FP&A - It Is Time For Connected Planning

By: Jay Lee

Let’s face it – today’s business reality has the workforce inundated with performance drivers and metrics that are increasingly department-centric. Ideally, each separate entity contributes to the overall health of your organization – but are the various entities communicating as effectively as they could be?

This blog will examine how to leverage the strengths of your various departments – from accounting to IT – by integrating a seamless communication platform.

Connected Planning Solutions

Compounding a lack of operational clarity, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought further havoc on companies reliant on data from already burdened departments in order to reposition themselves in a new landscape. As many businesses adjust to the ‘new normal’ of a post-pandemic world, how can historical analysis remain relevant when forecasting an unprecedented future?

A connected planning tool, like Anaplan, can transform the way your business operates with seamless integration and valuable insight across departments and operations to paint a complete picture of the drivers that propel your business forward. Imagine the productivity savings your accounting department would realize if you could eliminate the need to reconcile countless aggregated data points into hundred-cell Excel spreadsheets! Think of the efficiency of having the IT department forecast future spend in a way that is instantly and easily understood by your thought leadership. 

On the heels of a turbulent couple of years, operational clarity and simplicity are even more valued.

With Allitix’s Anaplan solution, companies are able to see the trends of pre-pandemic, pandemic and post-pandemic numbers in near real-time. So forge ahead, implement a system that can slice and dice line items across multiple dimensions, allowing the companies to analyze data from different viewpoints, all in one easy to navigate interface. A real-time, customizable dashboard can highlight cause and effect relationships that define the ‘new normal.’

How can Anaplan Lay the Groundwork for Future Success?

Whether you’re doing a yearly budget, rolling forecast or long-range planning, you’re searching for confidence in your projections. In order to achieve some modicum of assurance – even in pre-pandemic times – you required both historical numbers and the analysis to back it up.

Many businesses spend valuable time – lots of it – gathering the data they report on, but are they effectively acting on it? 

Anaplan automates the loading of historical data straight from the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and can be customized to calculate forecasts that boast increased accuracy. By cutting down on the time-consuming processes associated with data collection and consolidation, your finance team is now free to analyze and adjust your accurate future forecast. 

Not only is the process of data gathering expedited, but your finance function no longer worries about translating complex budgeting files, spreadsheets, and data into platforms that suit the needs of the rest of the organization.

By automating historical data intake, not only are you keeping your accounting staff happy, but you’re encouraging communication with trusted Anaplan experts and your IT team to customize this interface to your operational needs. This increased line-of-sight and communication will be welcome to managers of many multi-department businesses. Bridging the inner-office gap in the process provides increased operation efficiency.

Many businesses try running a one-year projection, only to discover that Anaplan deftly maneuvers forecasting algorithms that extend far beyond their traditional budgeting framework. Your Allitix partners can quickly teach your IT team how to extrapolate historical data into three or five-year projections, and beyond! 

The ability to automatically and easily pivot to long-range planning makes Anaplan a convenient, effortless integration into your business operations.

Single Line of Truth

Think of Allitix as an extension of your current team. Our experienced professionals work directly with your data analysts, IT experts and accounting professionals to bridge the communication gaps that can naturally arise between various corporate entities. 

Anaplan offers a 1:1 platform that translates your financial team’s data and your IT team’s infrastructure into one universally understandable language. Your financial planning & accounting team (FP&A) is used to looking at numbers in summary form. Conversely, your accounting team is used to dissecting each transaction associated with your business. Bringing both teams to the table via one platform with visibility to both data sets simultaneously will not only influence line-of-sight into historical trends but greatly improve your ability to forecast future trends.

You will be able to easily set up KPIs that dissect the information to the desired level of granularity since the direct input of data speaks the same language — the single version of truth.

Cloud-Based Platform, Ground Floor Function

Anaplan utilizes hyperblock technology that will allow unprecedented scale and offer multiple model support without the performance degradation that so often hampers aggregated data analysis efforts.

Allitix works with your model builders and architects to split data assets into chunked models that communicate seamlessly, a huge improvement over the traditional method of loading countless data points into one overstuffed model.

By implementing an in-memory processing cloud-based platform that can scale to process large volumes of data, the cross-functional teams within your organization can easily navigate a custom table at the desk relevant to your needs.

Bridging the gap

Imagine a platform that can mimic the functionality of resources your workforce is accustomed to, but with a near real-time interface, model support, and an always-available team of experts.

The road to a single source of truth is considerably shorter with Anaplan’s bespoke, built-to-scale solutions. Enjoy a financial planning tool that provides:

  • Flexibility - Models need to adapt to unexpected changes as the business grows. In Anaplan, modifications and additions can be carried out by the business team members with minimal IT support.

  • Usability and functionality - It is an all-in-one platform that combines data processing, collaboration, and reporting.

  • Operational efficiency - Reduce the time spent on data gathering, cleansing, and consolidating.

Anaplan creates the ability to define a clear process for and across:

  • Workforce planning

  • Revenue/COGS

  • Overhead/SG&A

  • Capex planning

  • Financial statements and reporting

  • Scenario planning/strategic initiatives

The modability to tailor a cloud-based financial planning platform specifically to your ever-evolving operational needs makes Anaplan a viable solution for the ‘new normal.’ Your FP&A team will enjoy the opportunity to dissect data with unprecedented levels of granularity, and your IT resources will appreciate the ease with which they’re able to manipulate it.

Connectivity and cross-functionality without sacrificing simplicity.

Spend more time on analysis and less time working to gather data that could be working for you.

Contact Allitix today to learn more about Anaplan’s fully customizable business solutions.

Allitix Marketing