Enhancing Financial Planning in SAP Analytics Cloud for the US Business of a Global Media & Advertising Organisation
Enhanced SAP Analytics Cloud planning for the US business, connecting Revenue, OPEX and Financial Statements into a more integrated forecasting process.
- SAP Analytics Cloud
- FP&A
- Budgeting
- Forecasting, Revenue Planning
- OPEX Planning
- Financial Statements
- EPM
Client Overview
The client is a leading global media and advertising organisation operating across multiple markets and business areas worldwide. Its finance teams manage complex budgeting, forecasting, revenue planning and financial reporting requirements across the organisation.
For its US business, the organisation has a detailed SAP Analytics Cloud planning solution supporting Revenue, Operating Expenses and Financial Statements. CloudScouts worked with the organisation to enhance and evolve this solution, bringing the three areas together into a more connected forecasting and planning process while supporting the very detailed and specific planning requirements of the US business.
The engagement focused on strengthening the existing planning processes and solution, improving the flow of Actuals and Forecasts, and ensuring the solution continued to support evolving business requirements while integrating with the wider corporate standardization of planning processes and systems.
Customer
Leading Global Media & Advertising Organisation
Industry
Media & Advertising
Location
United States
Organization Size
Large Enterprise / 10001+ Employees
The US Planning Challenge
The US business required a planning solution capable of supporting detailed forecasting across multiple finance areas while remaining flexible enough to evolve with changing business requirements and active forecast cycles.
- Revenue, OPEX and Financial Statements were planned at different levels of detail, creating complexity in bringing information together and making it harder for Finance to maintain a consistent end-to-end view of the forecast.
- Revenue planning needed to support different business areas and client-level planning structures for thousands of clients, while still allowing Finance to consolidate, review and analyse the overall revenue position efficiently.
- Planned expenses needed to flow consistently from OPEX into Financial Statements and consolidated reporting, reducing manual intervention and helping Finance understand the impact of expenditure on the overall financial position.
- Financial Statement planning covered Staff Costs, Headcount, Balance Sheet, Net Working Capital and other key financial measures, requiring these different areas to work together so Finance could review and analyse the overall financial impact of the forecast.
- Reforecast and Monthly Forecast cycles required reliable preparation and pre-population of data, with a clear separation between planning, review and reporting activities to make each forecasting cycle easier to manage and control.
- The solution needed to continue evolving alongside active finance operations, allowing new requirements and improvements to be introduced without disrupting ongoing forecast cycles or the integration of data into the corporate centre.
What CloudScouts Delivered working in Partnership with the US Organisation
CloudScouts worked closely with the US organisation’s Finance teams, business users and in-house SAP Analytics Cloud team to enhance the existing US planning process and integrate it with the new corporate standard approach.
The solution we have delivered in partnership includes:
“The team worked tirelessly to stabilise and bring our planning solution into operation, despite inheriting an environment that was only partially functioning and had not been fully tested. Their expertise and commitment were instrumental in getting the solution ready for our critical forecasting cycles.”
Use of Advanced SAP Analytics Cloud Planning Capabilities
The enhanced US solution used advanced SAP Analytics Cloud planning capabilities to automate key activities, support detailed finance logic and strengthen the connections across the planning process:
Users Enabled to exploit the new solution
Alongside the technical implementation, CloudScouts supported successful business adoption through:
- Interactive end-user training sessions and user documentation supported successful business adoption.
- The in-house SAP Analytics Cloud team was supported with the knowledge and processes needed to manage and evolve the solution across future forecast cycles.
Dashboards & Planning Solutions Delivered
The enhanced US solution provided Finance and business users with connected planning, review and analysis experiences across all of the planning and forecasting financial areas:
A Partnership that delivered a successful Outcome
The enhancements created a more controlled, agile and reliable forecasting process for the US business, with greater confidence in the forecasting data being submitted and met the US planning challenge:
- A more consistent flow of Actuals and Forecasts across Revenue, OPEX and Financial Statements.
- Greater visibility across detailed Revenue, Operating Expense and Financial Statement planning.
- Reduced manual handoffs through interconnected planning processes and automated business logic.
- Clearer preparation, planning, review and reporting activities across Reforecast and Monthly Forecast cycles.
- Planning dashboards, reports and navigation better aligned with the way Finance teams perform their forecasting activities.