Saturday, December 14, 2013

Business Forecasting with Business ForecastX, 6th Edition, J. Holton Wilson

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0073373648/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0073373648&linkCode=as2&tag=megatron09-20


The Sixth Edition of Business Forecasting is the most practical forecasting book on the market with the most powerful software—Forecast X. This edition presents a broad-based survey of business forecasting methods including subjective and objective approaches. As always, the author team of Wilson and Keating deliver practical how-to forecasting techniques, along with dozens of real world data sets while theory and math are held to a minimum. This Sixth Edition includes Forecast X software updated for Excel 2007 and Vista. Forecast X is the most comprehensive software tool available in this market and the new version is also backwards compatible for XP Excel 2003 systems. This Excel-based tool effectively uses wizards and many tools to make forecasting easy and understandable.

About the Author
Software company producing Forecast X, which will accompany this edition of BUSINESS FORECASTING.

Wilson and Keating's "Business Forecasting" is an accessible introduction to practical forecasting. There is little explicit treatment of the statistical properties of the methods used, but the practical examples (which are numerous) show the effects of those properties. The methods should get a manager or engineer through most situations that require a justifiable forecast. I'm a bug on references, and there were an adequate number of them, but it would have been better if the reason each work was cited was specified.

This book is also, in practice, the user manual for the descriptive statistics / forecasting package 'SORITEC,' which is bound with the book. As such, it is absolutely required for beginning users of the package. The features of SORITEC which are covered are covered well, but that sharpens my wish that there would be at least a short description and a few references for the features not used in the main presentation.

In summary, a fine book for the 'dirty hands' crowd of forecasters; not bad for the 'ivory tower' crowd either, but not quite enough for the latter

I read this book for an MBA course on business forecasting. It is well written and very easy to understand. I do not have time to spend reading dense textbooks that get lost in academic jargon. This book gets right to the point. Most importantly, every chapter concludes with an application of the lessons learned using the Forecast X software. The book also uses very practical examples such as Gap sales data that everyone can relate to.

Prior to reading this book, I had no background in business forecasting. Today, I feel confident in my abilities to prepare, analyze, interpret, and communicate forecasts because of the lessons and practice problems in this book. The software is easy to install as an add-in for Excel. The interface is simple to use and eased my fears of being lost in a complex software package.

This is a great book to learn business forecasting.

Business Forecasting is an excellent resource for students who want to learn how forecasting is really done. The book is clear, concise, and well structured. Wilson and Keating provide an excellent foundation for students to understand the forecasting process and quickly build on this foundation. The comments from "real-world" practitioners provide a practical perspective to help students appreciate the concepts presented in the book.

The ForecastX software from John Galt Solutions (included with book) is the most comprehensive forecasting toolkit available. The students who take the time to learn the software through the text will certainly gain a marketable skillset. Because the software is easy to use and reliable, I was able to quickly apply the lessons from the text to create sophisticated and powerful forecasts. Moreover, students learn how to interpret and communicate the most important components of each forecasting method.

The software accompanying the book also includes all the data used in the text examples and chapter ending problems. This provides students with many opportunities to practice each forecasting technique. I found that practicing the chapter ending problems were a strong way to solidify the concepts presented in the text and learn when to apply each technique.

Product Details :
  • Hardcover: 513 pages
  • Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Irwin; 6th edition (December 19, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0073373648
  • ISBN-13: 978-0073373645
  • Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches

More Details about Business Forecasting with Business ForecastX, 6th Edition

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