For this reason, it is very smart for a business to involve all departments of its business in the development of the forecast. Involvement can come in many forms, from gathering input from all departments and having them establish assumptions about where their department is headed in the forecasting time period, to having departments determine probable scenarios. From the information that the departments provided, they could be asked to go over a preliminary forecast for their department, and give feedback as to how they will be used in their department, and what difficulties in implementation that might be encountered. The sales department is a company's link to the consumer. Sales has information about what products are selling well and which ones aren't, as well as what the competitor is doing.
Marketing can provide information about what promotional strategies are the most successful.
The also know what new products will be introduced when. Involving production is a vital element to forecasting. A company must know if their expectations of production and delivery time can be met. In order for all departments in a business to gain something useful from the results of a forecast, information needs to be relevant to all aspects of the business. The Journal of Business Forecasting lays out a few guidelines on what details should be included in a forecast report to do just that.