Anaplan Solution Transforms Long Range Financial Planning at Leading Aluminum Manufacturer

Business Challenges

  • Agility – The Long Range Plan was an error prone, resource intensive process that limited their ability to see and react to the constantly changing economic forces on their business.
  • Versioning – Tapping the limits of Excel, their offline process created a headache any time an update to data or forecasts were needed and increased the likeliness of multiple offline “versions of the truth.”
  • Disconnected Processes- Lack of a central platform for planning made it difficult for leaders to communicate the comprehensive impact of potential strategic decisions across key business indicators.

Solution

  • Anaplan – Replaced an Excel-based process to dynamically model 10 year financial projections, while delivering flexibility and what-if analysis at a speed that was not previously possible.
  • Connected Platform– Anaplan allows numerous end users to actively plan and contribute to the multiple iterations of the 10 Year Long Range Plan based on business-managed, unified, and auditable logic.
  • Data Integration - Seamless integration of Entity level financial actuals and CapEx project impact data into the Long Range Plan that marries governance with flexibility around key planning dimensions.
  • Consolidated Financial Reporting – Income Statement, Balance Sheet, and Free Cash Flow forecast are calculated uniting bottoms up operational inputs with strategic what-if decision analysis that allows for flexibility in envisioning shifting economic factors.

Impact

  • Drive Efficiencies – Connected Planning solution allows for a more efficient planning process, reducing manual effort and enabling key resources to spend time on value- add analysis.
  • Scenario Planning – Anaplan allows for the ability to model out multiple scenarios and see the effect of different business decisions on the consolidated financial statements.
  • Real Time Reporting – Ability to “tell the story” and support decision making with modern data visualizations and analysis that can be shared across the organization.