The Problem – The planning process took too long and couldn’t respond to changes.
Annual plans took months to develop and required weeks of time by managers. The roll up of the components usually fell short of our top level income targets. Plans were difficult to explain to the corporate office. Significant changes were invariably made in the 11th hour of the approval process that undermined the integrity of links between company plan targets and departmental budgets.
The Solution – A planning model with input for critical departmental changes.
I conceived and implemented a planning model by income statement line that handled all company-wide changes for volume, price, salary increases, etc., at the macro level, but that provided managers the capability to input “critical changes” within their own departments. The model approach provided complete flexibility and control over changes and made explanations of variances a simple process. This was then integrated into advanced planning tools from Adaytum and Hyperion.
