Connecting upstream planning processes for a life sciences company

Background

Our client is a holistic healthcare organization dedicated to providing industry-defining drugs and services. They needed a data-driven approach that accelerated planning and extracted more value from the financial process. They also needed to unify interdependent entities, each with different business models and approaches to planning.

Challenge

Prior to becoming a Keyrus client, this company was balancing planning across four entities, 200+ cost centers, and 6000+ projects, which required hours of manual work. These plans often extended out beyond eight to ten years. The high level of effort to string together data across multiple functional areas in order to hit deliverable deadlines meant less time for meaningful analysis. This disjointedness also inhibited a shift to smarter, real-time, driver-based planning that gives organizations necessary transparency in digital environments.

Approach

We designed and implemented a solution using Anaplan, which allowed them to connect the major functional areas across the organization including Market Analytics & Insights, Pricing & Contracting, Workforce Planning, and Financial Planning. A successful implementation meant leveraging the power of Anaplan’s integration capabilities and master data management framework. We designed a data hub to serve as a single source of truth across the organization, which allows for all users to work in sync no matter the functional area, while also maintaining alignment with systems both upstream and downstream of Anaplan. Shifting offline planning from Excel to Anaplan’s cloud-based network allows financial and statistical data to flow smoothly and integrate late-stage processes such as P&L and balance sheet reporting with early-stage developments such as demand planning. This tool also accelerated the introduction of driver-based financial planning and analysis, allowing leadership greater accessibility to new methodologies that empowers their users. Real-time aggregation across planning dimensions further increases the usability of both financial and statistical data. Lastly, placing emphasis on the users behind the tool through extensive training and engagement ensures the solution will exceed expectations and be a sustainable forward-looking result.

Key results

Benefits

The client has seen improved processes and efficiency and more financial flexibility to answer bottom line questions with greater accuracy, all in less time.

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