Introduction

This 45-minute hands-on tutorial shows you how to predict, forecast and analyze your sales quotas and targets with Oracle Sales Planning. The sections build on each other and should be completed sequentially.

Background

Oracle Sales Planning provides an extensible, reliable framework that enables your teams to set and analyze data-driven, intelligent quotas using best practice methodologies. All key participants engage in the sales planning process including sales operations, sales management, and sales reps.

Advanced Sales Forecasting provides a robust platform for the sales forecasting process, allowing multidimensional sales forecasting across territories, products, accounts, channels, or other custom dimensions. It offers sales teams connected sales planning with integration between Quota Planning, compensation planning, and sales forecasts. With Advanced Sales Forecasting, you can plan at the weekly or monthly level, and use a rolling forecast if your business requires it.

Extend Oracle Sales Planning by adding configurations and personalization into your sales planning application with custom navigation flows, dashboards, and infolets. Use tasks and approvals to manage the quota planning process. Use Groovy rules to customize even further for enhanced calculation and business rules. Integrate Oracle Sales Planning with Oracle Engagement Cloud - Sales Cloud to push quota targets to incentive compensation or bring in actual attainment.

As a sales manager, you can make forecast predictions, view forecast analyses, and adjust forecast commitments across your entire sales hierarchy.

Prerequisites

Cloud EPM Hands-on Tutorials may require you to import a snapshot into your Cloud EPM Enterprise Service instance. Before you can import a tutorial snapshot, you must request another Cloud EPM Enterprise Service instance or remove your current application and business process. The tutorial snapshot will not import over your existing application or business process, nor will it automatically replace or restore the application or business process you are currently working with.

Before starting this tutorial, you must:

• Have Service Administrator access to a Cloud EPM Enterprise Service instance. The instance should not have a business process created.
• If you haven't already, register for a free Oracle Cloud Customer Connect account so you can access the required files.
  • Download the latest Sales Planning Demo Application snapshot from this idea page.
  • Upload and import the latest Sales Planning Demo Application snapshot into your Planning instance.

  Note:

  If you run into migration errors importing the snapshot, re-run the migration excluding the HSS-Shared Services component, as well as the Security and User Preferences artifacts in the Core component. For more information on uploading and importing snapshots, refer to the Administering Migration for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud documentation.

Reviewing Quota Planning Configuration and Enabled Features

1. On the home page, click Application, then Configure.

   

2. From the Configure drop-down list, select Advanced Sales Forecasting.

   

The configuration task is displayed.

3. Click Enable Features.



4. Review the enabled features.
   • You can plan by territory. The lowest level in each hierarchy represents a sales rep. With Territory, you can integrate with Oracle Engagement Cloud's Territory Management. The commonly-used Accounts (customers), Product (high-level product families), and Geography (a reporting dimension, configured as an attribute of Territory) dimensions can be optionally enabled. These core custom dimensions have predefined functionality and artifacts associated with them.

     

   • For the time granularity:
     • You can plan on a monthly and weekly basis.
     • With weekly planning, you can select the week-to-month mapping independently from the selections made during application setup. The week to month mapping is set up as 4-4-5 Distribution which lets your users perform their forecasting weekly while providing the flexibility of easily reporting on monthly totals.
     • Rolling forecasts are enabled. This creates a Rolling Forecast scenario that you can use to continuously forecast over a rolling range of time periods.

     

   • With Predictive Planning enabled, perform time series statistical analyses on historical data to predict future results. Users can copy these predictions into forecast and what-if scenarios.

     

   • Quota Planning is also enabled. With Target Quota from Quota Planning enabled, a data map: Quota Planning Sales Forecast Integration is created. When your quota planning is finalized, you can push the final target quota numbers by Territory from Quota Planning to use as a starting point for your sales forecast in Advanced Sales Forecasting.

     

   • In addition to the Accounts and Product dimensions, you enable a custom dimension, Sales Channel.

     

5. Click Close.
6. On Configure, click Time Period Configuration.

   

7. Review the time period configuration.

   The current fiscal year, period, and week is displayed, along with the planning frequency and number of periods for the rolling forecast.

   

8. Click Close.

Setting Variables and User Preferences

In this section, you review the predefined substitution variables. Then, you set user preferences for display properties, ad hoc options, and user variables for use with forms and dashboards.

Setting Values for Substitution Variables

1. Click (Navigator), and under Tools, click Variables.

   

   In Variables, you can administer user variables and substitution variables.

   

2. Click the Substitution Variables tab.
3. Review the values for substitution variables.

   For all cubes, OEP_CurYr is FY24. Notice the values for OEP_GREP and OEP_GSP. The current month is May.

   

Setting User Preferences

1. Click (Navigator), and under Tools, click User Preferences.

   

2. In General, under Approvals, select Display Aliases.

   

3. On the left, under Preferences, click Display.

   

4. Under Number Formatting, for Thousands Separator, ensure Comma is selected, and for Decimal Separator, ensure Dot is selected.

