Clients

Our customers

We work tirelessly to help our customers all around the globe to make their complex simple and their slow faster, setting up businesses to be Advanced.

Discover how we share success with our customers

Industry

Fast Moving

Consumer Goods (FMCG)

Client

Unilever Global

Geographical scale

33 countries

Project scope

S&OP, Business Intelligence, Executive Dashboards

Solutions

Anaplan, Domo

Business challenge

Unilever, a manufacturer of the world’s famous brands like Rexona, Lipton, Axe, Domestos, Knorr, operates in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry, one of the largest and most competitive industrial sectors in the world. Managing multi-category businesses across the globe requires flexible and agile tools to maintain a robust and effective Sales & Operations Planning process.

Solution

The Anaplan platform was chosen to support and streamline an effective S&OP as well as accelerate the whole process of preparing, aligning and evaluating operational plans in businesses.
Implementing DOMO for the S&OP process was meant to encourage more effective collaboration, faster reaction to ever-changing market dynamics and greater visibility of crucial data and metrics to respective teams so that crucial action can be taken in real time.

Results

result
  • 14,000 hours were saved monthly and overall time spent on S&OP went down by 19% thanks to Anaplan.
    Domo helped to achieve 21% efficiency improvement.

Client’s say

“Excellent tool [Anaplan], this is one of the best I`ve seen so far. This brings integration, transparency and insights.”

Alfie Vivian CCVP Refreshments – North America

“Now you have one process across all brands [with Domo]. You are able at any level of business to get the information you need to make a decision.”

Matthew Battista – Global Demand Planning Manager

Industry

Fast Moving

Consumer Goods (FMCG)

Client

Unilever USA

Service:

Development and launch of ML-enabled sales forecasting models.
Regular technical support and forecast refresh (business as usual).

Complementing solutions:

Anaplan, Domo

Business challenge

Unilever USA is the biggest and most complex operating company in Unilever managing more than 200 brands. Having such a diverse portfolio which includes beauty and personal care products, food and refreshments, and home care categories, makes sales forecasting one of the most challenging and time-consuming processes in Unilever USA.

Forecasting thousands of SKUs by channels and customers has always been reliant on conventional statistical methods and the expertise of demand planners and sales managers, allowing for human error. This has resulted in fluctuating forecast accuracy and further negative financial implications.

Solution

Machine learning enabled forecasting models were developed to transition a business wide statistical forecasting to a new process powered by the most advanced ML algorithms. Within the project, custom models were created to generate forecasts for forecasts for the US and world’s biggest retailers.
For each custom model, there was a unique set of input data including point-of-sale sales, inventory, promo investments, the number of retail stores, and national holidays. The richness of the internal and external input data helped algorithms learn quickly and generate a forecast with higher accuracy and less effort.

The Domo and Anaplan platforms were chosen to help accommodate the new forecasting process end-to-end for top customers. These platforms assist with everything from running the code for all models, disaggregating it and making corrections to visualizing the forecast for all end users. Having the brand-new ML forecast visualized on interactive dashboards allowed demand planners and analysts to understand what influences each forecast driver. This understanding sped up the adoption process significantly.

Apart from custom models, a universal ML baseline forecasting model was developed and launched to cover baseline forecasting processes across all categories and customers. Thanks to the special desagregation dashboard at Anaplan, demand planning managers can verify their newly created ML-baseline by drilling it down to specific SKUs separated by retailers, compare with previous years and much more.

Results’

result
  • Forecast accuracy increase by up to 20%
  • 50% time efficiency improvement by demand planners
  • A simplified S&OP process with an optimized demand review piece

Client’s say

Moving to AI-enabled technologies in cornerstone business processes like forecasting is a high priority in our business transformation agenda. With this project, we’ve come a long way and luckily are now at a stage of making a ML-enabled forecasting business as usual.

Integrated Operations Lead, Unilever USA

‘All results apply to customers, categories and teams selected to measure effectiveness of the new technology and process.

AUGMENTO

ML-ENABLED FORECASTING

Industry

Metals & Mining

Client

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works

Geographical scale

Russia

Project scope

Financial planning & Analysis, Data Integration

Solutions

Anaplan

Business challenge

Prior to the project, budget planning for MMK was carried out in spreadsheets with all the shortcomings of this tool, not intended for budgeting in a large company. The use of the OFA module (Oracle) was limited to the function of a systematic storage of planned and actual data.
The company had been putting up with these drawbacks for a long time, until the requirements for planning granularity significantly increased, and the company’s IT ecosystem became more complex.

Solution

Automated system for budgeting and budget control was implemented based on an Anaplan platform. The new system provided possibility to effectively budget with a necessary level of detalization (up to contracts and currencies), multiple access for a large number of users (220 people)), version and master data, model and data changes audit, a role-based access and a clear workflow. The project was implemented based on a so called Anaplan way project approach without wasting time on a detailed technical task.

