A Regression Approach for Forecasting Vendor Revenue in Telecommunication Industries

In many telecommunication companies, Entrepreneur Development Unit (EDU) is responsible to manage a big group of vendors that hold contract with the company. This unit assesses the vendors’ performance in terms of revenue and profitability on yearly basis and uses the information in arranging suitable development trainings. The main challenge faced by this unit, however, is to obtain the annual revenue data from the vendors due to time constraints. This paper presents a regression approach to predict the vendors’ annual revenues based on their previous records so the assessment exercise could be expedited. Three regression methods were investigated; linear regression, sequential minimal optimization algorithm, and M5rules. The results were analysed and discussed. KeywordLinear Regression, Sequential Minimal Optimization Algorithm, M5rules