Otto Group
Demand Planning
Plan demand more reliably and respond to changes earlier.
Socrates by paretos
Three reasons for Socrates
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Calculates instead of guessing
Expert engines for forecasting and optimization deliver reliable numbers; the language model only explains them. That keeps the numbers traceable, and Socrates doesn’t hallucinate. Combined with the conversational layer, it brings transparency and explainability.
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Learns every minute
Comments, corrections, approvals and feedback from different teams flow into the context layer, the “Company Brain”, and back into the systems. So everyone works from the same knowledge, and master data is always kept up to date.
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Ready to go, without the risk
Socrates builds on your existing ERP, CRM, BI and DWH systems and keeps all data in the EU, with predictable costs instead of an exploding token bill. Your data is not used to train language models. The expert engines learn only from your own data.
Impact across the organization
Measurable business impact with Socrates, across the whole company
Planning, purchasing, finance and management work from the same business context. Each area gets recommendations for its own planning, approved by its own team.
Keep goods available without tying up unnecessary capital in stock.
Before
Planning depends on the knowledge of individual planners and on manual analyses in Excel.
Socrates · Recommendation
Approved by planning
Socrates calculates recommendations for demand, replenishment and production every day. Your team approves, Socrates writes back to the ERP according to your approval rules.
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HelloFresh
−50%
Out-of-stocks
Fewer out-of-stocks, plus fewer labor hours and more capacity in production.
Read the customer story -
Faller Packaging
+50%
Forecast accuracy
Better sales planning with AI-powered forecasts, with clear improvements within four months.
Read the customer story -
LASCANA
+78%
Forecast accuracy
In selected use cases in retail.
More on retail
Results from our customers’ planning projects
Order the right quantity, at the right time, from the right supplier.
Before
Order quantities, tiers and terms are compared in spreadsheets. Supply risks often surface only when it is too late.
Socrates · Recommendation
Approved by purchasing
Socrates proposes order quantities and suppliers, taking terms, lead times and risks into account. Your purchasing team approves.
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Retail webinar
−20%
Inventory
With 15% higher availability, using AI planning instead of Excel. Retail results, as presented in our expert webinar.
Watch the webinar (German) -
Fashion retailer
5–6%
Stock-out rate
Down from 10%, by steering the never-out-of-stock range with data.
More on the project -
Industrial manufacturer
−10%
Lost sales
Less lost revenue. Customer project, anonymized.
Results from our customers’ planning projects
See results and budgets earlier, not only at month-end close.
Before
Result and budget forecasts are built in Excel rounds. Every scenario costs another round of alignment and time.
Socrates · Recommendation
Approved by controlling
Socrates keeps result forecasts up to date with your current data and runs scenarios before you commit to budgets. Your controlling team reviews and approves.
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Faller Packaging
<1 year
Return on investment
ROI expected within the first year, according to the customer story.
Read the customer story -
Industrial manufacturer
>€8M
Savings potential per year
In demand planning, plus 80% less effort for cleansing and aligning demand data. Customer project, anonymized.
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HelloFresh
−18%
Labor hours worked
Plus more than 10% production potential, already in the test phase.
Read the customer story
Results from our customers’ planning projects
Spot deviations before they come up in the board meeting.
Before
Figures come from different systems. Follow-up questions on a deviation often take days.
Socrates · Recommendation
Answer with source
The management cockpit flags deviations with every data run. Ask follow-up questions in the chat and get answers with sources from your systems.
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Hermes Germany
+6M
Forecast accuracy, in parcels per quarter
Plus lower logistics costs and less manual effort.
Read the customer story -
AAA-Pharma
100%
Adoption across the planning team
The entire planning team works with the solution.
Read the customer story -
Faller Packaging
4 mo.
Time-to-value
From rollout to measurable results.
Read the customer story
Results from our customers’ planning projects
“With innovative AI solutions such as paretos, we optimize the forecasting processes along the Otto Group supply chains and use AI-based recommendations for actions to improve the customer experience.”
Photo: Urs Küster
The new Company Brain
Socrates knows your business
To do that, Socrates connects your systems with your company’s knowledge and turns it into your Company Brain: company-owned, traceable and more valuable with every approval.
Chat, Dashboard and Socrates Apps
This is where your teams work with Socrates. AI agents prepare the proposals from the expert engines’ results, your team approves. Socrates reads data from ERP, BI, CRM, data lakes and warehouses and writes approved results back according to your approval rules.
Expert Engines and Agentic AI
Expert engines calculate the numbers, Agentic AI adds the context and explains the why. The language model is swappable, and your Company Brain stays separated from other customers and belongs to you.
- Modern architecture
- Extraction & write-back
- EU-hosted
- No LLM lock-in
Socrates
Approval layer
People & AI agents,
hand in hand
PeopleAgents
Socrates apps Dashboard Chat
Proposals ↑ · Learning ↓
Company Brain
Your Company Brain
Your company’s rules, goals and knowledge in one place. Learns with every approval.
Engines
Agentic AI
Connects knowledge, remembers every approval and explains the why.
ContextLearnings
Expert Engines
Precise numbers from specialised models, trained only on your data. No LLM.
ForecastOptimizationData preparation
Context ↑ · Learning ↓
Read ↑ · Write-back ↓
Your knowledge
Extraction · Linking
Knowledge & signals
Know-how, documents, market and supplier data
Your systems
Connectors · Pipelines
Systems
ERP, CRM, data lakes and warehouses
brand eins /thema
“We set out to save the German economy”
Use cases
For your most important planning processes
Socrates is used wherever demand, inventory, resources and production need to be reliably aligned.
Fresh produce wholesaler
Replenishment
Keep goods available without tying up unnecessary capital in inventory.
Leading parcel carrier
Resource Allocation
Allocate limited resources along your most important business goals.
HelloFresh
Production Scheduling
Align production plans reliably with demand and available resources.
Management Cockpit
Instant deviation alerts. Ask follow-ups in chat — live transparency, right in the board meeting.
Custom Case
Decision Agents, built for your business — your goals, rules and processes, one system.
Start now
Ready for better planning?
In the first call, we check together whether working together makes sense. We get to know your starting point and give you a first outlook on what paretos can achieve for you.
Fire away
Frequently asked questions
You pay a fixed annual license. At the start, there is a one-time onboarding package: kick-off, integration into your systems and your dedicated Customer Success Manager. We build custom extensions such as your own dashboards, additional views or extra features as a one-off, priced by effort. How much you invest depends on the scope of your use case. We clarify that in the first call.
No. You pay the annual license, the one-time onboarding package, and extensions only if you order them. Everything is in the offer up front.
No. Socrates calculates recommendations with its own forecasting and optimization models based on your Company Brain. The language model explains them, it does not make them.
No. Socrates recommends, your team approves. Only approved actions are written back to your systems, and every step lands in the Decision Log.
EU-hosted, including inference. Your Company Brain stays separated from other customers and belongs to you.
No LLM lock-in: the language model is swappable without rebuilding the Company Brain. On request we export the Company Brain, so it can also be used for other agentic processes.