We were thrilled you voted Forecasts & Quotas as the #1 feature on our Summer ‘12 Facebook poll!  But...how did Forecasting get to where we are today?  Here’s a little background, what’s coming this Summer, and what you can look forward to beyond.

If you’ve been a Salesforce customer for some time, you know that we’ve had forecasting capabilities for years.  But when we talked to customers, many of you wanted a more intuitive experience along with more ability to extend the application. As a result, two years ago we decided to re-architect the forecasting engine from the ground up, leading to our new Collaborative Forecasts. Our goal was more flexibility while retaining what you loved: real-time rollups as sales reps update opportunities.

In Winter ’12, we released the initial version of Collaborative Forecasts, with basic roll-ups and adjustments. In Spring ‘12 we added user configurable forecast date ranges. For Summer ’12, we are making the new architecture available to all Salesforce customers, so now all of you can use the more intuitive user interface while getting:

•        Automatic Forecast Rollups
•        Integrated Forecast Rollups & Opportunity Details view
•        Inline Forecast Adjustments
•        Custom Forecast Categories
•        Quotas & Quota Attainment

What do our customers have to say? We already have hundreds of customers providing great feedback:

“The simplicity of the tool means adoption, which has resulted in more accurate forecasting. Ultimately, it makes our sales team stronger and drives opportunities to close faster.”  

-Brad Melchi, Manager Strategic Sales, Interactive Intelligence

We're excited you’re getting value already, and the forecasting team is putting in long hours to get to the next key milestones. We’re working on API enablement and custom forecast reporting and dashboards. After that we’ll be tackling quarterly forecast periods and quantity-based forecasts. Longer term, we plan to support forecasting on opportunity splits and sales overlays. As always, our Safe Harbor Statement applies to any forward looking statements we make about upcoming features.

In the meantime, try the new Collaborative Forecasts and let us know what YOU would like to see next!