© 2008, Business Forecast Systems, Inc.

Opt-in Survey of Trends e-Newsletter Readers 24 Completed Surveys Questions Asked: 1.Does your company have a standard report or set of reports that are used each forecasting cycle? If so, what is reported? 2.To which parts of your organization are reports presented? 3.What report formats are used at your company? 4.Are reports generated interactively or automatically? 5.What percentage of your time is spent on forecast generation and on preparing reports and presenting results? 6.Do you do any ad-hoc reporting? If so, please describe Original Survey and Trends Archive Available at:

© 2008, Business Forecast Systems, Inc. Almost all of the participants have a standard report or set of reports used each forecasting cycle.

© 2008, Business Forecast Systems, Inc. By a substantial margin the top items reported are historical data, forecasts and forecast accuracy.

© 2008, Business Forecast Systems, Inc. Many of the respondents present reports to management or senior management. In fact, of those who present reports to 4 or more parts of their organization all indicate they report to both management and senior management.

© 2008, Business Forecast Systems, Inc. Excel leads as the number one report medium while only six individuals report using Web-based reports.

© 2008, Business Forecast Systems, Inc. A strong majority generate reports interactively versus automatically. For those who generate reports interactively a greater percentage of their time is spent on report generation rather than forecast generation.

© 2008, Business Forecast Systems, Inc. Sixty percent report that they also do ad-hoc reporting that seems to focus on the detail level (e.g., geographical area, individual customer, individual item or even items with specific conditions like backorders and stockouts.) This suggests an attempt to find and analyze sources of demand variation and forecast error.

© 2008, Business Forecast Systems, Inc. Additional Resources Twice-per-year forecasting conference offering forecasting education, practitioner case studies and applied research in forecasting Web Site for Foresight: The International Journal of Applied Forecasting The University of Tennessees Sales Forecasting Management Forum’s On-Line Library: Downloadable PDFs of Articles and Papers on a Wide Range of Forecasting Topics International Institute of Forecasters Web Site