P&PM Plugin solutions provide the means to address specific capability gaps in P&PM processes. They are custom developed to augment existing financial and operational P&PM software. They can also leverage Strategic P&PM solutions as a starting point for developing these process-based ones.
Driver-Based Planning
This finance solution leverages prescriptive analytics to support more operationally realistic driver-based planning models. In so doing, it provides the means to improve rolling forecast processes by:
-
-
- Providing more mature planning models that can cope with interconnected change
- Simplifying how these planning models are maintained across organizations
- Executing planning processes horizontally across functions and entities
- Using optimization to solve interconnected objectives and constraints
-
The Integrated Scenario solution can be used as a starting point for this solution. In such cases, the focal point of development is on embedding the planning model into an ongoing process.
Cash Flow Forecasting
This finance / treasury solution leverages prescriptive analytics to improve accuracy in cash flow forecasting processes. It builds upon the driver based planning solution (described above) to provide a starting point for the cash flow models. It provides the following additional capabilities:
-
-
- Rules for cash flow are defined for each planning transactions
- Ownership of specific cash flow parameters and rules distributed across the organization
- Cash flow forecasting logic also quantifies foreign currency exposure and working capital
- Cash flow optimization can be used as the objective function in any scenario
-
Not only will this solution improve accuracy, it eliminates the need to maintain separate cash flow forecasting processes. Cash flow simply becomes one of the outputs of an integrated financial process.
Profit-Based IBP / S&OP
This plugin solution provides the means to integrate existing IBP / S&OP and rolling forecast processes. It results in a single profit-based process that is shared by finance and operations. It does this by augmenting existing financial and operational software. What results are the following incremental capabilities:
-
-
- Translate segment revenue, demand and profit targets into service level, productivity and spending targets for the processes, activities and functions
- Execute target setting and resource allocation processes horizontally across multiple functions business units and legal entities
- Break down functional silos by planning and managing productivity and trade-off targets for business processes, activities and functions
- Execute integrated scenario planning processes
- Explicit reconciliation of financial and operational views of plans and forecasts
-
Collectively, these capabilities provide the means to establish effective accountability for segment revenue, demand, inventory levels, profitability and cost to serve.
New Product Development
One of the greatest sources of inaccurate master data lies in the product development (NPD) process. For this reason, there is a significant overlap between it and master data management. The P&PM platform provides the following capabilities that can support the following aspects of mature NPD processes:
-
-
- Defining the activities within the NPD process and who performs and owns them
- Defining stage gates within the NPD process and who owns them
- Populating all product-related fields (eg. product master, bill of material)
- Populating ERP system with product-related fields when product is launched
- Executing NPD processes across multiple functions, business units and legal entities
- Managing NPD issues as part of a broader issue and task management process
-
One of the key benefits of this solution is that the process leverages one integrated planning model (that can be shared across different applications) to determine the impact of new products on revenue, resources, costs, productivity, inventory levels and cash flows. As such, it can prevent sub-optimal design and pricing decisions that erode value.
