Financial planning and forecasting are essential for any business. Turning "gut feeling" into sound decision-making based on real data, is a huge challenge for both large corporations and SMEs, as well informed decisions mean profits. Severn Trent Water Ltd. has recently turned to the Centre of Excellence for Research in Computational Intelligence and Applications (Cercia) at the University of Birmingham for state-of-the-art solutions to emerging business challenges. Two phases of a software project in financial planning and forecasting were completed in early 2003 and 2005, respectively. This software has been in use by Severn Trent Water since early 2003 and a major upgrade was completed in early 2005.

"The project has made a real difference in our business by using the software to improve our decision-making processes," said Severn Trent Water Ltd.'s Project Manager. "We are very impressed by the high quality Cercia staff we have worked with, both in terms of their technical expertise and great care for client's needs." Other staff at Severn Trent Water Ltd. are equally delighted by the software and the real business benefits it has brought: "The software is very easy to use and does things that we could not do previously. We hope to come back to Cercia in the future to extend the project even further."