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Let’s face it – the idea of business planning might not get you out of bed in the morning. It’s time-consuming. It can be arduous. And it can add another set of deliverables to your already heavy workload. How can you take time out to think about the future when you’re juggling so many day-to-day priorities?

You can’t avoid business planning – but you can make it significantly easier, more productive, and (it’s true!) more enjoyable. When you lean on advanced tools instead of yesterday’s methods, you can take the pain out of business planning.

Here’s a quick checklist that lays it out: the difference between the hard way and the easy way, at every step of the planning process. And to give you some tangible examples of that difference in action, you’ll find below the stories of three SAP customers who have simplified and strengthened their planning processes – for better results.

THE HARD WAY	THE EASY WAY
Pull information from different spreadsheets – then try to make sense of it all	Pull information from your SAP systems: Already consolidated, matched, packaged — done
Calculate everything manually	Let your software calculate for you
Guess at the trends that will affect your business – and then argue about assumptions	Easily view your historical data for a clearer view of trends and variances
Create manual forecasts – going back to the drawing board each time new information arrives	Simplify and automate your forecasts – easily adjusting as factors change
Debate your strategic options, basing your decisions on opinion and “gut feel’	Use accurate data to guide your inputs – and model “what if’ scenarios to understand outcomes
Battle for budget dollars – comparing inconsistent data to debate each program’s “worth’	Understand how each program or channel performs – and use performance to drive budgets
Worry about meeting statutory, regulatory and financial reporting requirements. What about your separate charts or accounts? What about your audit trail?	Centralize and automate financial consolidation – so you can meet all reporting requirements and generate a complete, trustworthy audit trail
Wrap up your planning process – and then leave it on the shelf while you go back to putting out day-to-day fires. At the end of the next year, start it all over again	Transform plans into living documents that can be used throughout the year to define, discuss, share, and update goals and performance targets

Case in point: Eniphares Gneicho

A Nairobi-based business that provides branded promotional items to large international companies, Eniphares Gneicho once relied on a spreadsheet-based accounting system and manual records. As their business grew, projects became more complex and sophisticated – but their software didn’t. And because employees were so busy with time-consuming manual processes, finding time to focus on a plan for the future was virtually impossible.

Then Eniphares Gneicho came to SAP – and quickly discovered that there was an easier way.

Within just three weeks, the company was able to automate, integrate and manage all of their key financial processes. With their SAP system in place, the staff had instant access to thorough, accurate reports on financials, sales, purchases, and inventories, enabling them to manage their projects more efficiently – and assess their profitability at the same time.

With a single source for all company data, Eniphares Gneicho gained the visibility that is essential to planning – and significantly improved efficiency, leaving more time to plan for growth.

Arts Umbrella: From cumbersome to simple

A not-for-profit Canadian art institute, Arts Umbrella used to be swamped with manual work. Staff had to devote hours to inputting donation and volunteer canvasser data into two disparate software systems – often making errors in the process and creating a version control nightmare.

Arts Umbrella needed a solution that would eliminate manual input of data, increase efficiency and reliability – and free them up to focus on their long-term plans. So they called SAP.

SAP solutions allowed the organization to load data automatically and create accurate, customized reports. “Reports that used to take hours or days to produce are now available to our fund-raising team with the click of a mouse,’ says Lucille Pacey, President and CEO of Arts Umbrella.

The organization not only saved on labor but was also able to free up time to plan for the future. With confidence in their data, Arts Umbrella can now do a better job of projecting annual campaign figures – and improve overall fundraising results.

cundus AG: Making work easier for everyone

For cundus AG, a Germany-based professional services firm, growth brought new challenges. With more people involved in the planning process, they needed something more robust than spreadsheets to foster collaboration.

By employing SAP business solutions, cundus was able to communicate more effectively across the organization, reduce the overall workload for each business unit, and respond more quickly to time-sensitive issues – all of which helped them improve their operational and strategic planning.

cundus chose SAP because the solutions deliver a high degree of transparency. SAP’s rapid drill down options allow cundus to:

• Assess the workload of each of their consultants
• Verify where contribution margins for individual customers, projects or teams are at any given time
• Identify deviations from planned revenues or costs; and
• Prepare complete Profit and Loss statements for the entire company.

Discover an easier, more effective planning process today

Business planning the hard way may seem like a necessary evil. But when you find the right tools to revitalize your planning process, you’ll inject new energy into your business. Organizations as diverse as Eniphares Gneicho, Arts Umbrella and cundus AG have seen tangible results by relying on SAP solutions to help them with the heavy lifting – and so can you.

To see SAP Business One in action, watch this video.

How can I find out more about SAP Business One?

Contact Blue Ocean Systems’ team of ERP specialists who can guide you in finding the best SAP Business One solution for your organisation.