JDA Software Group Inc. has released JDA Flowcasting, an application for supply-chain management and collaboration among manufacturers, distributors and retailers.

Despite talk of the importance of collaboration in shaping demand, many companies have yet to achieve that ambitious goal, says Scott Roy, collaboration planning manager with Wells Enterprises Inc.

Time to shed old ideas about demand planning, and embrace the concepts of demand sensing and shaping, says Charlie Chase, chief industry consultant for demand solutions with SAS Institute Inc.

Dr. Chaman L. Jain, professor of economics in the Tobin College of Business at St. John's University, talks about how the demand-planning function has changed in his decades of observing global supply chains.

Too many companies are still plagued by a "siloed" mentality which keeps various functions from collaborating fully on demand planning. But Arnold Mark Wells, principal of End-to-End Analytics, sees reason for hope.