Patent ID: 7702615

Claim:
A computer implemented scenario analysis method of calculating multi-dimensional predicted historical or future dependent data that corresponds to a predicted or input scenario comprising: receiving input data comprising multi-dimensional actual historical dependent data, multi-dimensional historical causal data, and a plurality of scenarios consisting of at least one of user input, predicted, and system generated activity data, wherein the actual historical dependent data includes unaggregated marketing data for a plurality of products, the multi-dimensional historical causal data comprises data affecting the multi-dimensional actual historical dependent data and may comprise data affecting the activity data, the activity data includes a plurality of predicted business drivers for each of the plurality of products and each scenario in the plurality of scenarios represents a scenario different from a scenario represented by the multi-dimensional actual historical dependent data; calculating the set of multi-dimensional predicted historical or future dependent data using a predictive model and the input data, wherein the set of multi-dimensional predicted historical or future dependent data has the same granularity as the unaggregated marketing data included in the multi-dimensional actual historical dependent data, the activity data affects the set of multi-dimensional predicted historical or future dependent data, and each of the plurality of predicted business drivers contains at least one of price, merchandizing, advertising, distribution and competitive activity; and calculating business metrics based on the set of multi-dimensional predicted historical or future dependent data and the input data for the plurality of scenarios, wherein said business metrics consist of at least one of business outcome measures, business efficiency measures, and business sensitivity measures.