Aggregated Forecast: Provides a high-level forecast for a Company or Service Organization.
Detailed Forecast: Provides a more detailed forecast where you can select specific Service Delivery Units and Resource Groups. You can select up to 100 combinations.
Static Period: Determines if the forecast scenario should be of a rolling or static period. If this is enabled, there will be a fixed start and end date of the forecast window, and this window will not be updated even if the scenario is refreshed. If this is not enabled, the forecast scenario will be treated as a rolling window, i.e., when it is refreshed, the forecast window will be updated. A lead time can be entered to modify the start date of the forecast window when it is not static.
Input Date Range: Choose how far back you want to look at past data (1, 2, or 3 years). This is the range of history that should be considered by the forecasting model.
Forecast Horizon and Frequency: Decide how far into the future you want to forecast (daily, weekly, or monthly) and how often it should be updated.
Forecast Start Date: Determines the start date of the forecast window when the Static Period is enabled. This will be set to the current date by default.
Company: Select the company for the forecast. This is a mandatory field.
Service Organization: Select the relevant Service Organization, filtered by the selected company. If no Service Organization is selected, the forecast will be applicable to the entire company, including both Request Work Tasks and Work Tasks.
Service Delivery Unit: Select one or more Service Delivery Units, filtered by the selected Service Organization.
Resource Type: Select the type of resource (e.g., person, crew, tool, or machine).
Resource Group: Select one or more Resource Groups, filtered by the selected resource type and other criteria.
You can select multiple Service Delivery Units and Resource Groups and choose whether to combine them or not. If combined, the forecasting model treats all Service Delivery Units or all Resource Groups as one.
Once all parameters are entered, the forecast scenario can be saved and activated before it runs. The input data that will be sent to be forecasted is gathered from the historical resource activities, request work tasks, and work tasks these activities originate from. This can be viewed once the scenario is activated.
The forecast results display the number of activities, and the total time spent on activities within the forecast period. It is possible to select which of these measurements are of interest, both in a graphical and table format.