Operational Planning

Close the gap between strategy and execution

Today's corporate leadership faces enormous pressure brought on by economic challenges and unrelenting competition.

But as demand increases, budgets and resources remain flat. In this challenging "New Normal," enterprises have little choice but to wring the very most from what they already have.

Never has a comprehensive and flexible operating plan been more crucial for business success. But at a time when enterprises must plan and execute strategically, typical operational planning processes are anything but strategic.

The Problem: A Planning Gap

Today's operational planning is a largely manual effort that results in a series of tactics aimed at meeting budget targets or tolerances. The impact of plans on the operating groups that execute the plan is often unclear to the planners.

Figure 1. The problem: A fundamental disconnect in the operational planning process

Most plans are developed in spreadsheets, and this makes it difficult to enable shared, iterative planning across the enterprise. Organizations also have trouble integrating from multiple systems the data they need to establish a truly comprehensive operating plan. Meanwhile, poor communication among departments leads to initiatives that may actually work against a company's goals.

And most operating plans lack the flexibility needed to enable in-flight updates, which companies need to respond to changing market conditions. Even when changes are made, managers often can't accurately forecast how those changes will impact relevant areas of the enterprise.

The result is a costly gap between strategy and execution.

The Solution: Create a Dynamic, Always Relevant Operating Plan

The Planview Operational Planning Solution fills this critical gap in enterprise planning by creating a dynamic and consistently relevant operating plan, one that is integrated with established strategic and financial processes.

By fostering a collaborative planning process that builds consensus, the Planview Operational Planning Solution ensures that operating units across the enterprise are executing in support of top-level business goals, such as driving revenue, accelerating time to market, improving productivity and operating efficiencies, and preserving and enhancing brand value.

This new approach solution gives life to a company's strategy, to create a business-driven -- rather than project-driven -- Operating Plan. It delivers the ability to:

• Optimize the translation of strategy into execution
• Quickly adapt to changes in the business environment
• Align strategic planning, financial, and operating groups
• Reduce cost and improve accuracy of planning
• Baseline expected benefits to drive measureable business results
• Improve communication throughout the enterprise

Engage the Enterprise in Planning

Figure 2. A collaborative planning process that integrates all functions mitigates risk by sharing information and insights across departments, LOBs and functions

A single, collaborative platform for operational planning helps you achieve a productive dialogue across departments and LOBs. This allows stakeholders, often for the first time, to analyze the plan based on their individual needs, challenges and expected benefits.

• Feed the operating plan with demand captured from business units, departments and LOBs
• Make optimal choices by sharing what-ifs to explore the viability of given plans and the trade-offs of each scenario
• Provide appropriate data views so all stakeholders can understand the true implications of scenarios across the enterprise

Integrate Operational Planning with Finance

Arm your organization with a robust planning process that's informed -- but not dominated -- by budget drivers.

• Manage your operations with plans based on accurate costs
• Let departments and workgroups feed Finance exactly what it needs without having Finance drive the planning process
• Integrate data (cost, margin, revenue, etc.) with processes to connect the dots between the strategic plan, financial and budgetary constraints, and the operating plan
• Leverage existing financial systems by sharing data across platforms
• Enable more specific and accurate forecasting, with concrete deliverables
• Lay the groundwork for measuring success by establishing a baseline to measure future performance of the operating plan

Create a Plan that Responds to Customers and the Market

Successful operating plans are informed by the Voice of the Customer and by insights from marketing and brand managers -- and then can be easily modified to remain relevant. Using proven Brand Image Analysis capabilities, you can ensure these vital influences are incorporated in a dynamic plan that helps you keep ahead of the market.

• Analyze customer-originated ideas through the filters of strategic planning and demand management, and financials and capacity planning
• Ensure operating initiatives support and enhance the brand attributes that most resonate with customers
• Integrate competitive landscape analysis into Operational Planning
• Leverage patented methodology from Strategic Harmony®
• Integrate with Planview Enterprise Ideation Management to ensure operating plan elements support innovation initiatives

Optimize Resources by Balancing Capacity and Demand

By integrating products into capacity planning, you can achieve a more revenue- and business-driven approach to operational planning.

• Understand resources, labor and non-labor costs, and how they relate to the many ways your company delivers value
• Analyze demand across the organization with a robust user interface that scales powerfully as you add departments and operating functions
• Take the prioritized investments that result from strategic planning and demand management and allocate resources to those investments to meet business goals -- on time, on budget, and with the resources at hand
• Assess and balance the demand for both people and money over time
• Determine what investments to pursue and their relative priority
• Establish a timeframe and allocate resources for each investment

Communicate a Unified Operating Plan with an Interactive Roadmap

Figure 4. Interactive roadmaps solidify buy-in by reflecting what the organization can deliver

To improve communication and attain company-wide commitment to a single operating plan, publish a roadmap that reflects what the organization can confidently deliver and when.

• Assign roadmaps to products, applications, services, technologies, campaigns and more
• Quickly assess resource investment, delivery status, and the like, with fully interactive and customizable treemap views
• Immediately update delivery dates and spot schedule problems with intuitive, sliding timelines
• Understand the indirect implications of Roadmap changes with drill-down capabilities

Streamline Your Operational Planning Process Today

The Planview Operational Planning Solution offers a comprehensive platform for automating your manual planning process in a way that reduces costs, improves accuracy, ensures buy-in, and enables you compete more effectively than ever before.

Retool your operational planning methodology so all relevant -- and critical -- enterprise functions are accurately represented, closing the gap between strategy and execution. As a result, you can:

• Increase revenues
• Optimize time to market
• Boost productivity and operating efficiencies
• Preserve and enhance brand value