Your maturity result: EmergingIntermediateAdvanced

Your overall planning rating is: Emerging

• At this stage, you may find that planning at your organization is highly manual, often relying on error-prone spreadsheets instead of purpose-built software.
• Stakeholders likely struggle to gain access to the information they need, with limited access to necessary data for forecasting and reporting.
• Your finance teams likely struggle to effectively collaborate with other stakeholders working on planning.
• The planning process is likely ad hoc with little standardization for processes and decision-making.

• Learn what tool(s) are in use today, including gathering information about the software, platforms, or systems that employees are utilizing for planning purposes.
• Start to explore the benefits of modern planning and analytics technology, including piloting or implementing new tools, platforms, or approaches within the organization to assess their effectiveness and value.
• Learn about modern planning and analytics platforms and approaches and how AI is reshaping this space.
• Gain an understanding of all data sources around the organization that are necessary for the planning process and begin to automate data collection and aggregation.
• Establish regular communication between finance teams and other stakeholders involved in planning.
• Take inventory of how information is shared between stakeholders.
• Start to understand critical planning requirements and use cases around your organization. By understanding the real planning needs, your organization can tailor its planning approach to address specific challenges and goals, aligning planning efforts with the strategic objectives of your organization and ensuring that the planning process is relevant and impactful.
• Identify gaps, inefficiencies, and points of failure in your organization’s current approach to planning. Understand and consider what processes could be improved, shortened, or consolidated with the use of modern planning technology and where there could be opportunities for greater efficiency, time savings, and high plan accuracy.

Your overall planning rating is: Intermediate

• At this stage, you may find that your organization has started to adopt cloud-based planning solutions but still has plenty of manual alternatives (including Excel).
• Some stakeholders have what they need, but others still do not.
• Collaboration between business stakeholders and finance happens but is limited.
• Your organization has started to standardize its approach to planning collaboration, decision-making, and adoption of technology. It is automating its data collection and aggregation process, it is using some planning tools, and it has some frameworks in place for the planning process.

• Take stock of your organization’s current planning tool(s) and consider whether they are delivering value and should be used more broadly. This involves assessing whether these tools are meeting the needs of the planning process, streamlining workflows, and delivering value.
• Begin exploring and experimenting with next-generation capabilities, such as AI, to take planning and analytics to the next level.
• Streamline the setup of new types of data sets and new users in planning technology. This ensures a smooth onboarding process for new users and enables your organization to leverage new types of data for planning purposes.
• Assess how data and access work when collaborating across multiple groups on planning decisions.
• Take a realistic inventory of how planning is happening and what tools and processes exist. This requires understanding the methods, tools, and processes utilized for planning. This inventory can help identify gaps, inefficiencies, or redundancies in your organization’s planning approach.
• Educate your organization on the approaches and tools available for planning. Ensure that your organization uses available tools and maintains newly outlined planning processes instead of reverting to spreadsheets.

Your overall planning rating is: Advanced

• At this stage, your organization is likely using planning software that’s well-integrated with its data, processes, and tools.
• Your organization plans across multiple horizons and likely reforecasts on a frequent and consistent basis.
• Planning processes at your organization are well-integrated and agile, often leveraging automation.
• Key stakeholders have easy access to necessary information with effective collaboration.

• Go deeper with advanced AI to take planning and analytics to the next level.
• See what lingering “side tools” still exist and aim to bring these into the strategic approach. It is important to identify these “side tools” and assess their potential value in the strategic planning process. If your organization keeps the tools, make sure it is intentional, not random shadow IT.
• Work with employees, partners, and data management teams to continue to improve data quality and make it more real time.
• Widen the population of users who actively participate in and consume planning including critical suppliers and partners outside the four walls of your enterprise.
• Continue to educate your organization about the way planning is being done. This involves ongoing efforts to communicate and educate employees about your organization’s planning processes, methodologies, and best practices.