In a world that has been disrupted by rapid technological innovations, dynamic customer demands, and, of course, a pandemic, companies are realising that the need to know sooner, act faster, and adapt more quickly to changing business conditions is non-negotiable.
Why some organisations still lag behind
Global companies often lack alignment between their corporate financial plans and operational plans. This lack of integrated planning disrupts product flow and damages customer service. Such companies demonstrate a lack of insight into trends and outcomes which can be detrimental to the bottom line. The fragmented systems that are in place at such organisations make it painful to pull together plans from all departments, leading to Excel hell. However, there is a way out.
Understanding Connected Enterprise Planning
As per Gartner, Connected Enterprise Planning (CEP), also known as Extended Planning and Analysis (xP&A) is an enterprise planning strategy that combines and extends financial and operational planning by using the same composite vendor platform and architecture. This delivers benefits such as improved performance, collaboration, workflow management, analytics, governance, and ease of use across financial and operational planning. Connecting financial, operational, and line-of-business planning improves decision-making and gives organisations the agility to outperform the competition. CEP uses advanced technologies, such as data science, predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, to improve forecast accuracy and predict changes. This approach has helped Oracle customers improve margins by 35% and decrease planning cycle times by 30%.
How CEP can help outperform the competition
On a broad level, Connected Enterprise Planning allows businesses to improve forecast accuracy, eliminate delays in decision-making, and deliver prescriptive insights. In addition to that, CEP also brings benefits across specific business verticals such as:
Workforce Planning: proactively manage and forecast workforce costs, enabling the organisation to hire for the right skills and talent in the right place at the right time. It also allows for workforce planning analysis to be performed accurately and in real-time which facilitates forecasting employee headcount, compensation, and other workforce-related expenses.
Integrated Business Planning and Execution (IBPX): connect financial and sales and operations planning with operational execution, reducing decision latency and enhancing global visibility. By consolidating all planning into a single hub and bridging multiple gaps, organisations can drive improvements for all manufacturers and distributors: high tech, consumer goods, life sciences, industrial manufacturers, and wholesale distribution.
Project Financial Planning: Capitalize on profitable projects by predicting, planning, and modelling the true costs and returns of projects. Make the right project investment decisions, improve project forecast accuracy, and control project costs.
A necessity for sustained growth
The businesses that will be tomorrow’s leaders are those most capable of adapting to change today. Advanced technologies are making it possible for businesses to transition beyond monolithic, non-conforming ERP systems to become more nimble and innovative to keep pace with constant market changes. A move from siloed to connected planning is no longer a need, but is becoming a necessity. Businesses can no longer rely on siloed departments to create siloed plans. Organisations that are pivoting to a connected approach are beginning to see better business performance as a result. Those that continue to use traditional approaches risk getting left behind.
How do leaders outperform with connected planning? Please visit oracle.com/in/performance-management/
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