Modernize your finance processes to benefit from more accurate decision-making

Leaders often find themselves trying to modernize processes to fit technology rather than the other way around. For greater success, technology and procedures need to evolve together.

Not every finance leader’s journey is linear or moves at a steady pace. Each step on the path has its own challenges and benefits. For those who’ve addressed and cultivated a mindset of improvement and efficiency, it’s now possible to enable the adoption of modern planning and forecasting processes across the business.

如果您发现自己准备好检查组织范围内的计划和预测的当前状态，但不知道该如何开始，那么您并不孤单。领导者经常面临着实现战略目标和目标的难题，而流程改进，遗产和孤立的技术以及对操作执行的可见性有限。这些领导者通常首先尝试改变用于实现目标的过程。

This approach reveals challenges with data access across the business, sluggish modeling for financial and operational plans, and limited visibility for informed decision-making.

Walking, not running, to modern processes

This is where finance leaders can usher in a new era of organization-wide planning.领先的分析师认为XP＆A是FP＆A功能的未来，这种财务和运营计划的综合和协作演变称为XP＆A或扩展计划和分析。借助正确的流程和技术，您的组织可以在变革时期从更好的知名度，共同的责任，提高敏捷性和韧性中受益。

The idea is catching on. Industry analysts are researching and confirming this progression with prominent businesses around the world. These advanced financial planning and analysis capabilities are often led by finance, and start with examining and updating processes, procedures, and technology.

How technology can guide or lead astray

Chances are that in the last 10 years, as a transformational leader, you’ve already explored and adopted a technology to help your FP&A practice, even if you’re not the one who selected it. In fact, five years ago, there were processes and needs that simply couldn’t be addressed with any technology at all, and thus, spreadsheets and manual research were par for the course. The good news is today, modern software can virtually eliminate dependence on those legacy practices.

这不会很简单。将组织的流程与所需的技术保持一致，这可能是具有挑战性的。例如，一旦您意识到自己没有达到目标，您可能会意识到您当前使用的技术将不支持要实施的流程。软件是一项巨大的资本费用，因此，领导者自然要首先评估围绕现有技术的建设过程是否是可行的解决方案是很自然的。

More often than not, processes built around inadequate technology end up also being equally inadequate. These processes lead to the return of spreadsheets, a return to the work required to maintain them, and a resurgence of the risks associated with simple human error, disconnected and siloed modifications, and rapid outdating.

If you find you’re still unable to meet your intended goals and you’ve changed your processes to fit the capabilities of your software, it’s time to determine whether the technology itself is the problem.

Aligning processes across departments is possible

It can be daunting to imagine a transition from siloed planning and analysis to fully integrated FP&A. There are organizations that have begun this journey and they’ve bridged departmental lines after they’ve reviewed and selected Anaplan.

正如我们针对应用材料的案例研究所讨论的那样，企业金融副总裁Junaid Ahmed意识到有必要根据供应链的波动和定价可变性来建立更多的敏捷性。由于工厂关闭和员工短缺，对半导体的需求增加以及供应链中的同时破坏了应用材料，因此很难对决策和财务业绩的影响很难了解。艾哈迈德（Ahmed）的本地FP和A解决方案很清楚，不再提供天气破坏所需的敏捷性和可扩展性。最终，他决定用Anaplan替换该工具，以提供所需的流程支持。

As艾哈迈德在网络研讨会中指出，Applied Materials benefitted from agile FP&A in the following ways:

• Enhanced finance scalability and effectiveness in support of the company’s growth objectives
• Moved finance to a digital way of working to enable greater business agility across the enterprise

He stressed, “When you have such a large footprint and you want to be agile, you need to drive standardization. If everyone is doing their own thing, that’s not agile… If you can move over to an agile platform…this will drive a huge amount of efficiency and effectiveness.”

After an implementation process with cross-functional engagement, Applied Materials will double the decision support out of finance into the enterprise within three years.

The benefits of truly connecting operational plans

这是完全正常的sta之间感到束手无策tus quo and transformation. But it is possible to transform in manageable phases with continuous progress and the results are worth the work. Applied Materials is a great example of the pay-off. Once you transform your organization’s FP&A to a Connected Planning approach, or xP&A, you’ll benefit from:

• Top-line growth
• Improved margins
• 提高资产效率
• Managed risks
• Visibility across the org and external partners
• Adequate data for decisions in cross-departmentally
• Flexibility to allow departments to adjust their operations to reflect changes or pivots in other areas of the business
  

Conclusion

Finance can and should lead the charge to transformative planning by modernizing their own processes first, and then, via a spreading effect, connect other stakeholders to one centralized goal or plan. By doing this, the organization is better positioned for faster decisions, more resilient operations, and more profitable outcomes overall.