A team of industry leaders met during NetworkASA 2011 in Las Vegas to begin mapping out plans to provide critical industry specific forecasting data never before attempted. Representatives from industry buying groups, national distributors and leading independent wholesalers and manufacturers debated the best course for forecasting future economic trends that would be dependable and actionable; providing certainty to the industry/membership about what is coming down the pipe.
“The goal of this task group is to amass the technology and expertise present within our organization and develop a forecasting product that will allow ASA to become a repository of financial results for the wholesale distribution industry. Leveraging our historical financial data will enable us to create a prediction model that will allow ASA to become the forecasting expert in the PHCP industry,” said Scott Weaver, Forecasting Task Group Chairman.
The Forecasting Task Group will first work to build participation in current benchmarking tools, providing a greater pool of data to strengthen the predictability model. Secondly, they will work to make the program customizable to users. Third and most importantly, the goal is to develop a program that is accurate and that users will find indispensible in their business planning. While the program will be an annual forecast most likely introduced each year at future NetworkASA conferences, the Forecasting Task Group is also reviewing plans to provide a monthly adjustment to the yearly forecast, making the model more actionable and dependable throughout the year.
