5 Methods for Effective Company-Wide Planning

So far, organizations have been successful with a static, segmented approach to effective planning. Every month or every quarter, departments transmit predetermined templates to finance. Later, a corporate plan includes all these templates and focuses on running individual roadmaps.  

But today's companies are facing great turmoil, and that accelerates the pace of decision-making. To keep up, the finance team collects and analyzes financial and operational data from different departments. 

The quicker rate of change is a wake-up call for firms that lack a planning strategy. Companies need to have it as it allows flexible and ongoing cooperation.  

Financial firms must review all internal financial and operational data. They must gain information from other sources, including customer views, economic situations, and preferences. One needs to do this to be successful. By including multiple data sources, firms enable more accurate planning and forecasting, ultimately helping better decision-making.  

Important processes for data-driven, company-wide planning:  

1. Strategic Planning:

Other departments can effectively plan, and leaders need to understand where the company's journey is heading. Strategic planning should set goals for the next two to five years. The organization needs to build all its plans on those.    

The strategic plan aims to include milestones to set a path and outline fulfillment. It also consists of applicable KPIs to evaluate performance — a demand for data-driven planning. 

2. Scenario Planning:

Scenario planning exercises combine predictions, costs, and estimates. They give a picture of important business drivers and the expected good and bad effects of things that might happen in the future.   

Finance teams can use scenario planning to explore the real and possible outcomes of different economies or investments. They can make use of this information to inform decisions that affect all areas of the business. To be successful here, the finance and operations teams need to work together to build the model.

3. Use of external data sources:

Both scenarios and strategic planning require informed future-proof insights. Many factors affect your business, including seasonality, weather, local unemployment, web analytics, consumer or producer prices, and deadlines. The data will help you understand how. 

4. Consistent client feedback:

Customer feedback plays an important role not only in communicating sales and marketing efforts but also in planning. Knowing what is happening with your largest or most profitable account will constantly improve your financial and operational models.    

Financial leaders should work with their customer response teams to hold regular customer meetings. The purpose of these discussions is to help customers see what opportunities and challenges they see in their business. They can see how they affect business, and how to streamline their efforts.  

You can avoid many unpleasant surprises by regularly including customer feedback in your planning process. You can also consider them to contribute to your success.

5. Technology for integrated planning:

The most successful businesses in enterprise-wide planning use technology to disassemble silos. Well-integrated planning software drives accurate and connected planning across the enterprise.  

It also identifies patterns in financial and operational data to predict the most likely outcomes. It helps provide powerful dashboards and forecasting capabilities. This improves business visibility and insight.

How Can NetSuite Assist You in Creating Company-Wide Plans? 

Although enterprise-wide effective planning does not happen overnight, firms may take real steps toward achieving their strategic goals. They can do this by investing in these five critical processes. Although it will be difficult, the result provides a competitive advantage. 

The visibility gained helps organizations identify and mitigate risks and respond to changing market conditions and customer demands.

Many companies extend NetSuite’s planning and budgeting solutions beyond the treasury department. They work towards goals that complement financial planning, such as planning personnel and requirements.  

NetSuite Planning and Budgeting allows you to quickly build long-term predictive models. They contain built-in scenario planning capabilities. They can work together and have the power to manage the planning process with one complete solution. This provides visibility as well.     

To learn more about NetSuite, connect with Jobin & Jismi.