Business Forecasting Practices in 2003

BUSINESS FORECASTING PRACTICES IN 2003 By Chaman L. Jain, St. John’s University This issue is the third update on the business forecasting practices; the first one was published in the fall issue of 2002, and the second in the fall issue of 2003. In this issue, we trace new developments and changes in the forecasting practices as they apply to business, which may be used as benchmarks by companies planning to implement the forecasting function for the first time, as well as by those who already have this function in place and want to improve it. The results published in this issue are based on the survey conducted in 2003 by the IBF (Institute of Business Forecasting). The participants in the survey were the people who attended the IBF forecasting conferences/tutorials in the USA, which were four in total. The participants primarily came from large and upper middle size companies. There are a large number of issues dealing with forecasting practices including forecasting process, forecasting models, forecasting errors, forecasting software/systems, salary of forecasting professionals, and background of forecasters. We have developed separate articles for forecasting errors, ...