拜耳建立一个可持续的计划平台，用于动态决策

Not long ago, preparing for quarterly and annual planning conferences at global life sciences company Bayer was a multi-step process for the Corporate Controlling team: They would gather information from divisional, functional, and corporate planning systems and calculate further KPIs, rationalize the data, put it in a consistent visual format, and produce a “pre-read” book for the Board of Management and senior managers attending the planning conferences. “The book was signed by the head of controlling—with a pen,” recalls Philipp Ahrendt, Head of Financial Modeling and Analytics in Bayer’s Corporate Controlling. “The process took five to six days, and if something changed during that time, we had to start all over again. But things are different now. We presented our financials live in the system for the first time mid-2020, and as of 2021, all planning conferences are conducted this way.”

\r\n

The discussions are now being facilitated using Anaplan, and during the meetings, the head of controlling uses Anaplan dashboards to guide the attendees through the financials and potential scenarios. This is a huge step forward for Bayer’s digital agenda. The switch from printed, autographed books to digital solutions based on Anaplan technology symbolizes Bayer’s transformed planning and decision-making process and demonstrates how Corporate Controlling has evolved to positively influence the company’s digitization strategy.

\r\n

Looking for agility and sustainability in Corporate Controlling

\r\n

Bayer, a $51 billion company headquartered in Germany, has a history of innovation dating back to its founding in 1863. Its three divisions—Crop Science, Pharmaceuticals, and Consumer Health—each do their financial planning in a group-wide harmonized SAP planning system. “Our divisions plan at different levels of granularity due to the nature of their businesses,” Ahrendt explains. “However, as the Corporate Controlling team supports all financial planning processes that include all Bayer divisions and functions, the divisional plans need to be consolidated and harmonized to create a consistent picture.”

\r\n

Those processes include the annual Operational Planning Conference (OPC), at which Bayer plans for the coming year and sets its three-year financial outlook; an annual Strategic Conference (StraCo) that generates a 10-year plan and analyzes investments, divestments, mergers, acquisitions, and other strategic options; and Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs). For each of these processes, the Controlling staff used to perform extensive manual preparation, much of it in spreadsheets and presentation tools. “We needed a more agile, efficient and sustainable solution,” Ahrendt says.

\r\n

Building a fully integrated financial model

\r\n

The Controlling team first sought a solution for long-term financial planning (the StraCo) but soon realized that one system, intelligently designed and deployed, could support all corporate-level financial planning events. There were numerous requirements for the new tool. As the data would be loaded from the group-wide planning and reporting system with different levels of granularity, the new tool needed to be flexible in structure and connectable to SAP databases. To be able to cope with changing demands, the tool should not need dedicated support from outside the Controlling team; being self-sufficient would significantly increase agility. Furthermore, numbers and their connection to underlying assumptions should be transparent, so that instead of simply consolidating divisional plans, simulating group business cases through scenarios and sensitivities would be enabled.

\r\n

“We needed to build a fully integrated financial model, where everything is connected,” Ahrendt states. “One where we can enter a 1% volume increase and immediately see the impact on the sales, cost of goods sold, cash flow, and net debt.”

\r\n

Near the end of 2019, Ahrendt and the project team worked with Anaplan to build a proof of concept. After it was shared, the rest of the Controlling team was immediately sold. The team was able to quickly jump on the Anaplan modeling approach and created the first usable models within one week.

\r\n

As of today, Bayer’s Corporate Controlling team runs several financial models in Anaplan. These models share the same calculation logic but have different time horizons; they support all planning processes from quarterly forecasts in the QBR to 10-year outlooks in the StraCo. For each process, a dedicated app has been built on top of the models to enable discussions and decision-making in the meetings.

\r\n

The apps share common navigation principles and relevant group-level KPIs such as net sales, EBITDA, free cash flow, earnings per share, and net debt. “The full financial picture is always available in Anaplan in an appealing interface,” Ahrendt notes.

