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Key Features of Siebel Forecasting

Siebel Forecasting allows you to:

• Report revenues by account, opportunity, product, product line, employee, partner, division, organization, or project. End users can add revenue data in a number of screens. For more information, see Revenues.
• Aggregate revenues by certain groups or dimensions, such as account, product line, or product. Siebel Forecasting provides a product quantity forecasting feature (also known as multidimensional forecasting) that allows the forecasting administrator to specify fields by which forecasts are aggregated. These fields are used to group the revenues into a hierarchy in the Summary view of forecasts. For example forecasts can be grouped by account by product line by product. This allows the creation of granular forecasts that fit business requirements. For more information, see Adding Aggregation Levels and Viewing the Forecast Summary.
• Refresh forecasts with updates from subordinate forecasts. Often, managers must pull revenue data from their subordinates' pipeline to create their forecast. Managers can initiate an update of their aggregate forecast, and automatically retrieve the updates that the subordinates have made since the last revision of the manager's forecast. For more information, see About Refreshing a Forecast.
• Create snapshots of revenue information over time for historical analysis. Siebel Forecasting provides access to historical information from earlier forecasts. For more information, see Defining Forecast Series Dates.
• Perform real-time analysis of revenues using charts and reports. End users can analyze their forecasts by using a chart view, or by using reports. For more information, see About Analyzing Forecasts.
• Access projected margins, cost, best case, and worst case estimates. End users can create forecasts that include the costs associated with an opportunity, the calculated margin, and best case and worst case estimates of revenues. For more information, see Creating a Forecast, Cost-Margin Forecasting and Worst, Expected, Best Forecasting.
• Use multiple currencies and multiple organizations. Siebel Forecasting supports the use of multiple currencies across different divisions of an organization. For more information, see About Using the Currencies Table in Forecasting.
• Define conversions between different units of measurement. Companies with global business models can use different units of measurement for the same product in different parts of their organization. Forecast participants can define a default unit of measurement for their forecasts and units of measurement are converted to the manager's preferred unit of measurement when forecasts are rolled up. For more information, see About Using Units of Measurement in Forecasting and Setting Up Units of Measurement Conversion for Forecasting.
• Perform auto-forecasts for absentee employees when appropriate. Siebel Forecasting supports the automatic creation of subordinates forecasts when a manager creates a forecast. For more information, see, for example, Forecast: Auto-Forecast System Preference.
• Create recurring revenues by account, project, and opportunity. End users can define revenue templates recurring revenues by using SmartScripts. For more information, seeAdding Multiple or Recurring Revenues Using SmartScripts (End User).
• Create revenues using revenue templates. Administrators can create revenue templates for sales representatives and managers. Multiple revenue items can be generated using the revenue templates for a week, month, year, and so on. For more information, see Creating Revenue Plan Templates.
• Update revenues in the Revenue screen. End users can update live revenue records with the current forecast updates. For more information, see Updating Revenues from a Forecast.
• Update revenues with details. End users can update a forecast with a revenue item to apply the most recent adjustment in the live revenue records. For more information, see Updating a Forecast with a Revenue Item.
• Split credit for sales revenue across multiple employee positions. Siebel Forecasting supports forecasting for revenues that are split between multiple sales representatives. For more information, see Adding a Split Revenue (End User).
• Perform matrixed revenue analysis and forecasting. Siebel Forecasting supports analysis and forecasting in sales teams that span organizations, groups, and divisions. For more information, see Matrixed Sales Organization.
• Import and export data from the Revenues screen. End users can import and export revenue data and also export data from the Forecasts screen. For more information, see Importing and Exporting Forecast Information.