Considering the number of businesses that contacted me in the dying breath of 2016, it seems many businesses simply don’t gear up in time for the journey. Each year, I see transformational projects get put off because of lack of mind share - not due to lack of wallet share or ROI. Businesses look up and it’s too late as they run into a hectic schedule of budgeting preparation and financial year-ends.
Did you miss the opportunity to address your annual budgeting process again in 2016? Can you afford another year of long drawn-out manual planning and budgeting, poor and untimely data, and almost reputational damaging feedback from the business? Do you have the feeling that your business isn’t responsive, that it’s flying blind or has just been lucky so far? Well, ask yourself this: What will change this year if I take the same approach?
Inspirational time management advocates would say: Plan for an effective day, every day, by putting some time aside to structure tomorrow. If you have that plan for improvement, plan it early. Otherwise, say goodbye to 2017.
Budgeting your way out of Groundhog Day
- While budgets are ongoing and on the agenda, use the time to gather requirements, track the real cost and impact, and start the decision making process.
- Develop a business case and put the cost of the improvement into the CapEx budget for the new year. Get vendor inputs, so there are no surprises.
- Select a quarterly or mid-year forecast as a target for introducing the improvement. Why wait another full year until the productivity dividend? It’s huge!
Techn(olog)ically still Groundhog Day
If you are simply going to address an annual budget and not include forecasting and rolling planning, then you are missing a big boat of opportunity. A solution is often framed by what the business or industry is used to. Its conventional underperforming technology too often gets replaced by another conventional underperforming technology. But it doesn’t have to be this way!
Technology can go hand in hand with a modern evolving business, whether it’s integrated business planning, output and driver-based budgeting, rolling forecasts, integrated decision support, collaborative planning, or the nexus of mobile, cloud and the paperless office. We even have businesses that refer to their budgeting technology as the ‘well of truth’ for every day decision support and planning.
Break the Groundhog Day loop for good
We understand that you are early on in the journey, but just ask us how you could end the loop and ensure that you feel better informed to develop your business case. Build your awareness of the possibilities. We can share white papers and reference examples, and show you what is possible.
Professional Advantage is a solution provider with options. We have a number of world class technologies for a reason; everything is not a nail. If you already have a selection process, we can provide you with an excellent alternative to consider. Challenge all your vendor choices to a proof of concept (POC). A properly executed POC can ensure ultimate project success. It can separate the right solution from the chaff.
Want to make the most of 2017? Throw down the gauntlet and contact us now!
In my next blog post, I’ll set out how Professional Advantage can help you to avoid Groundhog Day and demonstrate what can be achieved.
