Method and apparatus for workforce demand forecasting

• US 8,015,043 B2
• Filed: 01/31/2007
• Issued: 09/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Cao, Heng, Li, Ta-Hsin, Ray, Bonnie Kathryn, Hsieh, Meng-Chen, Eaton, Mark A., Hu, Jianying
• Primary Examiner(s): Sterrett; Jonathan G
• Application Number:
  US11/669,182
• Publication Number:
  US 20080183553A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,679 Days
• Field of Search: 705/8, 705/7.12, 705/7.31
• US Class Current: 705/7.12
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063112 Skill-based matching of a person or a group to a task
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities

Abstract

A method of forecasting workforce demand, includes forecasting an ongoing engagements demand, forecasting an opportunities demand, forecasting a wedge engagements demand, representing a result of the forecasting the ongoing engagements demand as a first workforce demand statement, a result of the forecasting the opportunities demand as a second workforce demand statement, and a result of the forecasting the wedge engagements demand as third workforce demand statement, and integrating the first workforce demand statement, the second workforce demand statement and the third workforce demand statement to generate an overall workforce demand forecast.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of forecasting workforce demand, comprising:

forecasting, using a computer processor an ongoing engagements demand, said ongoing engagements comprising engagements having a revenue commitment and an end date;

forecasting an opportunities demand, said opportunities comprising engagements that are in different stages of a sales process and may become signed engagements during a forecasting period and incur a demand on the workforce;

forecasting a wedge engagements demand, said wedge engagements comprising engagements in the forecasting period that are neither ongoing engagements nor opportunities at a forecasting time;

representing a result of said forecasting said ongoing engagements demand as a first workforce demand statement, a result of said forecasting said opportunities demand as a second workforce demand statement, and a result of said forecasting said wedge engagements demand as third workforce demand statement, each of said first workforce demand statement, said second workforce demand statement and said third workforce demand statement describes a workforce demand at an engagement level and reflects uncertainties contained in each of said ongoing engagements demand, said opportunities demand and said wedge engagements demand, each of said first workforce demand statement, said second workforce demand statement and said third workforce demand statement comprises;

start date and end date statistics, comprising information regarding the start date and the end date of the engagement; and

staffing plans, said staffing plans comprising information regarding work hours required for each skill category throughout the engagement; and

integrating said first workforce demand statement, said second workforce demand statement and said third workforce demand statement to generate an overall workforce demand forecast,

wherein said integrating comprises directly inputting said first workforce demand statement, said second workforce demand statement and said third workforce demand statement into a capacity planning engine,

wherein said forecasting said ongoing engagements demand comprises;

extracting information regarding said ongoing engagements, including actual staffing levels for different skill categories, estimated revenue for the forecast period, estimated end date, and engagement category; and

combining said start date and end statistics, and said staffing plans,

wherein said forecasting said opportunities demand comprises;

extracting information regarding sales opportunities, including estimated probability of winning, expected revenue, expected engagement start date and expected project duration; and

combining said start date and end statistics, and said staffing plans, and

wherein said forecasting said wedge engagements demand comprises;

computing a revenue size of the wedge engagements using expected total revenue for the forecast period and expected revenue from said ongoing engagements and said opportunities;

estimating workforce requirements for the wedge engagements;

estimating total work hours required to generate the revenue for the wedge engagements; and

combining said start date and end statistics, and said staffing plans.