Organizations today are confronted with mixed market conditions that change and evolve by the minute. Having the tools to respond in an agile manner and being able to make the right choices rapidly and in unexpected situations is therefore even more important. However, most organisations face the problem of data, people, and plans existing in silos – making it hard to harness the right information quickly and seamlessly. This makes efficient cross-enterprise cooperation practically impossible. During such times, it is not only crucial to make sure that plans are aligned; but also, to be able to quickly evaluate the impact of various situations and more have confidence in forecasting future results.
Decisions make or break the company
Business plans in the digital era are ineffective when business leaders combine rigidity with a lack of connectivity to the rest of the organization. Moreover, with the spread of the pandemic, enterprises have realised that forecasting and decision-making need to be dynamic. It is imperative, crucial in fact to be able to shift and change, replan, and forecast in a matter of days, or even minutes. Relying on segregated departments to generate siloed strategies is more bane than boon. Savvy business leaders are now realising the significance of delivering holistic plans and predictions for the entire company. This can be effectively managed by a systematic and integrated approach across departments.
Understanding connected business planning
Data, people, and plans are the three pillars on which the enterprises run and thrive. The need for them to work collaboratively has become even more important. Forward-thinking companies are embracing connected planning to pivot away from uncertainty to confidence. Gartner has projected that by the year 2024, 70% of all enterprises will be planning with extended planning and analysis. For illustration’s sake, consider the severe semiconductor chip scarcity that impacted manufacturing the world over as a result of closed borders and supply chain shutdowns. For the automotive industry, this spurred many manufacturers to create strategic relations with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), Tier 1 suppliers, and semiconductor suppliers. These agreements allowed companies to focus on the implications of three critical activities that form the foundation for strategic shortage management: the creation of strong technology maps, reliable short-term demand planning, and guidance for long-term demand planning. A similar supply chain crisis of the Suez Canal blockage in 2021 revealed to the world the vital importance of agile supply chain planning and fast decision-making.
Connected Planning – a business growth imperative
The traditional planning approach, where departments create annual plans in silos, is no longer equipped to swiftly meet the demands of the fast-paced economy and market conditions. On the other hand, connected planning augments business performance by integrating the flow of data, people and plans across departments. The traditional planning methodologies and systems can be a stumbling block for enterprises to achieve the visibility and agility needed to stay ahead of uncertainty. Moreover, in these ever-shifting economic conditions, business modelling, and scenario planning are essential to making better-informed plans, to drive faster and more effective real-time decisions. Such driven reporting, empowered by infinite what-if modelling, arms the leadership with strategy and planning skills required beyond the basic scenario planning.
Connected planning orchestrates business growth and performance in few visibly prominent ways –
- Expedite real time insights: Connected systems of insight make opportunities that were not previously apparent, now timely and relevant. It also makes use of cutting-edge hyperscale computing to improve understanding of change drivers and produce precise forecasts. It facilitates decision-making by providing line-of-sight visibility across all resources, assets, risks, and changes.
- Increases business agility & reinvention: Changes focus from potential possibilities to effective actions. Departments can target future financial implications and successful company outcomes by working together. Additionally, it simulates countless multi-dimensional scenarios to find the best course of action. All this ensures the business planning become more proactive than reactive.
- Synchronize execution and readiness: it augments autonomous and coordinated in-market action by connecting headquarters to the remote outposts.
- Augments and supports mission critical business decision making
Forward and integrated thinking to give businesses a competitive edge
The world is riddled with uncertainties, but it’s also teeming with opportunities for constructive change. Business leaders and organizations should be able to track all impacts to operations real time and update their plans accordingly based on the insights and data at hand. Annual planning is a thing of the past. Today’s market conditions require agile company strategies that can help their teams shift their goals as needed. To ensure quick execution and accountability, it is crucial to do away with confusion and duplication of effort with a highly scalable, responsive, networked system. Connected planning eliminates organisational silos and seamlessly combines internal and external factors across all of activities and departments and assists businesses to make smarter decisions. By assessing choices and trade-offs in the current ‘real-time’ environment, leveraging Connected Planning technology is the way forward for organizations, to not just survive, but also thrive!
(The author is Mr. Anjan Kalyani, Country Head & Area Vice President- Anaplan India and the views expressed in this article are his own)
