Joe Gatto Will Speak at High-Tech Forecasting and Planning Summit

Joe Gatto, Managing Director, is a guest speaker at the High-Tech Forecasting and Planning Summit in Amsterdam, Netherlands, March 11-12, 2010 hosted by IE Group. The focus of his presentation will be on the IPR solution - Ground Zero Forecasting: Business Forecasting & Planning at the City-Level.

Ground Zero Forecasting: Business Forecasting & Planning at the City-Level

In order to support the increased business focus to deliver top-line revenue growth while optimally deploying limited sales and marketing resources, organizations across the globe need the capability in their planning processes to go beyond traditional geographic boundaries. It is no longer adequate to simply perform planning activities at the country-level, since prospective buyers and users are located in specific cities within a country. Cities represent the ultimate "ground zero" for selling products and services. Therefore, in order to evaluate opportunities to expand into new and emerging markets effective planning requires the development of city-level demand forecasts. Among other things, the city-level forecasts would enable the assessment and prioritization of the best opportunities for expansion, as well as the deployment of sales offices and personnel.

This presentation will provide an overview of a city-level forecasting and planning system developed for one of our clients. The forecasting system leveraged both client-provided and publicly available information to estimate historical and future demand in over 250 cities/provinces in emerging market countries. First, city-level economic, demographic, socio-graphic, and techno-graphic profiles were developed. Then, propensity modeling was performed to determine the product/service penetration in each city relative to the overall country average. The propensity modeling involved the use of econometric modeling along with the various city-level profile measures. The initial historical city-level penetration estimates were then calibrated to any available information. Finally, city-level demand growth forecasts were developed based on city-level economic and demographic forecasts.

The High-Tech Forecasting and Planning will be live streamed on the IE Group network at http://network.theiegroup.com/ to those who register to view the event on-line.