developed a pretty comprehensive solution that covers various aspects of supply chain planning, such as forecasting, demand planning and inventory management. The SaaS tool is designed for use by large planning teams and people who are collaborating across different departments. Bitschnau: “We see, for example, that companies in our target group struggle with bringing their sales people into the planning process effectively. We have therefore developed specific functionality for collaborative forecasting and planning. The baseline forecast is already better than in other systems, but with us you can also easily review, adjust and approve a forecast. The system then keeps track of the added value of this.”

Mature companies

Quantics focuses purely on manufacturing companies, in the higher segment, with an annual turnover of at least €100 million. “Initially, we thought it would be a good idea to offer our tool to smaller companies as well. But we backtracked a bit on that,” Bitschnau says. “To use our tool properly, a company still needs to have a certain level of supply chain maturity. Data management must also be well organized. It turned out that our solution resonated best with large companies that already have a planning solution, but are not satisfied with it and want to improve their planning process.”

International focus

Quantics’ references include large manufacturing companies generating billions of euros in turnover, such as Mondi, a multinational in the paper and packaging industry. Partly due to the international focus of its customers, the Austrian start-up has also been able to spread its wings with implementations in Europe, Africa, and North and South America. For further research and further development of its innovative product, the company has received capital injections from investors totalling €570,000.