\r\n

Scenarios and sensitivities—“where the magic happens,” as Ahrendt says—are key elements of Bayer’s financial models. Users can simulate entire business cases by activating and deactivating scenarios or adjusting sensitivities. Thanks to the digital solution, the financial effect of the altered assumptions immediately becomes visible in all KPIs.

\r\n

Anaplan’s simulation power is especially useful in the StraCo meeting, where the Board of Management discusses potential mergers, acquisitions, investments, and divestments. “In the past, people presented fully calculated proposals in the StraCo meeting,” Ahrendt recalls. “If somebody asked about a different deal structure or price, the presenter had to recalculate the effects, and was only be able to give an answer after the meeting. Now we change the numbers in Anaplan and see the financial impact on our business in less than a minute.”

\r\n

Efficiency, empowerment, and confidence

\r\n

For Corporate Controlling, the most obvious benefit of the new solution is faster preparation of materials for planning processes. “Tasks that used to take five to six days, back when the output was still a physical book, can now be completed in about three days,” Ahrendt mentions. By eliminating manual efforts in data collection and aggregation, the team gains time for qualitative analysis and to prepare the storyline for the presentations.

\r\n

Beyond efficiency, the team’s interactive models are a far superior product that encourages exploration and discussion. This advantage has been noticed at the highest levels of Bayer’s leadership. “It’s a huge step to give a digital presentation via Anaplan to all the board members,” Ahrendt says. “We received the feedback from our CFO that they have better discussions, and they make better decisions, because people immediately know the financial impact of their choices.” These faster, more confident responses to changing business conditions are a direct result of the trust generated by the transparency of the numbers and the underlying assumptions.

\r\n

The new solution has also increased confidence in the Corporate Controlling team itself. “Everybody was able to quickly get a handle on Anaplan and experience success,” Ahrendt concludes. “We felt empowered, and seeing the creativity of our colleagues was quite amazing. We are a small team, but with our financial models in Anaplan, we have a big impact.”

\r\n"}}" id="text-1b99d4436f" class="cmp-text">

不久前，为全球生命科学公司拜耳准备季度和年度计划会议的准备是公司控制团队的多步骤过程：他们将从部门，功能和公司规划系统中收集信息，并进一步计算KPI，合理化数据，以一致的视觉格式，并为管理委员会和高级管理人员制作一本“预阅读”书籍，并参加计划。会议。“这本书是由控制的负责人签署的，并用笔签署，”拜耳公司控制的财务建模和分析负责人菲利普·阿伦特（Philipp Ahrendt）回忆说。“这个过程花了五到六天，如果在那段时间发生了什么变化，我们必须重新开始。但是现在情况有所不同。我们在2020年中期首次展示了该系统的财务状况，从2021年开始，所有计划会议都是这样进行的。”

现在，讨论正在使用Anaplan进行促进，在会议期间，控制负责人使用Anaplan仪表板来指导与会者了解财务和潜在方案。对于拜耳的数字议程而言，这是向前迈出的一大步。从印刷，亲笔签名的书籍转换为基于Anaplan技术的数字解决方案的转换象征着拜耳的转型计划和决策过程，并证明了公司控制如何发展以积极影响公司的数字化策略。

在公司控制中寻找敏捷性和可持续性

拜耳（Bayer）是一家总部位于德国的510亿美元公司，拥有创新历史，可追溯到1863年的成立。其三个部门（Crop Science，Pharmaceuticals和Consumer Health）都在整个集团整合的SAP SAP计划系统中进行财务计划。“由于其业务的性质，我们的分裂计划在不同级别的粒度上，” Ahrendt解释说。“但是，由于公司控制团队支持包括所有拜耳部门和职能的所有财务计划流程，因此需要对部门计划进行合并和协调，以创建一致的情况。”

这些过程包括年度运营计划会议（OPC），拜耳计划来年并设定了三年的财务前景；一年一度战略会议（Straco）生成10年计划并分析投资，撤资，合并，收购和其他战略选择；和季度业务评论(QBRs)。这些过程的控制ng staff used to perform extensive manual preparation, much of it in spreadsheets and presentation tools. “We needed a more agile, efficient and sustainable solution,” Ahrendt says.

