Enterprise planning analytics with AI is transforming forecasting, planning and business decision-making, enabling faster, more comprehensive planning.
This is according to speakers during a webinar hosted by IBM and its partner Venn Cubed, in partnership with ITWeb.
David Albert, Global Business Partner Lead for IBM Business Analytics, said AI was reshaping integrated planning to improve forecasting accuracy, accelerate decisions and help organisations respond faster to changing market conditions.
He said: “The new realities of enterprise planning include planning inaccuracy, rising complexity, limited self-service and expertise, and reactive decision-making. Disconnected plans, analytical silos, a lack of agility and lack of confidence are also common challenges that make it difficult to make unified decisions. Integrated planning analytics with AI helps organisations overcome these challenges, delivering the speed and agility they need to make more accurate decisions.”
A poll of webinar attendees looked into where they were on their finance transformation journey. Forty percent said they used manual planning in Excel. Only 17% already used AI in financial planning, 20% used an integrated planning system, 14% were busy implementing integrated planning systems and 8% were running RFPs or assessing new planning systems.
Albert said: “The vision we have at IBM is to use AI to redefine planning analytics for more accurate forecasting and to orchestrate intelligent actions, with natural, intuitive interactions that help drive a shift in which planning teams become strategic advisors.”
He said planning analytics with AI represented a huge opportunity in the enterprise performance management market, which is dominated by four key players, including IBM.
He explained that IBM Planning Analytics is an AI-driven solution that revolutionises financial and operational planning through real-time data, automation and predictive insights. It enables businesses to streamline budgeting, forecasting and reporting with speed and accuracy. Venn Cubed, as a trusted IBM Silver partner, enhances this powerful platform by providing expert implementation, customisation and ongoing support.
“IDC expects the enterprise performance management market to grow to $11.7 billion by 2029,” Albert said. “Within this environment, IBM Planning Analytics presents a great opportunity for organisations to transform planning with generative AI powered by watsonx. Our built-in AI delivers AI forecasting, outlier analysis, chart insights, an ‘explain cell’ feature for natural language summaries on any cell, impact analysis and ‘recommend a view’ to find the right data and reduce manual search.”
He said that measurable business outcomes with IBM Planning Analytics with AI include 50% faster forecast cycles, 70% less manual Excel work, 40% faster financial close and 100% audit traceability.
Francois Kritzinger, Director at Venn Cubed, demonstrated how AI-enabled planning works in practice and how organisations can unlock greater value from their planning environments.
Albert noted: “People typically think of planning and budgeting as a finance function, but departments such as sales, operations, IT and HR also require the ability to do financial modelling and planning. IBM Planning Analytics allows you to consolidate all that and achieve a single view of the truth.”
“With watsonx Orchestrate, you can also integrate data from multiple sources, summarise them, do calculations and push them into your report on IBM Planning Analytics,” Kritzinger added. “You can also have quite complex workflow set-ups within IBM Planning Analytics.”
Book a free consultation with Venn Cubed to discover how AI-driven integrated planning with IBM Planning Analytics can help your business improve forecasting accuracy, streamline decision-making and drive better business outcomes.
Contact: Tobias de Villiers tobias.devilliers@venncubed.co.za +27 83 771 3817 www.venncubed.co.za
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