We have only started the new year and, before we know it, it will be time again when we start praying to the Planning Gods for inspiration to come up with reliable forecast figures. The task never seems to get easier and, despite our best intentions to start earlier, improve our data, file items in the correct places (and remember where we stored them), it remains a mammoth effort that distracts us from all other Sales activities.
Forecasting, at times, may seem no more scientific than staring into a crystal ball, but the use and analysis of key information establishes a solid foundation on which a reliable forecast can be built:
- Actual delivered volumes and prices
- Customer forecast volumes
- External market forecasts
- Contracted prices
- Changes and Claims in process
The Sales Manager’s dream is to have all this information available in one place at the touch of a button. No more would we have to reset our expired ERP password to try to extract the EDI forecasts. No longer would we have to offer cakes to the gatekeeper of the external market data in the hope of receiving some 3rd party data. No more would we spend hours digging through Excel worksheets trying to find relevant data. No longer would we run the risk of overlooking significant price changes with critical effects on our forecast.
An effective Sales Management Solution built on a CRM system can be the perfect platform to bring this to reality. Excellent user interfaces and real-time data availability via the cloud allow all required data to be simply consolidated and managed in one location. Powerful analytics, intuitive dashboards and plausibility reports support to significantly improve the reliability and efficiency of the forecasting process.
The Xotigo Sales Contract Management solution built on Salesforce.com is the innovative inspiration that automotive suppliers have been praying for:
- Seamless integration with ERP systems to consolidate actual and customer forecast data
- Benchmark volume and price management modules to efficiently manage the complete commercial lifecycle from nomination to EOP
- Integrated Change and Claim management on project and part level to accurately assess risks and opportunities
Built by automotive professionals as a standard out-of-the-box solution, Xotigo makes automotive supplier Sales Managers’ dreams come true.