• Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Special Offers
Business Intelligence Info
  • Business Intelligence
    • BI News and Info
    • Big Data
    • Mobile and Cloud
    • Self-Service BI
  • CRM
    • CRM News and Info
    • InfusionSoft
    • Microsoft Dynamics CRM
    • NetSuite
    • OnContact
    • Salesforce
    • Workbooks
  • Data Mining
    • Pentaho
    • Sisense
    • Tableau
    • TIBCO Spotfire
  • Data Warehousing
    • DWH News and Info
    • IBM DB2
    • Microsoft SQL Server
    • Oracle
    • Teradata
  • Predictive Analytics
    • FICO
    • KNIME
    • Mathematica
    • Matlab
    • Minitab
    • RapidMiner
    • Revolution
    • SAP
    • SAS/SPSS
  • Humor

Speed Up Decisions To Steer The Ship Through This Time Of Unprecedented Disruption

April 16, 2020   BI News and Info
 Speed Up Decisions To Steer The Ship Through This Time Of Unprecedented Disruption

The current business and social climate has created unforeseen challenges for enterprises of all shapes and sizes. The disruptions, both internally and externally, are unprecedented in modern times. Within the enterprise, the CFO and the finance office arguably face some of the greatest pressures to steer the enterprise in the right direction.

Uncertainties and choices to be made

At this time, there are many uncertainties that must be navigated by CFOs and specifically the financial planning & analysis (FP&A) professionals on their teams. The choices are many and include:

  • Impact on revenue with disruption within sales channels
  • Cash flow position and liquidity management
  • Expense management and cost containment
  • Best-case earnings projections and guidance based on what’s known of the unknown

These choices don’t just come to the FP&A domain in a singular form, but as a collection of issues and choices to be addressed holistically. Should we tap into a line of credit to keep our working capital fluid? Will our current cash flow and liquidity allow us to cover short-term expenses and current and future capital initiatives? Can we take advantage of government programs with employee salary assistance? What do we tell our shareholders for balance-of-year projections? Are there opportunities available to assist our customers to succeed?

These issues are faced not only by finance but rather across the enterprise as different groups examine their budgets and potential tactics. Does marketing continue with current programs? Does the supply chain face disruptions? What is the effect on demand plans? What does human resources propose for the current headcount levels, and how does that affect outputs? All these individual budgets and models need to be brought together in a single view to enable understanding of the interdependencies.

Collaborative enterprise planning to break down silos

These challenges can easily be addressed by a modern planning paradigm: collaborative enterprise planning. Collaborative enterprise planning involves breaking down silos, allowing plans of all sorts to be linked instantaneously. This way, finance can get the true picture of current fiscal health to advise the best-case scenarios and steer away from poor ones. For example, finance can evaluate a sales plan’s impact on marketing campaigns, or link a reconciled S&OP process to a financial plan. An analyst can determine what headcount plans might impact employee productivity and cash positions.

Finance also needs to be in a position to make decisions quickly. With collaborative enterprise planning, the finance function can move away from scheduled plans. Today, it is no longer tenable to work in an environment where worst-in-class finance departments delay decisions because they are beholden to spreadsheets or outmoded planning tools. Rather, with the right technology on hand, they can simulate the impact of multiple scenarios immediately. They can use modern analytics complemented with predictive analytics and machine learning to support the recommended and best-case outcomes. Dashboards and built-in visualization allow for real-time reporting and an aesthetically pleasing experience for the end users with minimum chance of errors – unlike spreadsheets.

Instant discussion for fast decision-making

Finally, most organizations, including finance, are no longer working within four walls, but rather in a virtual capacity. Collaborative enterprise planning promotes instant discussion during planning and forecasts. Geo-political issues have made an extraordinary impact on commodity prices; this, along with pandemic-related issues, requires collaboration on the fly and consensus on the go. Decisions must be made immediately, not dependent on meetings, voice mails, and email threads.

With collaborative enterprise planning, finance departments can lead their enterprise to the best possible outcome and better results to navigate properly through these trying times. Collaborative enterprise planning enables finance to learn from all aspects of the organization, recommend and evaluate multiple scenarios, make the right decisions – and truly step up to be leaders in the enterprise.

For more information read this report from Ventana Research, “Collaborative Enterprise Planning: Improving the Business Value of Planning and Budgeting across the Enterprise.”

Follow SAP Finance online: @SAPFinance (Twitter) | LinkedIn | Facebook | YouTube

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

Digitalist Magazine

Decisions, disruption, ship, Speed, Steer, This, Through, Time, Unprecedented
  • Recent Posts

    • NOW, THIS IS WHAT I CALL AVANTE-GARDE!
    • Why the open banking movement is gaining momentum (VB Live)
    • OUR MAGNIFICENT UNIVERSE
    • What to Avoid When Creating an Intranet
    • Is Your Business Ready for the New Generation of Analytics?
  • Categories

  • Archives

    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • December 2017
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    • December 2016
    • November 2016
    • October 2016
    • September 2016
    • August 2016
    • July 2016
    • June 2016
    • May 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • January 2016
    • December 2015
    • November 2015
    • October 2015
    • September 2015
    • August 2015
    • July 2015
    • June 2015
    • May 2015
    • April 2015
    • March 2015
    • February 2015
    • January 2015
    • December 2014
    • November 2014
© 2021 Business Intelligence Info
Power BI Training | G Com Solutions Limited