建立完全集成的财务模型

控制团队首先寻求长期财务计划的解决方案（The Straco），但很快意识到，一个智能设计和部署的系统可以支持所有公司级的财务计划活动。新工具有许多要求。由于数据将从具有不同级别的粒度级别的整个范围的计划和报告系统中加载，因此需要灵活的结构并可以连接到SAP数据库。为了能够应付不断变化的需求，该工具不需要在控制团队外部的专用支持；自给自足将显着提高敏捷性。此外，数字及其与基本假设的联系应该是透明的，因此，将启用通过方案和敏感性模拟组业务案例，而不是简单地合并部门计划。

Ahrendt指出：“我们需要建立一个完全集成的财务模型，其中一切都已连接。”“我们可以进入1％的数量增加，并立即看到对销售，销售成本，现金流量和净债务的影响。”

在2019年底，Ahrendt和项目团队与Anaplan合作建立了概念证明。分享后，控制团队的其余部分立即被出售。该团队能够迅速采用Anaplan建模方法，并在一周内创建了第一个可用型号。

截至今天，拜耳的公司控制团队在Anaplan运行了多种财务模型。这些模型具有相同的计算逻辑，但具有不同的时间范围。他们支持从QBR的季度预测到Straco的10年展望的所有计划过程。对于每个过程，都在模型之上构建了一个专用的应用程序，以在会议中进行讨论和决策。

这些应用程序共享通用导航原则和相关的集团级别KPI，例如净销售，EBITDA，自由现金流，每股收益和净债务。Ahrendt指出：“整个财务状况总是在吸引人的界面中在Anaplan中获得。”

如Ahrendt所说，场景和敏感性 - “魔术发生的地方”是拜耳财务模型的关键要素。用户可以通过激活和停用场景或调整敏感性来模拟整个业务案例。多亏了数字解决方案，改变的假设的财务效应在所有KPI中都立即变得可见。

Anaplan的仿真能力在Straco会议上特别有用，管理委员会讨论潜在的合并，收购，投资和撤资。“过去，人们在Straco会议上提出了完全计算的建议，” Ahrendt回忆道。“如果有人询问了不同的交易结构或价格，主持人必须重新计算效果，并且只能在会议结束后给出答案。现在，我们改变了Anaplan的数字，并在不到一分钟的时间内看到对我们业务的财务影响。”

效率，授权和信心

对于公司控制，新解决方案的最明显好处是更快地准备计划过程的材料。阿伦德特（Ahrendt）提到：“过去需要花费五到六天的任务，当时输出仍然是物理书，现在可以在大约三天内完成。”通过消除数据收集和聚合方面的手动努力，团队获得了定性分析的时间，并为演讲准备故事情节。

除了效率之外，团队的互动模型是鼓励探索和讨论的远远优越的产品。在拜耳领导的最高水平上已经注意到了这一优势。Ahrendt说：“这是通过Anaplan向所有董事会成员进行数字演示的重要一步。”“我们收到了CFO的反馈，即他们有更好的讨论，并且他们做出更好的决定，因为人们立即知道他们选择的财务影响。”这些对不断变化的业务状况的更快，更自信的反应是数字透明度和基本假设产生的信任的直接结果。

新解决方案还增加了对公司控制团队本身的信心。艾伦特总结说：“每个人都能够迅速掌握Anaplan并获得成功。”亚搏彩票手机版免费下载“我们感到有能力，看到同事的创造力真是太神奇了。我们是一支小团队，但是我们在阿纳普兰（Anaplan）的财务模式，我们的影响很大。”