SAS^® Forecast Server

SAS^® Forecast Server Features

Easy-to-use GUI

Set up the hierarchy, parameters and business rules through an interactive graphical interface for large-scale enterprise forecasting.
Generate automatic forecasts in batch or interactively using the New Project wizard.
Reconcile up and down the hierarchy, preserving locked forecast values for bottom-up, top-down or middle-out forecasting.
Build and reconcile forecasts created in different time intervals.
Identify exceptions automatically and generate exception reports based on sound statistical logic and business rules.
Overrule models using manual override to statistically forecast values, with the ability to lock the overrides.
Publish results automatically via hard copy, company portal or internet.
Perform scenario analysis. Test what-if scenarios, such as changes to pricing or promotions, and determine their likely effect on future demand using the Scenario Analyzer.

Choose the level of automation for the forecasting process.
Rediagnose and identify candidate models, reestimate existing model parameters or generate forecasts using existing models and parameters.
Facilitates more effective statistically based forecasting methods that can be used throughout the entire organization.
Create more appropriate forecasting models for a wide range of behaviors using an extensible model repository that includes intermittent demand models, unobserved components models, ARIMAX models, dynamic regression, exponential smoothing models with optimized parameters and user-defined models.
Create ensemble models by combining two or more other models, often leading to more accurate forecasts.
Client/server architecture makes SAS Forecast Server suitable for large-scale enterprise forecasting problems.
Enhanced performance through multithreading of the diagnostic and forecasting engines.
SAS grid workspace servers support load balancing of multiple projects.

Access the superior forecasting capabilities of SAS through SAS Forecast Studio, the user-friendly interactive graphical interface. No programming is required. Users can just point-and-click their way to powerful forecasting capabilities.
Incorporate forecasting as an ongoing and repeated process that fits into your organization's planning workflow.
Customize several aspects of the large-scale forecasting process with control over model selection, event identification and exception reporting.
Create and manage events definitions with a specialized events management console.
Incorporate individual judgment or outside information using the manual override console that includes override locking.
Improve the forecasting process using automatic regressor and events selection.
Adjust forecasts for outliers with automatic outlier detection.
Generate code for batch processing using the code generation GUI.
Reconcile forecasts generated for different time intervals (e.g., hourly, daily, weekly, yearly) to take advantage of the seasonality unique to each time interval (temporal reconciliation).
Use Forecast Project Manager for basic operations.

Identify data problems, such as outlier detection and management, missing values and date ID issues.
Allows for time series characterization, segmentation of the data into subsets and structural manipulation of the collective time series (hierarchy exploration).