Famous publishing house deploys highly functional and user friendly budgeting and forecasting application.

More on budgeting and forecasting

DC Thomson

Challenge

• There was no internal knowledge or skills to utilise existing IBM Cognos Planning Solution.
• The solution was difficult to navigate and the budget process became unclear.
• There was no functionality to carry out in year forecasts, rolling forecasts or variance reporting.
• Visibility of profitability at Title level was limited.
• The Planning application only held one year of historical data.
• The business had lost faith in the system.

Solution

• Workshop sessions redesigned the business planning process model.
• A user friendly navigation and process screen was created enabling multiple users to carry out the planning cycles.
• A Forecast and Rolling Forecast dimension was created to enable the business to plan on a more regular basis.
• Formal training was delivered and the model development carried out collaboratively to ensure the business could own the planning application.
• Mappings from source data to create P&Ls by Title.

Benefits

• The application is owned by the business within the Finance Team.
• Easy to use screens and step by step instructions enables the business to run and enhance the model continuously.
• Budgets and Forecasts can now be viewed by Title, this allows the business to understand which Titles are profitable and which ones are not.
• The business can now create monthly and quarterly forecasts and achieve rolling monthly forecasts.
• The business regained its trust in the IBM planning tool.