Executive Summary
“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” It’s an old maxim, but it bears repeating. In fact, the whole point of modern planning is to go through the iterative cycle of planning, analysis, reforecasting and proactive action as frequently as necessary to ensure agile execution and stay ahead of dynamic business conditions.
Modern planning platforms facilitate best practices by easing if not eliminating the time-sucking manual tasks of data collection and validation. This frees up time for value-driving activities such as modeling and what-if scenarios analysis. By envisioning and preparing for what’s ahead, organizations can be far more agile, proactive and successful.
This report examines planning best practices and how they are supported by modern planning platforms. It explores the features and functions of these platforms, including planning, modeling, analysis and forecasting as well as consolidation and reporting. Constellation also provides recommendations related to people and cultural changes, technology implementation and deployment best practices.