Driver Based Planning

By Larysa Melnychuk, Managing Director at FP&A Trends group

The Driver-Based Planning concept is a hot subject in the FP&A world. Many organisations consider it for their planning purposes, however just a few have already implemented the fully driver-based planning model.

Why? Because it requires a complete re-thinking of how organisations plan and forecast. It works in analytical culture, where judgemental planning and forecasting practices are not accepted.

Is our corporate world ready for this mind shift?

The fourth Stockholm FP&A Board was debating on why driver-based planning matters for modern FP&A.

by Michael Coveney, author of "Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting in Uncertain Times"

How to Design Data Driven Planning Architecture?

A new generation of planning systems are beginning to emerge that are data driven. These systems are very different from traditional planning systems and have an architecture that enables them to support the modern agile planning process.  From a user perspective, they operate as a single management system where planning can be driven by events and exceptions in the business environment. For example, a change in the competitor landscape may lead the system to collect more data for the affected areas, which leads to new initiatives being proposed, selected and budgets changed accordingly. This can happen at any time and on a continuous basis.

By Neil Ainger, GTnews

At one of the previous meetings, The London FP&A Board addressed the technological requirements needed for effective FP&A. The well-known Chatham House anonymised rules were deployed to encourage a full and frank debate.

The board members agreed that technology (like any tool) is only as good as people’s ability to use it and to apply it for business benefit and the discussions about the key requirements of an FP&A system got underway.

By Larysa Melnychuk and  Hans Gobin 

Driver-based planning (DBP) is an essential part of the financial planning and analysis (FP&A) armoury, enabling organisations – ranging from the smallest non-profit to a multinational – to become quicker, more dynamic and agile in their planning and in responding to internal and external changes in the business environment.
DBP was the focus on the London FP&A Board of senior practitioners’ most recent meeting, sponsored by Michael Page and Metapraxis, which was held on the eve of the landmark UK referendum on its continued membership of the European Union (EU). Given that the result early on June 24 confounded many expectations, the benefits of DBP may have been evident to many companies forced to reassess both their short-term and longer-term business plans.

This article outlines the main conclusions and recommendations on DBP that were generated by the London FP&A Board.

By Larysa Melnychuk, Managing Director at FP&A Trends group

Rolling Forecasts  are an essential tool for financial planning and analysis (FP&A), with a potential to radically transform corporates’ traditional budgeting process.
The London FP&A Board of senior practitioners’ most recent meeting focused on why Rolling Forecasts  are ideal for financial planning and analysis (FP&A) professionals. It also discussed best practice and the ‘Three Stages of Rolling Forecast Maturity’ model, summarised in this article.

The latest meeting was again jointly sponsored by Metapraxis, the consultancy, analytics for financial professionals and software provider and Michael Page, the global specialist recruitment firm.