Game Plan: Making your moves matter with Integrated Business Planning
In a previous article, we looked at the recent history of Nintendo, which (like many other CPG companies) may not have had a robust, holistic planning process in place at the time of the release of their recent console, the Switch. We posited that Integrated Business Planning — an approach for effectively uniting planning across an organization — could have prevented some of the supply scarcity that haunted the Switch release.
Today, we’ll dive into the details to explore what actionable steps organizations can take to avoid costly pitfalls, looking more closely at how to put IBP into action at your organization.
Process always comes first, always
A successful IBP implementation lives or dies by the way processes are set up to meet the needs of the business. We won’t spend too much time breaking down process as there isn’t a perfectly right or wrong way to set up IBP; everything will be customized to your organization unique structure.
Focus on identifying those unique steps necessary to establishing a collaborative planning process — and, then, critically, stick to them. Process comes first, always. And keep in mind that all impacted parties must understand the mission, vision, and goals of IBP first before a tool is even selected.
Technology is the enabler, not the solution
Since technology acts as the enabler when implementing a robust IBP process, that’s where we want to focus today in this article.
You have many choices in a technology partner. While there are multiple IBP tools in the marketplace, ranging from Oracle’s Hyperion Planning, to SAP’s BPC, to recently emerging tools such as Anaplan’s all-in-one cloud solution. Whatever technology you chose, keep in mind that your main goal is to bring together the three essential components of an IBP process: Technology (including the underlying data), People, and Process.
Data is the key
In today’s Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting tool market, more commonly referred to as Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) tools, there are a variety of tools organizations can choose from that best meet their needs from a pricing, scale, and capability standpoint.
How do you make the choice? Some organizations may prefer to keep their EPM application ‘in-house’ or ‘on-premises.’ SAP and Oracle both have strong offerings when it comes to meeting these needs. Other organizations may want to stay on the ‘bleeding edge’ of EPM applications and move forward with a completely cloud-based tool; Anaplan and Oracle PBCS have both emerged as the leaders in this space.
However, no matter which EPM tool you select, it’s important to know that the tool will only be effective as the data it is ingesting. Real time, intelligent decision making can only be enabled by accurate and actionable data. The EPM tool acts as an enabler and provides a foundation for this data.
Creating a single source of truth
We have all heard that data is the new ‘oil’ of the business world and this is especially true when it comes to an organization’s planning, budgeting and forecasting processes. By implementing an IBP tool to best practices, an organization will gain a single, secure source of planning and decision data.
In a world without an IBP tool, departments will run cycles and ultimately lose efficiency in the process by having to reconcile data between 5 versions of the same manual spreadsheets. In a world with an IBP tool, this time can be better re-focused towards immediate, value-add activities to generate additional revenue or lower expenses for the organization.
The IBP tool acts as the ‘single-source of truth’ for planning data and as a repository that brings together many disparate source systems. Consequently, departments no longer have to question the accuracy of the data — driving better collaboration and real-time decision making.
For example, while architecting the IBP solution a Data Hub allows for an organization’s data to house all data in a single model. This hub imports data from the corporation’s data warehouse. If no single source is available, such as a data warehouse, then the master data hub will collect data from individual source systems instead. Once all data is consolidated into a single master data hub, it may then be distributed to multiple models throughout an organization’s workspace. The master data hub sits on top of the corporation’s existing data layer, allowing for robust metadata management, custom mapping of attributes and ultimately will bring familiarity to the organization’s users as they navigate the tool. The data hub will also provide the following:
· Maintenance of the organizational hierarchies and structures throughout the tool
· Avoidance of sparsity in the data by utilizing only relevant and actionable data
· Sharing across multiple models within the tool to allow for data consistency and accuracy
The use of a data hub is only the beginning in the road to a successful IBP tool implementation. It acts as the foundation to build upon the organization’s planning, budgeting and forecasting models and scenarios.
IBP tools and the modern user experience
In today’s hyper competitive business environment, an IBP tool and associated data can only become a competitive advantage if the user experience is fluid, modern, and real-time. IBP tools in the market today have multiple features built in to allow for seamless collaboration, executive level dashboards, and intelligent drill-down into key KPIs of the data.
One such example is Anaplan’s “New User Experience or “NUX.” Already a leading cloud IBP tool, Anaplan’s recently released “New User Experience” packages and presents key planning data in a modern, easy to consume and understand presentation layer — perfect for both executives, business users or power users.
Gone are the days where hours had to spent pivoting from one view of the data to another. The New User Experience allows for quick and fluid movement between various charts, worksheets, and KPIs. It is both customizable and extensible, allowing for role based and selective access for users across the organization. Similarly, a modern user interface allows for an IBP to take center stage during key executive decision-making processes — this enhancement in capability has shifted IBP tools from a back-office IT owned application, to a real-time Business Critical Application that all forward-thinking executives will want to stay abreast of.
Pressing pause and play
If we can leave with one final piece of advice, it’s this: Take a step back and analyze your planning processes to see what is working and what is not. There is nothing wrong with pushing the “pause” on your planning so you can improve upon the way things are being done. Those that pause for a moment to take a break to think about their planning processes can finally beat the business problem that they have been trying to solve for.
Slalom is a global consulting firm focused on strategy, technology, and business transformation. Learn more and reach out today.
