Alteryx

PepsiCo, a global consumer packaged goods company, faced a significant challenge in calibrating sales forecasting to supply the right product quantities to its retailers. The sales forecast incorporated a variety of data, including warehouse data, store stock data, and promotional forecast data, all of which were provided by retailers in different file formats and delivered using various methods. The primary challenge was the speed of preparing a sales forecast. With the existing Microsoft Access and Excel-based processes, the time required to prepare this data was so extensive that analysts could only leverage it once a month or not at all. This inefficiency risked under or oversupplying retailers, potentially impacting PepsiCo's business operations and customer relationships.

IQVIA, a global leader in healthcare data and analytics, was grappling with the challenge of managing patient data for up to 70 different clinical studies run by various entities including government agencies, pharmaceutical companies, and academic institutions. The data, originating from 250 unique vendor warehouses, was being copied into a single system using legacy tools and processes like SAS, a process that took several days. Standardizing this data into FDA-compliant formats was another hurdle, requiring 1 to 2 months. As the rate of incoming data from clinical trials increased, and the data became increasingly non-identified and unstructured, IQVIA faced the risk of significant delays. These delays threatened to stall the progress of their clients' clinical studies.

The case study revolves around the use of Monte Carlo simulation for forecasting stock prices. The challenge was to create a sample Alteryx workflow that sources stock price data, performs analysis of the historical prices, uses these metrics to perform Monte Carlo simulations, and then analyzes the output of these simulations to drive business decision making. The aim was to provide an Alteryx template for Monte Carlo simulation-based forecasting that could be used and further enriched by the Alteryx community. The challenge also involved sourcing stock prices from Yahoo Finance, calculating daily percentage change in the stock price, preparing metrics for the simulation, and running the simulation multiple times.