Casual Dynamic Model for Revenue

1 . A method comprising:

identifying a plurality of drivers that affect or relate to revenue to be forecast, each driver being as variable;

selecting one or more particular drivers from the drivers, based on an analysis of lags between the revenue and the drivers as synchronized; and,

constructing, by the processor, a casual dynamic model for the revenue, using the particular drivers selected.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising, after identifying the plurality of drivers;

for each driver, performing cross-correlation by a processor to identify the lag between the revenue and the driver; and,

for each driver of one or more of the drivers, synchronizing the revenue and the driver by the processor, based on the lag between the revenue and the driver.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising normalizing the revenue and each driver, by the processor.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein normalizing each driver comprises:

determining a minimum value of the driver over a plurality of time points;

determining a maximum value of the driver of the time points;

for a value of the driver at each time point,

dividing the value by the minimum value to determine as first quotient;

dividing the first quotient by a difference between the maximum value and the minimum value to determine a second quotient, the second quotient being as normalized value for the driver at the time point.

5 . The method or claim 1 , further comprising, before selecting the particular drivers:

performing the analysis of the lags between the revenue and the drivers,

wherein the analysis is an analysis of variance (ANOVA).

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising, after selecting the particular drivers:

constructing, by the processor, an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model for the revenue over a plurality of time points,

wherein the causal dynamic model for the revenue is constructed further using the ARIMA model.

7 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising, prior to constructing the ARIMA model:

determining, by the processor, an auto-correlation function for the revenue over the time points;

determining, by the processor, a partial auto-correlation function for the revenue over the time points; and,

determining, by the processor, a stationarity of the revenue over the time points,

wherein the ARIMA model is constructed using the auto-correlation function, the partial auto-correlation function, and the stationarity.

8 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the causal dynamic model for the revenue is constructed based cm the ARIMA model as regressed on the particular drivers selected.

9 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising, after constructing the causal dynamic model:

performing cross-validation of the causal dynamic model, by the processor; and,

modifying a given particular driver of the particular drivers to improve accuracy of the causal dynamic model, based cm the cross-validation of the causal dynamic model.

10 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

performing, by the processor, real-time forecasting of the revenue using the causal dynamic model.

11 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

monitoring, by the processor, real-time performance of the causal dynamic model based on actual revenue as compared to forecast revenue to evaluate accuracy of the causal dynamic model; and,

calibrating the causal dynamic model, by the processor, based on the accuracy of the causal dynamic model to improve the accuracy of the causal dynamic model.

12 . A non-transitory computer-readable data storage medium to store a computer program, execution of the computer program by a processor causing a method to be performed, the method comprising:

performing real-time forecasting of revenue using a causal dynamic model for the revenue based on one or more particular drivers that affect or relate to revenue,

wherein the causal dynamic model is constructed by:

identifying a plurality of drivers that affect or relate to revenue to be forecast, each driver being a variable, each particular driver being one of the drivers identified;

for each driver, performing cross-correlation to identify lag between the revenue and the driver;

for each driver of one or more of the drivers, synchronizing the revenue and the driver, based on the lag between the revenue and the driver;

selecting the particular drivers from the one or more of the drivers, based on an analysis of the lags between the revenue and the one or more of the drivers as synchronized; and,

constructing the causal dynamic model for the revenue, using the particular drivers selected.

13 . The non-transitory computer-readable data storage medium of claim 12 , wherein the causal dynamic model is farther constructed by:

prior to performing the cross-correlation for each driver, normalizing each driver;

before selecting the particular drivers, performing the analysis of the lags between the revenue and the one or more of the drivers, the analysis being an analysis of variance (ANOVA); and,

after selecting the particular drivers, constructing an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIM) model for the revenue over a plurality of time points, such that the causal dynamic model for the revenue is constructed further using the ARIMA model.

14 . A system comprising:

a processor;

a computer-readable data storage medium to store revenue over a plurality of time points, and a value of each of a plurality of drivers for each time point; and,

a model generation component executable by the processor to:

for each driver, perform cross-correlation to identify lag between the revenue and the driver;

for each driver of one or more of the drivers, synchronize the revenue and the driver, based on the lag between the revenue and the driver;

select one or more particular drivers from the one or more of the drivers, based on an analysis of the lags between the revenue and the one or more of the drivers as synchronized; and,

construct a causal dynamic model for the revenue, using the particular drivers selected.

15 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the model generation component is further to:

before selecting the particular drivers, perform the analysis of the lags between the revenue and the one or more of the drivers, the analysis being an analysis of variance (ANOVA); and

after selecting the particular drivers, construct an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIM) model for the revenue over the time points, such that the causal dynamic model for the revenue is constructed further using the ARIMA model.