In a challenging market, the pressure to adopt SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (BPC) is even more intense. Uncertain times require even more of organisations’ financial systems, as they ask for complex data analysis and planning.
SAP BPC is the financial management tool of the enterprise performance management cycle. It provides business planning and forecasting, the reporting of real performance data and both management and group consolidation.
SAP BPC should never be based upon experimentation. It ought to be a fast, reliable and easy process. Yet, the opposite is often the case: BPC can be a time-consuming, resource-intensive and in many cases painful exercise.
Most importantly, BPC should be accurate. Robust or sturdy processes enable companies to exploit opportunities and react rapidly to changes in the business environment. Inversely, inadequate planning, forecasting and consolidation put them at risk of losing competitiveness– or even worse.
Reliable BPC, supported by effective planning, forecasting and consolidation systems and tools, will certainly allow organisations to:
- Streamline planning and forecasting with strategy.
- Specify planning needs much more precisely and regularly.
- Enhanced planning and forecasting reliability.
- Decreased planning and month-end financial closing cycles.
- Achieve a more granular sight of performance.
- Efficient decision-making.
- Centralized and enhanced financial management.
- Simplified compliance and reporting.
This will certainly mean enhanced efficiency, reduced cost and enhanced profitability. And it will put organisations in a stronger financial position to achieve their critical goals.
What to analyze in your Organization
Overhauling a business’ consolidation system is an important step. When looking to build an automated solution, organisation’s demand to make sure that they design an application that suits the particular needs of their business.
To achieve this, they need to place their current system under the microscope and test the way consolidation is done. This means asking questions such as:
- Are we producing financial information at the best levels of granularity?
- Where exists extent to drive efficiencies?
- Where is the time being taken, and why?
- What could be done more quickly and efficiently, and how?
- How could the process be less painful; not just for team financing, yet also for regional users?
- How do we make certain that regional data owners send accurate data in the right format?
- Does team financing really should own every part of the lawful consolidation process?
- How can we make use of the outputs to evaluate the present and future implications for the business?
Equipped with these ideas, firms ought to begin with a pilot implementation as proof of idea, in order to help understand the art of the possible.
Summary
Having built the business case for automation, firms should consider the following measures that can help make the implementation process as smooth as feasible:
- Hold workshops prior to deployment to show users how the new system works. Do not rely on a written blueprint– go out and demonstrate it.
- Create a clear strategy for data transition. Do not undervalue the importance of a smooth change in between the aged and new systems– getting this wrong could prove disastrous. Run user acceptance examinations as component of the transfer process.
- Set up a ‘power individual’ network– a specialist panel of key customers that recognize with the new application, and could take possession of knowledge transfer and offer with queries after implementation.
- Under any circumstances, don’t go live at year end.
