Patent Document ID: 7552065
Application ID: 09733299
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for instantiating a forecasting tool for predicting future demand for quantifiable items in connection with a plurality of projects, the tool being instantiated on at least one computer in the form of a database having multiple tables, each of the multiple tables having information therein, wherein instantiating the forecasting tool comprises: receiving a query from a user to the tool, accessing the database having multiple tables, receiving a selection of at least one milestone to be employed with one of the projects, the at least one milestone originating from a milestone-type table, wherein the milestone is associated with a change of at least one milestone-related material and the milestone includes an amount of milestone-related material required for the project and a projected milestone start date and a projected milestone end date; determining an actual milestone date from the milestone-type table; calculating a material required date of milestone-related material based on the actual milestone date and the projected milestone start date and the projected milestone end date; determining a supplier for the material from a material table; obtaining a lead-time for supplying the material based on a suppliers table; calculating an order date based on the material required date and the lead-time; populating a requirements table according to the calculated order date, and outputting the requirements table and the order date to a display, and the multiple tables comprising: a project table having project information for each project, the project information including: a reference to at least one item to be employed in connection with the project, and an identification of a project-type of the project; a project-type table having project-type information for each project-type referenced by the project table, the project-type information comprising a list including each item to be employed in connection with the project-type, wherein the list is constructed based on: at least one telecommunications infrastructure requirement for the project-type; at least one previous project of a same project-type, and at least one new material requirement for the project-type based on at least one of the following: a new type of construction method, a new service, or a new regulation; an item table having item information for each item referenced by the project table, the item information including a reference to an algorithm to be employed to determine a quantity of the item for a particular project; an algorithm table having algorithm information for each algorithm referenced by the item table, the requirements table populated by the forecasting tool on a dynamic basis with information obtained from the multiple tables in response to a query for demand for items, the tool populating the requirements table by accepting the query, traversing the multiple tables of the database according to the query to accumulate data necessary to populate the requirements table, and populating the requirements table based on the accumulated data, wherein the requirements table is output to the display by the forecasting tool for viewing by personnel.