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.
