Abstract
Although virtually every business function needs accurate sales forecasts, very little attention has been devoted to examine how the sales forecasting process should be managed. With the goal of determining best practices in sales forecasting management, a benchmarking study of the sales forecasting process was undertaken across several Italian companies. Four dimensions of analysis were investigated: integration between the functional business areas, approach to forecasting, information & communication technology systems and performance measurement. Results from both in-depth and distance surveys (over 100 interviews) show that there is a wide discrepancy over how the sales forecasting function is managed.