Competencies  Financial Management   Integrated Corporate Planning 

Integrated Corporate Planning

The planning models used by companies to date are unable to stand up to current requirements as the basic conditions have changed. In particular, the annual budgeting process is time-consuming, costly in terms of resources, and ties management capacity but is too rigid to allow rapid adjustments to be made. The planning data is often out of date even by the time budgeting has been completed.

Furthermore, there is a lack of orientation towards the company’s corporate strategy and key figures. Sub-plans (plans for sales, turnover, overheads etc.) are not focussed enough on this and are often not integrated to any real extent.

Planning instruments and tools which are used barely meet the requirements posed by a complex and dynamic planning environment (e.g. simulation and convenient plan versioning, automation of routine planning tasks, rolling planning, visualising of results).

This is where new controlling and performance management approaches such as Beyond Budgeting come in, requiring a radical deviation from the previous model.

We at J&M work together with our customers to develop company-specific planning solutions – tailored towards the problematic issues within the company. The corporate objectives and key figures are taken as the starting point. Working from this basis, a balanced scorecard is created in which the performance targets and measures are defined, before specific operational requirements for the sub-plans are stipulated.

We work together with you to develop an integrated model which covers profit, balance sheet and cash flow planning as well as the logistics-related sub-plans. Although the extent of detail in each of the sub-plans can vary, they are all based on the premises stipulated by the BSC. This helps ensure the uniformity of strategic objectives and improves communication between the various divisions within the company.

A dynamic component is also included: planning is supplemented by a quarterly rolling forecast, which allows current changes in the S&OP planning to be incorporated into the profit and cash flow planning.

For implementation we use standard software (SAP BW; BW-BPS, SEM-CPM, integration with SAP R/3, APO) in order to exploit the related benefits such as e.g. high level of data consistency and integration, the ability to connect third systems via pre-defined BAPI’s, release updates. BW-BPS has proven its worth in its role as an integrator via pre-defined planning functions and application-friendly front-ends (Excel, WEB).

The interaction of the individual modules has to be analyzed specifically in relation to each customer. Using the business case – if necessary with the additional support of a prototype solution – J&M can assess the benefits and costs entailed by the project.

Benefit from the advantages of integrated corporate planning – we at J&M can assist you in realising your objectives with our expertise and coherent project management.

• Increase in efficiency due to a reduction in duration and costs of planning processes.
• Increased flexibility by assessing the best number of planning levels (no detailed budgets in all areas) and planning horizons (if necessary transition to rolling planning).
• Synergy effects and transparency due to uniform planning models breaching functional and divisional boundaries.
• Decrease in manual planning and coordination effort by using modern planning instruments.
• Depiction of planning processes using standard software helps to exploit benefits e.g. high level of data integration and data consistency (for master data and transaction data), maintainability of systems and reduction in the number of interfaces.

• Development of an integrated planning concept
  J&M works together with its customers to develop company-specific planning solutions. The concept is guided entirely by the analysis of the current situation and the company objectives. We incorporate best practice approaches and experience from various sectors into our concept.

• Creation of a business case
  J&M uses the business case to assess the benefits and costs of the project. The individual procedures for the redesign/implementation of the planning solution are determined in view of the specific circumstances and prerequisites in the company.

• Redesign of IT and planning processes
  J&M analyzes planning-related business processes, identifies the core processes which are significant from the point of view of the redesign and develops harmonised, SAP-oriented planning processes.

• Implementation
  During the implementation phase, we focus on creative solutions for our customers which allow the new planning processes to be implemented quickly and effectively using SAP BW/SEM-BPS, FI/CO and APO.