   

5. On the left, under Preferences, click Ad Hoc Options.

   

6. Ensure the precision is set to:

   	Minimum	Maximum
   Currency Values	0	0
   Non-Currency Values	0	0
   Percentage Values	0	1

   Note:

   Precision settings affect the value display only, not their stored values.

   

Setting Values for User Variables

1. On the left, under Preferences, click User Variables.

   

2. For each variable, click its (Select Member) to select a member as the variable's value:

   Dimension	User Variable	Member
   Accounts	Accounts Segments	All Accounts
   Currency	Currency	USD
   Period	Period Granularity	YearTotal
   Product	Product Family	All Product
   Currency	Reporting Currency	USD
   Scenario	Scenario	Plan
   Territory	Territory	NA Key Accounts - Anthony Furini
   Years	Years	FY24
   Accounts	Account Segments	All Accounts
   Scenario	Forecasting Scenario	Forecast
   Version	Forecasting Version	Working Bottom Up
   Measures	Drivers	Product Measures
   Product	Product Family	All Product
   Territory	Territory	NA Products - West - Mateo Lopez
   Currency	Currency	USD
   BaselinePromotions	Current Promotion	Base
   Scenario	Key Account Scenario	Plan
   Version	Key Account Version	Working Bottom Up
   Territory	Overlay Territory	All Overlay Territory
   Territory	Sales Rep Territory	Central - Products - Div I -Peter Branch
   Territory	Territory	NA Products - Central - Alex Smith
   Accounts	Accounts	All Accounts
   Product	Product	All Product

   Tip:

   If you selected to show aliases in Member Selector, the value listed in the Member column may vary. For example, for some dimensions, the prefix (OEP_ and OGS_) are not shown. For some territory members, instead of the numeric member name, the full alias name is displayed.
3. Verify your selections, and click Save.

   

4. In the Information message, click OK.

   

Running predictions

You can create predictions for the rest of the year, based on year-to-date historical data.

1. On the home page, click Advanced Sales Forecasting, then Generic.

   

2. In the POV, expand Territory > Total Territory > Global High Tech Sales - Peter Apt > NA Business Sales - Products - Martin Conway and select NA Products - Central - Alex Smith.
3. Click OK.

   

   The Overview dashboard provides a snapshot of the current forecast for Alex Smith. Key measures such as Current Year Bookings to date, Last Year Bookings for the entire year, Forecast Commit, Gross Pipe, Pipe to Target, and Predicted Attainment (compared to target).

   

4. Click the Revenue Predictions horizontal tab.

   

5. To run predictions, click Actions, and select Predictive Planning.

   

6. Review the predictions displayed in the graph.

   With Predictive Planning, historical data is retrieved and then analyzed using time series forecasting techniques to predict the future performance within the selected territory.

   

7. In Forecast Prediction, for Central - Products - Div II - Marilyn Richie, select the data cell for Jan.

   The prediction information is updated.

   

8. In the POV, click Scenario and select Best Case.

   

Predictions are run for the Best Case scenario. There is not much difference between Forecast and Best Case.



9. In the Prediction area, click (Details).

   Depending on the data, the system predicts using the method with the greatest accuracy. To determine the prediction method, many factors are evaluated such as what historical data is available, and whether or not the data follows a trend or includes seasonality. Methods are described in the following table:

   Method	Seasonal	Best Use
   Simple Moving Average	No	Volatile data with no trend or seasonality
   Double Moving Average	No	Data with trend but no seasonality
   Single Exponential Smoothing	No	Volatile data with no trend or seasonality
   Double Exponential Smoothing	No	Data with a trend but no seasonality
   Damped Trend Smoothing non-seasonal method	No	Data with a trend but no seasonality
   Seasonal Additive	Yes	Data without trend but with seasonality that does not increase over time
   Seasonal Multiplicative	Yes	Data without trend but with seasonality that increases or decreases over time
   Holt-Winters' Additive	Yes	Data with trend and seasonality that does not increase over time
   Holt-Winters' Multiplicative	Yes	Data with trend and with seasonality that increase over time
   Damped Trend Additive Seasonal Method	Yes	Data with a trend and with seasonality
   Damped Trend Multiplicative Seasonal Method	Yes	Data with a trend and with seasonality
   ARIMA	No	Data with minimum of 40 historical data points, limited number of outliers and no seasonality
   SARIMA	Yes	Data with minimum of 40 historical data points, limited number of outliers and seasonality

10. Review the prediction details including the prediction method. The best prediction method is Seasonal Additive.

    

11. Click outside Prediction Details to close it.
12. In the POV, click Scenario and select Worst Case.

    

The prediction is run. Worst Case predicts an annual forecast of just 25 million. This is way too low.

Reviewing pipeline coverage

In this section, you review the pipeline coverage and the historical trend of the Gross Pipe. You also review the forecast summary to see the target, predicted revenue, forecast commitment, and forecast adjustments.

