SAP Business Planning and Consolidation

13 SAP Business Planning Mistakes You Don't Know You're Making

Table of Contents

Using SAP Business Planning Correctly

Many enterprises have a difficult Business Planning process.  Though they may have been in business for decades, in many cases, they are suffering from one, some or all of the following symptoms of a poorly performing Business Planning process-and many don't know they are making these mistakes:

SAP BPC Help Crank Out the Money

 

 

  1. Inability to produce variance and what-if analyses without significant manual efforts.

  2. Lack of dependable and quantifiable data to make decisions for business planning and manage risk.

  3. Lack of integrated systems and automated processes result in the inability to efficiently and quickly drill down into variances from actuals.

  4. Lack of integration across business processes and business units negatively impact productivity/efficiency.

  5. Limited ability to provide timely information to the business due to lack of systems integration results in sub-optimal decision-making.

  6. Inability to implement structural changes (e.g., account, organization) without significant delays and administrative costs.

  7. Lack of ability to align operational plans with strategic objectives and goals resulting in misaligned execution.

  8. Lack of business sales process flow for planning makes it nearly impossible for users to create and modify parameters by themselves resulting in unnecessary delays and costs.

  9. Limited functionality in current systems hinders ability to move to a rolling forecast/planning process.

  10. Significant volume of critical financial information is managed and manipulated in offline databases resulting in lack of data synchronization and accuracy.

  11. Unnecessarily long planning and budgeting cycles lead to outdated and unusable planning figures.

  12. Lack of centralized data management and defined ownership leads to significant data quality issues.

  13. Limited ability to get accurate actuals and prior period plans creates unnecessary delays for the current planning period.

Business Planning SAP BPC

Make Your Business Planning Process Easier

Not all companies suffer from all these business planning symptoms.  We have found some or all these problems across a variety of industries. They all lead to a need for robust business plan software.

 

Need for a Well-Designed Business Plan

All of these aforementioned business planning mistakes can be mitigated by the use of proven business plan templates, with well defined business plan sections that follow a business growth-centric plan outline.

 

Developing a Growth-Oriented Business Plan

When you have SAP business planning and consolidation (SAP BPC) implemented as a core part of your SAP business planning process, you have the tool you need to develop a growth-oriented business plan.

 

Detailed Planning by All SAP Business Units

 

An SAP business plan built using SAP BPC is a well-researched business plan as well as a well-written business plan - down to lowest business unit level.  You can perform SAP commercial planning down to almost any level, right down to the SKU/Territory/Profit Center.  

 

SAP Business Planning and Consolidation

 

If you're implementing SAP Business Planning and Consolidation, our SAP Business Planning and consulting team can help you build a world-class Business Planning Process integrated from the executive suite to the shop-floor and beyond.

 

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Comments are always welcome!

 

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Lonnie D. Ayers, PMP

About the Author: Lonnie Ayers is a Hubspot Certified Inbound Marketing consultant, with additional certifications in Hubspot Content Optimization, Hubspot Contextual Marketing, and is a Hubspot Certified Partner. Specialized in demand generation and sales execution, especially in the SAP, Oracle and Microsoft Partner space, he has unique insight into the tough challenges Service Providers face with generating leads and closing sales using the latest digital tools. With 15 years of SAP Program Management experience, and dozens of complex sales engagements under his belt, he helps partners develop and communicate their unique sales proposition. Frequently sought as a public speaker in various events, he is available for both inhouse engagements and remote coaching.
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He also recently released a book "How to Dominate Any Market - Turbocharging Your Digital Marketing and Sales Results", which is available on Amazon.

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