BCRI Valuation Services

office (205) 259-2690
fax (205) 259-2691
DeprTables@bcri.com

tf.Innovate™ provides a comprehensive tool chest of technology and market forecasting tools. Innovate is accessed from within Excel so that its features can be incorporated into your business models. Innovate minimizes the effort needed to forecast the evolution and obsolescence of technologies, and the products & markets governed by technological change.

Innovate incorporates the technology forecasting models most commonly used by forecasters today. It includes the Fisher-Pry, Pearl-Read, Gompertz, Exponential and Linear Regression models. Innovate reads your observed data from Excel; evaluates the validity of the data series; and performs the forecast. The results are then written back to Excel using either a built-in template or one customized by the forecaster.

Benefits of Using Innovate

Innovate has many features that facilitate technology and market forecasting. A few of these features are summarized below.

Minimizes Forecasting Effort - Innovate greatly reduces the effort required to undertake professional technology forecasts. It handles all mathematical calculations and documents the specifics of your forecasts. Any number of observed data series can be defined and documented. Innovate will locate and compile your data series providing the forecaster with a selection list to choose from.

Excel Integration - Forecasters don’t make forecasts for the sake of a forecast; forecasts are made to support the decision making process of the business. Often the forecast is merely input into a more comprehensive model that addresses specific corporate needs. Whether the forecast is part of a marketing, financial, budget or other model, Innovate's unique integration with Excel makes incorporating the forecast into the overall model a snap. 

Windows Automation - In addition to its close integration with Excel, Innovate can interface with other office applications. This functionality allows to forecaster to tightly integrate Innovate’s functionally into their own applications. For example, if the forecaster is undertaking a technology forecast to support a larger obsolescence study, Innovate can automatically invoke the user's obsolescence application.

Standardization - Numerous technology forecasting models and techniques exist. Innovate provides a sophisticated implementation of the commonly used and accepted technology forecasting models. By using Innovate, your organization controls the models & techniques used. Additionally, by taking advantage of customized Innovate templates, you can implement your own standard forecasting models. This reduces training requirements and improves the quality and understanding of the forecasts and the methods used.

Documentation - Innovate automatically maintains all parameters underlying the forecast. By default most of these parameters are hidden from view so as not to clutter the forecasters screen; however, the forecaster can easily access any of the parameters and optionally display them anywhere on the Excel worksheet.

Customization - As noted above, Innovate writes the forecasting results directly to Result Sheets, which are simply customized standard Excel worksheets. Forecasters can choose from one of the predefined Result Sheets or they can easily define and save their own Result Sheet templates. The forecaster has complete control over how and where results are displayed and is free to add any additional computations within the worksheet or workbook.