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Product Description
Forecast Pro uses proven statistical forecasting methods, coupled with a powerful expert system, to bring you unsurpassed forecasting accuracy. Forecast Pro is easy to learn and easy to use. It does not require a background in statistics or forecasting. In fact, in expert selection mode, creating forecasts is literally as easy as clicking a mouse. You provide the historic data and Forecast Pro does the rest. The built-in expert selection system analyzes your data, selects the appropriate forecasting technique, builds the model and calculates the forecasts--it even explains its reasoning in ordinary English! For the more experienced forecaster, Forecast Pro provides complete custom modeling capabilities and the diagnostic tools to get the job done.
Principal Characteristics
An expert system that chooses among the following five classes of forecasting models to satisfy all mainstream business forecasting needs.
- Simple Methods - For very short or extremely volatile data, Forecast Pro includes moving average models.
- Curve Fitting - Provides a quick and easy way to identify the general form of the curve which your data are following. Forecast Pro supports four types of curves - straight line, quadratic, exponential and growth. (Standard and XE only)
- Low Volume Models - Croston's Intermittent Demand model and discrete data models are provided to accommodate low volume and "sparse" data (i.e., data where the demand is often zero).
- Exponential Smoothing - Twelve different Holt-Winters exponential smoothing models are provided to accommodate a wide range of data characteristics. The robustness of exponential smoothing makes it ideal when there are no leading indicators, and when the data are too short or volatile for Box-Jenkins. You can select the model and set the parameters yourself or let Forecast Pro do it automatically.
- Box-Jenkins - For stable data sets, Forecast Pro supports a multiplicative seasonal Box-Jenkins model. The model can be built completely automatically or interactively using a full range of screen-oriented diagnostics.
- Forecast Adjustment - Forecast Pro lets you adjust your forecasts on a graph or in a spreadsheet-like display. You can adjust single points, ranges or totals, using percentages, increments or by simply entering new values. If you've defined a multiple level hierarchy, adjusting a value at any given level will automatically adjust all appropriate levels.
- Make Convincing Presentations
Documenting your work is easy. Click the graph icon and a graph of your forecasts, historic data, confidence limits and safety stocks instantly appears. A few more clicks and you've printed a forecast report and output your forecasts to a spreadsheet, ASCII file or ODBC compliant database. As you use the product, Forecast Pro's audit trail faithfully records everything. Each data set, each model, each dialogue with the expert, everything is captured so you have a permanent record of your forecasting session.
- Work With Existing Data
Forecast Pro imports data in a variety of flexible, easy-to-create formats including Excel and Lotus spreadsheets, ASCII (text) files and ODBC. These flexible formats allow you to easily import and export data from virtually any source. There is also an on-line editor to enter your data directly, or to modify and amend files.
Which Version Best Suits Your Needs?
Three editions of Forecast Pro are available: Forecast Pro (Standard Edition), Forecast Pro XE (Extended Edition) and Forecast Pro Unlimited. Which edition is right for you depends on how many items you need to forecast and which techniques you plan to use. The chart below will help you decide.
| |
STANDARD |
XE |
UNLIMITED |
| Expert Selection |
X |
X |
X |
| Simple Methods |
X |
X |
X |
| Curve fitting |
X |
X |
X |
| Low volume models |
X |
X |
X |
| Exponential smoothing |
X |
X |
X |
| Box-Jenkins |
X |
X |
X |
| Dynamic Regression |
|
X |
|
| Event models |
|
X |
X |
| Multiple level forecasting |
|
X |
X |
| Census X-11 |
|
X |
|
| Batch forecasting |
up to 10 |
up to 10 |
unlimited |
| Command line operation |
|
|
X |
| Multiple forecast overrides that can be saved and recalled with comments |
|
|
X |
| Collaborative forecasting |
|
|
X |
Systems Technical Requirements
Forecast Pro is a 32-bit program that runs under Windows and NT platforms. Forecast Pro requires a minimum of 16 megabytes RAM and 4 megabytes of hard disk space.
©Copyright 2002, Business Forecast Systems, Inc.
