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Forecasting Setup


You can accept the default forecast series provided with Siebel Forecasting or create new forecast series.

A forecast series defines the rules for forecasting in Siebel Forecasting. Typically, a forecast series involves a unique group of individuals with some unique set of forecasting requirements. The following example illustrates the concepts involved in the forecast series.

At company XYZ, the sales organization consists of district managers who forecast aggregate revenues once a week. The sales managers and executives have requested that each sales representative list their opportunities and provide a committed total which may or may not equal the sum total of the opportunities that they have listed.

The manufacturing organization at this same company wants a monthly snapshot of what is in the pipeline, at a product line level, without allowing sales representatives or sales management to make adjustments. They want to see how the forecast changes from month to month, and want access to historical information on earlier months' forecasts.

In this situation, the administrator might set up two separate forecast series: one series would be for the sales representatives and the other would be for manufacturing. The sales forecast series would have a weekly frequency, with every sales representative as a participant, and a search specification that finds only opportunity revenue records. The manufacturing forecast series would have a monthly frequency, an administrator or manufacturing manager as the participant, and a search specification that finds just product specific revenue records.

In general, a small number of forecast series is better than a large number of forecast series. It is easier to maintain and explain just two or three forecast series rather than 10 or 12. In the preceding example, the administrator would not want manufacturing product managers and sales managers both creating forecasts in the same series because they would end up double-counting the revenues involved. (The product managers would count an opportunity once as a set of products. The sales representatives would end up counting that opportunity twice.)

NOTE:  If you think you may end up double-counting, or if your company has groups with fairly different requirements, or you have overlays, you may want to consider adding additional forecast series.


 Siebel Forecasting Guide 
 Published: 18 April 2003