Recession Survival Kit: Go live with scenario planning, cash forecasting in under a week
By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 10/29/2008 10:57:00 AM
|
Adaptive Planning, a provider of on-demand financial planning and reporting solutions—with its largest customer base in the manufacturing industry—says its new Recession Survival Kit helps finance and executive teams quickly gain control over their financial outlook, evaluate strategic and tactical actions and their overall cash impact, and reset financial plans to deal with economic volatility and a potential global recession.
The kit includes a six-month software subscription, consulting services, and user training to facilitate a go-live within a week. The object is to help companies make the rapid, well-informed decisions that are essential for managing through a downturn and ultimately strengthening competitive standing.
“In a recession, superior financial planning and management are required for survival,” says William A. Soward, CEO, Adaptive Planning. ”Normal planning cycles are thrown out the door and rapid scenario analysis becomes essential. The Recession Survival Kit can be up and running within a week, allowing financial professionals to take immediate control over their financial future.”
Finance managers can use the tool kit to create and compare multiple top-down planning scenarios to understand how changes in key drivers would impact their business. “What-if?” modeling analyzes how varying sales volumes, expense levels, capital expenditures, and other operational considerations would impact cash flow by modeling their income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statements, allowing them to make rapid and thorough operational decisions.
The kit also enables visibility into revenue and expense forecasts by capturing collaborative, real-time inputs from managers throughout a company. For example, companies can poll their sales organizations for up-to-the-minute perspectives on pipelines, or gather input from cost center managers on opportunities for further expense reductions.
“As an investment-solutions provider, our business is influenced by macro-economic forces,” says Lee Chertavian, CEO of Placemark Investments. “Based on recent events in the markets, we needed to create plans for several potential economic scenarios, including re-forecasting our overall business—all in a very short period of time. We simply could not have been flexible or agile enough to do this without Adaptive Planning.”
