Planning Analytics

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Planning Sucks...

By Mark Kiel posted Fri October 02, 2020 11:12 AM

  

board room brawl
…and everyone hates Lisa. Why? She’s the Director of Budgeting and Planning.

 Lisa always wants more, needs more, immediately in that ridiculously stressed-out, hair-on-fire, sky-is-falling kind of way.

 And her timing is always the worst.  Its 4:45 on Friday afternoon, and here comes Lisa with another ask, no, a demand, which of course is going absolutely ruin the socially distant fondue and Zoom dinner party you’re hosting this evening.

The budgeting and planning process is an absolute nightmare, for anyone and everyone involved.

Unreasonable expectations, looming deadlines, heated discussions, and contrasting objectives are just a few of the many things most company’s budgeting and planning processes have in common.  No wonder everyone hates Lisa. She’s stressed, and who wouldn’t be?

And who, in their right mind, wants to participate in the planning process? 

Who wants to navigate arcane planning systems, search for the right report to verify, or form to fill out?   Particularly when you already have all of the required data in spreadsheets?

Who wants to attempt to predict the future, in these incredibly uncertain times, without a crystal ball, only to be forced to argue with executives over your best attempt at forecasting?

And what executive wants to have to constantly question her employees and the accuracy of their work?  Do people think executives actually enjoy enforcing tight deadlines and force people to burn the midnight oil, just to produce a slight, but significantly relevant, revision to her company’s financial outlook?

You don’t have to hate Lisa.

With the new Plans and Applications capabilities included in Planning Analytics, Lisa can easily build, and efficiently manage and facilitate her company’s planning process, and eliminate many of the most common stressors associated with the planning process.

Planning Analytics Plan
With Planning Analytics, and Plans and Applications, Lisa can create her own planning applications, without having to rely on expensive consultants to get the job done.  The related cost savings alone might be enough to finally get her the raise she was promised last year!

Lisa can add steps to her plan, which may include any number of user interfaces, participants, and due dates: 

After defining the steps in her planning process, Lisa can open the plan for the participants she’s assigned, and provide them with a guided experience.  The left side panel (shown below) reveals each step in the planning process, and the right side reveals the selected form or report the user has selected.  It cannot get any easier.

At any point in time Lisa can add steps to her company’s planning process, invite more participants, change submission requirements, or change due dates.  For the first time ever, Lisa is in full control of her organization’s planning process!

You don’t have to hate planning.

You really don’t. Imagine a planning application, provided by your budgeting and planning director, that is easy to open, easy to navigate, and easy to complete.  With Planning Analytics, there’s no reason to imagine this, it can be your reality. 

Knowing where to go and what to do has never been easier, thanks to the guided experience Lisa has provided for her planning participants.

Additionally, the uncertainty of forecasting is all but eliminated with Planning Analytics, thanks to embedded AI / predictive forecasting capabilities.  No more badgering from executives about your budget or forecast!  Let them try and argue with Watson.  You might ask Ken and Brad that worked out for them!


Try Planning Analytics today.

What are you waiting for?  Don’t waste another second loathing Lisa and the planning process.  Life is just too short!

Visit our website today to experience Planning Analytics!


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