OmegaPlus Pty.Ltd. is a chain of Health Food stores operating in Australia: with 12 stores across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. OmegaPlus has recently appointed a new CEO: Sandy Smith, who is open to the idea of quantitative forecasting methods, and is aware that various data have been collected for about 5 years now. However, quantitative forecasting has not been used at OmegaPlus before, mainly due to resistance by the Sales Manager: Dave Chen. Dave prefers talking to the shop owners and sales staff across the states to help assess trends and then forms 'consensus' forecasts from these discussions. The main quantity that requires forecasting at OmegaPlus is sales revenue.
(i) List 3 important issues that must be discussed and decided upon BEFORE Sandy chooses between her favoured quantitative method and Dave Chen's qualitative method for forecasting sales at OmegaPlus. Briefly explain why each issue is important to consider at this initial stage.
(ii) List 3 issues (AT MOST 1 can be the same as the 3 in part (i)) that would help OmegaPlus decide between quantitative and qualitative methods for forecasting sales. Explain why and how each issue will help to allow a decision between the two types of method in this case.