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We all wish we could predict the future. After all, when a company knows its sales for next week, next month and next year, it will invest only in the facilities, equipment, materials and staffing it needs. In business, there are huge opportunities to minimizing costs and maximizing profits when we know what tomorrow will bring – but we don’t. Therefore, we forecast.

Take SAS customer TrueCar, for example. The online price comparison site has creatied a new way to shop for autos with its price aggregation service. As its business grew, the company needed a way to compile and analyze car sales data, choose the most successful Web-based marketing efforts and forecast car sales – important to getting its name out to both dealers and the public.

TrueCar initially relied on a different forecasting solution but switched to SAS to better manage data and create fast, more accurate forecasts. As a result, TrueCar reduced per-click costs by 50 percent, with a 100 percent increase in profitability, by using SAS to analyze which websites – and ads – delivered buyers. Search campaign revenues grew by 300 percent.

Generating forecasts is a crucial step in many strategic and tactical planning and decision-making processes. Although forecasting is a key business function, many small and midsize businesses think sophisticated forecasting is out of reach. Many SMBs do not have a dedicated forecasting staff, or they may only have a small team. SAS has a forecasting solution for SMBs.  Sign up for our webinar and demo to find out how forecasting can change the way you do business.  Are you ready to plan with confidence?