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> Think about it this way: if you're in business, then it's likely that the most important process you have is your "order to cash" process wherein an order is
by richcollins 17y ago
> Think about it this way: if you're in business, then it's likely that the most important process you have is your "order to cash" process wherein an order is received and, eventually, turned into cash. Who owns that process in your business? How was it created? When is it reviewed? Did someone build a model for it that can be simulated to test various scenarios?
We don't need to simulate this in many cases. We can just try different things and measure the results. This beats analysis and simulation.
- skmurphy 17y agoYou cannot extrapolate from running a small business 'by the seat of your pants' to the level of analysis that's applied by large corporations. Large businesses do an enormous amount of simulation of their "quote to cash" process. There are complex demand forecasting, supply chain management, and inventory management software platforms offered by the likes of SAP and Oracle that are used for this. There are a number of decision tree tools used to simulate and analyze billion dollar investment decisions used by pharmaceutical companies, oil and gas firms, and other corporations that need to make large investments. Airline companies run "yield management" software to adjust pricing frequently based on estimates of demand for a particular seat on a particular flight. Wal-Mart adjusts pricing and offers specials based on complex models of how stimulate demand. There are many other examples of business using sophisticated simulation and analysis tools.