State Of Forecasting Systems In Corporate America

STATE OF SALES FORECASTING SYSTEMS IN CORPORATE AMERICA By John T. Mentzer and Kenneth B. Kahn Middle managers are mostly involved in developing sales forecasts…many companies neither evaluate nor reward forecasting performance … half of the companies do not have electronic connection between forecasting systems and production and inventory planning systems. Most of the companies use a negotiated or consensus approach to arrive at final forecasts. Very few companies have a system in place to benchmark their forecasts with other companies and provide training to newcomers. Often forecasters do not have adequate access to the vital information needed for preparing forecasts. Many companies view the sales forecasting process backward. They first develop the sales and financial plans and then the forecasts. These are some of the findings of the study recently completed by the authors. Numerous previous studies have examined such sales forecasting technique issues as technique familiarity, satisfaction, and usage. However, no study to date has looked at the broader sales forecasting issues of the types of systems used to support the sales forecasting techniques or how the sales ...