Can your sales forecast solution adapt to changes in the business at the same pace as you? The needs of your business are constantly evolving and so should your solutions. Home-grown and custom solutions are built to solve a set of problems based on needs at a particular point in time, and have limited foresight into your future needs.
Continuous investment is necessary to keep your forecasting system in sync with the needs of your business. This might involve the whiz-kid who maintains your excel macros and formulas, or your internal IT group and their request queue, or perhaps the consultants that originally built your custom solution. But what happens when your rockstar leaves the company and your IT team is booked on a higher priority project? If you have time and money to spare, you might be able to work something out, but in this economy, time and money are the two things that you cherish most.
The key to flexibility with your sales forecasting solution is having control over your own destiny. Your solution must be able to solve your current needs and also provide you with a roadmap of solutions for your future. It should equip you with a set of best practices to help keep you ahead of your competition. And it must provide you with the capability and resources to manage your own destiny. The more that you can do within the system, the better.
Don’t get me wrong—your current solutions and systems have helped you get to where you are today, but they could also be holding you back. As your needs evolve, so should your systems. If you haven’t taken a hard look at your sales forecasting solution lately, or can’t remember when you last evaluated it, then you’re long overdue for a check up.