The world of Performance Management solutions is evolving rapidly. New software players are emerging. And the well-known vendors are coming up with new solutions. So at Finext, we are constantly evaluating the possibilities and our portfolio. What do these new solutions offer? And how do they prove themselves in practice? In the Catch Up series, we put them to the test. This edition, we update you on Oracle Planning & Budgeting Cloud (PBC).
Oracle PBC (Planning & Budgeting Cloud) in one sentence
This flexible cloud solution for planning and budgeting has proven itself in practice for several years.
The top three features of Oracle PBC
Every Performance Management solution helps you gain more insight, for example, into the financial numbers and performance of the organization. Oracle PBC obviously does, too. But what is really special about this solution?
1. Driver based setup
We have now implemented Oracle PBC at a large number of organizations, including the first implementation in the Benelux. What stands out in all these implementations is the power of the tool. You can set up various driver-based forecasting models, such as a financial, sales or marketing planning model, which gives you quick insight into various scenarios. Consider, for example, the effect of volume decreases or increases per country, product category, or the impact of wage increases.
2. What-if analyses and sandboxing
The flexibility of the tool also shows itself when contrasting various scenarios. You can easily perform different what-if analyses. Think best and worst case, but also different versions of the budget.
In practice, we see that planning and forecasting models are highly dependent on the type of business an organization is in. We have therefore developed various templates for this purpose, such as a retail, FTE, Capex and sales model.
3. Workflow for complete budgeting cycle
The entire workflow around the planning and budgeting cycle can be supported. For example, the relevant stakeholders within your organization receive task lists. These task lists are integrated with Outlook, allowing you to easily schedule everything. This structure provides guidance and supports the financials in the budgeting process. This reduces the risk of errors or late delivery of figures.
To what type of organization does Oracle PBC fit?
This solution is especially suitable for organizations that want to keep a grip on the business and cash flow. We think of organizations that want to know accurately where they will end up at the end of the year. The powerful driver-based set up and the what-if analyses provide quick insight into the various scenarios.
This planning solution has been developed over so many years that all the complexities that may be present in the markets can be solved within the tool. Many best practices are also available.
In addition, PBC suits organizations looking for a scalable solution. In practice, we see several international organizations that have incorporated operational planning into the tool in addition to strategic planning.
PBC is additionally well suited for organizations that do not want to be dependent on IT. This solution is completely in the cloud and is easily managed by financials. You can make great use of out-of-the-box functionalities. In addition, Oracle PBC fits well with organizations that use Oracle for their consolidation processes; in combination with Oracle HFM or Oracle FCC, you can thus create an integrated information landscape.
Who is Oracle PBC of interest to?
As a planning and budgeting solution, we believe Oracle PBC is suitable for business controllers within departments as well as group controllers at headquarters.
In practice, we see that the tool is widely used within organizations. By the manager financial planning & analyses, but also by the sales director or marketing manager. For example, we see that the sales and marketing people within an international manufacturer all use PBC.
Oracle itself says it is a "finance driven solution," and we notice that in practice. The tool is functionally designed and configured from the perspective of the financial.
Consequently, the cloud solution is user-friendly; within the tool you can navigate via "tiles. In addition, you can train yourself for each component via Oracle's online training videos. These show, for example, how to configure the software. There are also online best practices available.
Fine functionalities
Our tests show that the planning and budgeting processes work well.
A number of features are so enjoyable that we would like to highlight them:
- Spreading; the tool recognizes seasonal patterns. Suppose you sell ice cream. Then you sell 80% of the products in July and August. The system can automatically spread ice cream sales throughout the year based on historical data and your target.
- Predictive planning. You can set up different company-specific dimensions; across multiple products, multiple countries and multiple departments. You can also assign the same weighting to certain items within your p&l, such as an indexation of salary costs that you want to distribute equally across all departments.
- The software stores all budget versions. This allows you to easily figure out a discrepancy between version 1 and version 6.
- Based on best practices, Finext has developed industry-specific templates within PBC, for example for retail planning, financial planning, planning for education and sales planning. This eases the implementation and planning process.
- Task lists; each person involved in the closure process is assigned tasks. Through integration with the calendar, these tasks come up automatically. This reduces waiting for people to deliver late, and overall closing time.
Implementation and management
Implementation is relatively straightforward. Of course, the complexity of your planning and budgeting process plays a role. In practice, we have a first model ready within four to six weeks. Here the templates developed by Finext help to establish a basis.
Managing this solution is easy. Via the cloud, you are automatically upgraded, which means you are always on the latest version with the latest features and functionalities. In addition, as a user, you can add entities, products and accounts yourself. You can also easily customize the dashboards yourself.
In the cloud
The name says it all: PBC is completely cloudbased. It is part of a larger cloud platform. In it, Oracle uses the same engine for planning, consolidation, reporting, tax and management information. Through point solutions such as PBC, the platform provides a separate solution for each part of the financial process.
The platform performs well. PBC, for example, has an uptime of 99.9%. In addition, it offers the advantages of a cloud solution; you shift the costs from Capex to Opex. The licenses are scalable, per month you can add and remove users.
The future
Clearly, Oracle sees the future in the cloud. In addition to PBC, other cloud solutions have been introduced, such as FCC for consolidation and reporting.
