Product Features

Forecast Pro is a comprehensive forecasting and forecast management system. This affordable and easy-to-use solution gives your team the capability to create accurate and credible forecasts, along with the tools for efficiently managing, monitoring and improving your forecast process.

Designed specifically for business forecasters, Forecast Pro has an intuitive interface that displays hierarchical data in a tree-like structure, allowing you to work at any level of detail with a simple click of the mouse. As you navigate from item to item, synchronized windows displaying graphical and tabular reports are instantly updated. Sharing your work is easy with Forecast Pro's flexible output formats, including one–click, direct–to–Excel reporting.

Create Accurate Forecasts Automatically
Forecast Pro's automatic "best pick" feature allows you to generate accurate forecasts, even for thousands of items, in a matter of seconds. If you prefer to specify the forecasting approach, Forecast Pro provides menu-based custom modeling options and a comprehensive set of diagnostic tools.

Forecast Pro’s comprehensive methods accommodate seasonal demand, product hierarchies, product promotions, new products, slow-moving items, causal variables, outliers and much more.

Add Judgement and Collaborate With Others


Forecast Pro makes it easy to collaborate with others to establish the final forecast. Members of your team can add their business judgment directly using the software's spreadsheet-style override facility, which features up to ten customizable rows. You can adjust single points, ranges or totals, using percentages, increments or by simply entering new values. Adjustments to the forecast can be made at any level in the hierarchy, and all changes are automatically reconciled. Handy comment fields make it easy to document changes, and override reports provide transparency to the process.

View Your Forecasts Any Way You Wish
Forecast Pro allows you to view your data and forecasts in any units of measure you wish. A simple drop-down menu lets you instantly switch among those units of measure that are important to your business–such as dollars, units sold or pallets.

Work With Multiple Hierarchies
With Forecast Pro’s powerful "shuffling" capability, you can rearrange hierarchies on the fly. For example, you may be working on your forecast in a product-by-customer view and then instantly change views to work with customer-level forecasts broken out by products.

Manage and Review Forecasts Effectively


Using the powerful combination of Pareto analysis (ABC classifications) and report filtering, you can streamline your forecast review process and save time. Forecast Pro's automated Pareto analysis gives you the flexibility to assign ABC classifications to the items you are forecasting in a number of ways based on volume (either historical or forecasted) or series count. Further, you determine at which level of the hierarchy to assign ABC classifications and which periods to analyze.

Monitor You Forecast Performance


Forecast Pro maintains an archive of your previous forecasts (both statistically–generated and adjusted forecasts) so that you can compare and contrast previous forecasts to what actually happened. With just a quick glance at Forecast Pro’s "waterfall" reports you can zero in on what’s working and what isn’t.

Manage By Exception
Forecast Pro flexible exception reporting allows you to zero in on areas that need your attention. The reports are easily customizable to reflect different performance metrics–such as forecast vs. history or whether forecast error exceeds a pre-defined threshold–and give you a quick way to identify potential problem areas. Forecast Pro built-in exception reports include:

  • Waterfall Exception Report
  • Archive vs. Actual Exception Report
  • Forecasts vs. History Exception Report
  • Forecasting vs. Archive Exception Report
  • Forecast Range Exception Report
  • Fitted Error Exception Report

Consolidate Your Team's Forecasts
Forecast Pro allows you to break large forecasting projects into smaller pieces that can be worked on separately and then reassembled into consolidated forecasts. For example, if three demand planners are responsible for forecasting three different geographical territories, they can work on their forecasts separately; after they’re done, their consolidated forecast can be viewed and further manipulated.

Work with Multiple Forecasts


In addition to generating a statistical forecast, Forecast Pro allows you to import multiple forecasts into the forecast worksheet (i.e. from other parts of your organization or partners) and to specify which forecast serves as the "baseline" on an item–by–item basis. You can then combine multiple forecasts to create a new forecast consistent with your organization’s S&OP or other established process.

Work with any information you need.


Forecast Pro allows you to bring other pertinent information into the forecast worksheet–such as current orders and inventory–and to create new rows which are calculated based on the values of existing rows (including forecasts and other imported information). You can then design customized planning and S&OP worksheets addressing your specific needs.

Lock in Specific Forecasts
Some forecasting processes require certain forecasts to be "frozen" or locked in for a period of time during which changes are simply not allowed. Forecast Pro allows you to set time fences–on a global or item–by–item basis–to prevent users from changing forecasts during these "fenced" periods. When you update a forecast project with next period's data and create new forecasts, the fenced values from the previous forecast remain locked in.

Maintain Your Forecasts
Forecast Pro maintains "Forecast Projects" which allow you to easily update your forecasts from one forecast cycle to the next and to maintain a record of all your forecasting sessions.

Intergrate Smoothly with Other Systems
Forecast Pro is designed to integrate directly with your existing corporate systems. Historical data is imported into Forecast Pro and your forecasts are exported back to your corporate systems using either a file interface (.xls, .xlsx, .txt, .csv or XML) or directly via ODBC.

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