1. Click the Pipeline and Coverage horizontal tab.

   

2. Review the pipeline coverage and the historical trend of the Gross Pipe.

   There is a dip in the current year's YTD pipeline. The team can either bring in the necessary pipe, or seek to get more opportunities.

   

3. Click the Forecast Summary horizontal tab.

   

   The dashboard summarizes all of the information in one place for the sales manager and sales reps to have a meaningful discussion and collaboration around the numbers.

   The base forecast was loaded from CRM in a summarized form which is displayed for each of the sales reps. There is a column for forecast adjustments that can be either done by the rep or the sales manager. The view shows other information such as Target, Predicted Revenue, and Forecast Commit.

   

4. In Forecast Adjustment form, right-click Forecast Commit Adjustment for Peter Branch, and select Comments.

   

5. In Comments, enter the following text:

   "Peter, your forecast commitment looks low for this month. Also the pipe seems to be understated."

6. Click Post.



7. Click Cancel.

   

Reviewing forecast details

You review manager feedback and make adjustment to the forecast commitment.

Reviewing manager feedback

In this section, you switch to the Quota Sales Rep navigation flow to simulate the sales rep reviewing and modifying forecast commitment.

1. Return to the home page. Click (Home).
2. In the upper right, to the left of your user name, click (Select Navigation Flow) and select Quota Sales Rep.

   

3. In the upper right, click (Administrator), and select Reload Navigation Flow.

   

4. On the home page, click Advanced Sales Forecasting, then Generic.

   

5. In the POV, expand Territory > Total Territory > Global High Tech Sales - Peter Apt > NA Business Sales - Products - Martin Conway > NA Products - Central - Alex Smith and select Central - Products - Div I - Peter Branch.
6. Click OK.

   

7. Click the Forecast Summary horizontal tab.

   

8. In Forecast Adjustment, right-click Forecast Commit Adjustment for Peter Branch, and select Comments.

   

9. Review the comments, and click Cancel.

   

Reviewing forecast details by product segment and customer

As Peter, you check details about the forecast by Product / Account before you respond to Alex. Review the numbers on the Forecast Detail dashboard. You want to commit an extra 800K for Feb.

You can enter forecast adjustments at the detail level or at the territory level. In this section, you adjust at the territory level.

1. Click the Forecast Detail horizontal tab.

   

2. Ensure the POV includes the following:
   • Years: 2024
   • Reporting Currency: USD
   • Currency: USD
   • Territory: Central - Products - Div I - Peter Branch
   • Product Family: All Product
   • Account Segments: All Accounts
3. In the lower form, in Adjustment, ensure the POV includes the following:
   • Territory: Central - Products - Div I - Peter Branch
   • Measures: Sales Revenue
   • Sales Channel: Direct

   

4. Click the Forecast Summary horizontal tab.

   

5. In the Forecast Commit Adjustment for Jun column, enter 1.1m, and click (Save).

   

6. In the Information message, click OK.

   

   The forecast commitment is updated.

   

7. Right-click Forecast Commit Adjustment for Jun for Peter Branch, and select Comments.

   

8. In Comments, enter the following: Adjusted committed forecast to 1.1 million, and click Post.

   

9. Click Cancel.

Reviewing the regional forecast

In this section, you switch to the Quota Sales Manager navigation flow to review the forecast, and make additional adjustments.

1. Return to the home page. Click (Home).
2. In the upper right, to the left of your user name, click (Select Navigation Flow) and select Quota Sales Mgr.

   

3. In the upper right, click (Administrator), and select Reload Navigation Flow.

   

4. On the home page, click Advanced Sales Forecasting, then Generic.

   

5. Click the Forecast Summary horizontal tab.

   

6. In the POV, expand Territory > Total Territory > Global High Tech Sales - Peter Apt > NA Business Sales - Products - Martin Conway and select NA Products - Central - Alex Smith.
7. Click OK.

   

8. In Forecast Adjustment, for James Numan's Forecast Commit Adjustment for Jun, enter 250k, and click (Save).

   

9. In the Information message, click OK.

   

The forecast is ready to send to Alex's manager, Martin Conway.

10. In the POV, expand Territory > Total Territory > Global High Tech Sales - Peter Apt and select NA Business Sales - Products - Martin Conway.
11. Click OK.

    

12. Review the Forecast Commitments.

    

13. For each of the Sales Managers, collapse the hierarchy by clicking (collapse).

    Collapse information for Alex Smith, Michael Rhodes, and Mateo Lopez. Data is summarized by sales manager.

    

14. Click the Overview horizontal tab.

    

15. Review the Overview Dashboard to get a complete picture of forecast commitment to target and other key performance indicators.

Related Links

• Documentation and related videos
• Oracle EPM Tutorials YouTube Channel

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Title and Copyright Information

Predicting, Forecasting, and Analyzing with Sales Planning

G12272-01

August 2024

Copyright ©2024,

Oracle and/or its affiliates.