Company-Wide Planning
Integrated company-wide business planning is the holy grail for most large organisations yet they have failed to accomplish this ambition due to two main issues: difficulty in coordinating cross-functional initiatives and lack of technology support.
The interest in company-wide planning tools was a prediction for performance management in 2019 and we believe we will see renewed and increased emphasis on this topic throughout 2020.
On the technology front, the larger performance management vendors are getting ahead of the curve and are producing integrated, collaborative planning tools that can facilitate a unified planning platform for the entire enterprise. Meaning, there are options emerging for those organisations that want to implement operational as well as financial planning and business intelligence tools on one platform.
This new generation of planning tools has been largely enabled by Cloud technology. Its low cost means companies of all sizes can now take advantage of tools and processes only previously available to large organisations with huge budgets. Company-wide cloud planning tools can bring the same benefits to all functions in an integrated planning process.
As a result, organisations can make better decisions faster and gain a true competitive advantage. Planning and budgeting is no longer a once-a-year activity that is separate from an organisation's strategy. The next generation of business planning is a continuous process and will enable people in companies to collaborate, gain company-wide insights, and adapt with agility.
Whilst the technology side of company-wide planning being addressed there is still the organisational challenge of coordinating departments who have traditionally only focused on their own needs. A cross-functional initiative needs a controller who can ensure that the company meets its objectives. While many organisations create a group of departmental heads to undertake this task, the CFO is more often than not emerging as the de facto coordinator and controller of implementing a company-wide planning system, as indicated here in the 2018 BPM Pulse Survey.
Source: BPM Partners 2018 BPM Pulse Survey
Company-wide planning platforms as well as being expensive can often take some time to select. Many initiatives fail because not enough time and resources have been allocated or because managers fail to ensure buy-in from all department heads.
Active involvement and collaboration between people are critical to an effective planning process and new technologies must be approached within a wider context of organisational change and cultural awareness. Siloed departments must move away from singularity towards teams, teaming, cooperation and collaboration. Without full cooperation from all departments, the goal of a holistic corporate plan will never be achieved. Users across various departments throughout the company will have to do their part by adopting and using the planning tools, to help ensure buy-in the system should include functionality to provide benefits to these users.
Conclusion:
The next generation of performance management will be comprehensive, connected, collaborative and cloud-based. A comprehensive business planning system goes beyond just finance and provides an aggregate view of the entire enterprise.
Mercur Business Control is powering a new generation of business planning and is a complete solution for performance management and business intelligence. The company’s easy-to-use planning solutions are available to everybody in an organisation and provide support for effective planning and business analysis, in other words, the tools needed for better performance and growth. Mercur Business Control uses flexible input functionality that can be used for both traditional financial planning or for detailed planning of sales, production, projects, HR and so on.