Integrated Anaplan Solution Allows for Improved Efficiency and Performance in Sales Forecasting

Business Challenges

  • Lack of Sales Planning Platform – Disjointed organization of bottoms up sales planning to drive forecasts and targets
  • Functional Disconnect – Various planning platforms made for inefficient data transfer within different verticals of the business
  • Siloed Excel Planning – Numerous spreadsheets failed to effectively compile FP&A forecasts, re-forecasts, and budgets. Therefore, the planning process was inefficient and led to cumbersome what-if analysis

Solution

  • Anaplan – Replaced an Excel driven Sales planning solution with the capacity to generate commercial forecasts for all products in the opportunity, backlog, or invoiced phase as initiated by TAMs
  • Interconnected Processes – Dashboard modeling that allows a consistent methodology and logic, across differing business entities, to generate reliable sales and finance forecasts
  • Comprehensive Driver Based Visibility - Empower planners to filter, sort, and update Sales pipeline & backlog details based on dynamic drivers.
  • Enable Easy What-If Versioning – Ability to easily create and compare multiple versions to account for potential shifts and decisions past or future
  • One-Stop Shop Revenue Backlog Details- Ability to view monthly revenue stream details with the ability to include or exclude items at multiple levels.

Impact

  • Drive Efficiency in FP&A Planning - Integrated solution allows for an improved efficiency and performance in sales forecasting, with varying flexibility throughout the sales pipeline & backlog planning process.
  • Scenario Modeling – Solution allows for testing of assumptions and application of trends before a final forecast is concluded.
  • Automated Management Reporting – Baseline for reporting is widely automated for all products or customers at varying levels of granularity, with minimal user interaction necessary.