Intelligent forecasting and agile scenario planning

Intelligent forecasting and agile scenario planning

When the Apple iPod first came out in 2001, it was promoted with the tagline, '1000 songs in your pocket'. Today, the Apple watch can directly access iTunes, '40 million songs on your wrist". Technology in almost every sector has been developing at an exponential curve over the last ten years. Digital transformation became the buzzword among businesses with the goal to fully leverage the benefits of new technologies. However, it was the Covid-19 pandemic that acted as the tipping point for digital transformation, it accelerated the shift to digital capabilities at a pace we have never seen before. It was a response by necessity.

Digital transformation by design

In response to the Covid crisis businesses needed to expand their digital capabilities to make remote working possible, to engage with customers in a new way, adopt virtual marketing strategies, etc. However, these changes were made out of necessity. Now it is time for businesses to take a step back and think about how they can use new tools, software, and technology to make their operations more efficient. A digital transformation by design. We live in a new normal and the following factors have become key to effective planning and decision-making:

• Speed
• Agility
• Visibility
• Accuracy
• Collaboration

Certainty of uncertainty

Even though vaccinations around the world are increasing the landscape of how we work has changed forever. We can expect changes in consumer behavior, government responses to public health indicators, and business activity on both a global and regional level. It will be difficult to predict how things will unfold over the next 12 months. The only certainty is uncertainty. This is why businesses need intelligent forecasts and comprehensive scenario planning.

The new normal for businesses

Before the Covid crisis, operations planning was done on a quarterly basis. Today, unpredictability and rapidly evolving circumstances have made it necessary for that period to be reduced to days and weeks. When it came to scenario planning, most businesses would stick to the best, worst, and most likely scenarios. These are no longer enough and businesses need to plan for scenarios that may disrupt the supply chain or business operations. Several, diverse and edge-case scenarios need to be planned for. When it comes to forecasts, businesses need to get more granular, more in-depth forecasts like customer segment and supplier channel will be required. Businesses also need transformation in finance. Financial planning can no longer rely solely on data collection and reporting, it needs predictive insights and closer partnering with business.

Download this white paper by Anaplan to learn more about the defining attributes of the new normal for businesses, the key components for intelligent forecasting, and why a ''complete solution" approach is required.  Subscribe to Whitepapers.online for quality resources.