The use of forest information in timber sales planning : a case study in a Swedish forest-owning company

Interactions between value-creating activities are vital to increasing product value. Information sharing is a cornerstone of such interactions. For a forest-owning company with the primary objective to be leading in selling roundwood to forest industries, it appears therefore crucial that the sales people within a forest company have up-to-date knowledge about the forest in planning their sales, and that the forest knowledge is presented in a format that is suitable for them. To investigate if this is the case, a study was conducted at Sveaskog, a large Swedish forest-owning company. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with respondents from different levels in the organization. The results show that most sales managers did not directly use the knowledge about the forests when planning their sales; instead, they relied on historical data and had low trust in the knowledge presented in the tactical forest plan. The study pinpoints the organizational obstacles for using forest information in sales planning. These obstacles need to be addressed if more sophisticated information made available through new technology is to be utilized