Results

result
  • Fundamentally improved reliability and availability of information for making management decisions
  • Up to 25% of our team’s time got reduced. The time which used to be channeled to data collection and processing, is now being spent on analyzing the data, reasons for deviations and developing better plans
  • An automatic generation of management reporting was implemented

Client’s say

“The implementation of Anaplan brought to life a transparent budgeting system with the level of planning detailization required for a high-quality management decision making. Notably, the launch was carried out in parallel with us updating the existing planning methodology. This became possible thanks to a so called “Anaplan Way” approach which implies avoiding the drawing of a technical specification which normally takes much time. Ultimately, we are empowered to develop and expand Anaplan with our own finance experts without involving any IT specialists and with a minimal support from consultants”
Sergey Sherstobitov, Head of Budgeting

Industry

Alcoholic beverages

Client

ASG

Geographical scale

Russia

Project scope

S&OP audit

Solutions

Management consulting

Business challenge

ASG is one of the leading alcoholic beverage companies in Russia managing its own brands and distributing world famous brands in Russia and the CIS. Significant growth in recent years demanded an upgrade across core business processes, including Sales & Operations planning. This process was somewhat flawed specifically concerning existing cycle length, issues related to running S&OP meetings effectively, confusion in roles and responsibilities as well as discipline issues. Therefore intervention was required to reveal setbacks and advise on how to rectify them.

Solution

An extensive 1,5-month-long S&OP audit was conducted with a particular close-up into one S&OP meeting called PMR (Portfolio Management Review) in order to understand how to reshape it for the good of the whole cycle.
A self-assessment survey was distributed to key members in S&OP to complement a S&OP maturity assessment and maturity score which was granted to the company upon completion of the project.
The final report included detailed diagnostics of the current S&OP cycle and advice on how to optimize it downwards, a deep dive into all S&OP meetings with a set of recommended improvements needed and special advice on behavioral and disciplinary actions to be taken without delay.

Results

result
  • “It’s great that we have had an external helicopter yet deep-dive view on our core business process and got several key painpoints revealed with clear recommendations on how to fix them.”
    Elena Tyabutova, CEO

Industry

Retail & Distribution

Client

Nevada Group

Geographical scale

Russia

Project scope

FP&A with a detailed Commercial Planning

Solutions

Anaplan

Business challenge

The Nevada Group is a growing retail and distribution company operating in the Russian Far East. The company faces increasing competition from local players and the imminent prospect of federal players entering the region.

Under these conditions the role of making appropriate and effective management decision based on modern financial planning and forecasting tools is increasing.

For a long time, the сompany had been using Excel© as a corporate budgeting tool. It was inexpensive and ubiquitous but did not allow for work in interconnected budget models or recalculation of the entire model correctly with the minimum number of errors when changing one or several parameters. With this in mind, it was decided to implement a specialized performance management tool – Anaplan.

Solution

Anaplan, being an integrated planning and budgeting tool, was implemented. It made it possible to organize a continuous forecasting process, reduce the time needed to prepare budgets and improve the granularity and transparency of the budgeting process.

Results

result
  • As a result of the project, a decrease in the expected time of budget making (by about 60%) took place and the expected number of errors in budgeting and calculations went down. Data transparency increased due to the drill-down capabilities inside Anaplan, while the dependence on IT services for setting up and developing solutions decreased.
  • The client’s team shifted from periodic planning to rolling forecast. Planning improvements allow the company to keep track of changes in 1 month increments; several types of related budgets are now used – annual, strategic, and operational planning.

Client’s say

“As a result of the Anaplan implementation project, an analytical decision-making support system was created, the role and responsibility of budget holders increased due to their closer involvement in the planning process. Labor costs on the planning function has been reduced several times, and the time released is used for analysis and creating new initiatives.”
Kirill Miazov, Deputy CFO

Industry

Healthcare services

Client

Medsi

Geographical scale

Russia

Project scope

Financial planning & Analysis (FP&A)

Solutions

Anaplan

Business challenge

Prior to the implementation of Anaplan, this company used Excel© to support its budgeting process. The capabilities of this tool became insufficient for several reasons: more detailed information was needed for making management decisions as well as simultaneous access for a large number of users (dozens of users by the budget holders).

The company needed an automated financial planning platform that would provide all budget process participants with the opportunity to simultaneously work with a single dataset, single directory and, most importantly, implement the company’s structure and budget formation logic.

Solution

Anaplan’s multi-purpose role:
1. Effective business management at all levels – from divisions and branches of the company to senior executives.
2. A tool for evaluating financial performance of individual business areas, companies, departments and responsible persons.
3. A Unified data environment for the preparation of budget data and reporting, taking into account the features of the model for each type of activity, including reporting under IFRS.
4. Linking budgets with indicators of production activity for all activities.

Results

result
  • The company brought together all participants in the budget process to work on a single dataset and received a “reference” budget repository, thereby eliminating the debate on whose version of the budget is more correct.
  • Significantly reduced the number of budget requests from functional responsibility centers to the head company’s financial services during budget formation and execution. Users from the Central Federal District can now receive budget data from Anaplan in the required sections and groupings.
  • Now we can quickly make changes to support budgets, flexibly change the structure and logic of the model and immediately see the changes in the consolidated budget. This reduced the time for technical manipulation of the budget and brought more attention to the methodology and analytics.

Client’s say

“The introduction of Anaplan has made it possible to achieve the strategic goals of the assets of Medsi Group of Companies by planning and optimally allocating financial resources, coordinating the activities of departments, monitoring the achievement of goals and motivating responsible managers at various levels. We have achieved a reduction in the labor intensity and timing of the budget process, as well as improving the quality, reliability and validity of budget information and reporting for making management decisions.”
Lubov Pryanishnikova, Head of Budgeting and Controlling of Medsi Group of Companies

Industry

Construction materials

Client

LafargeHolcim

Geographical scale

Russia

Project scope

Budgeting and Sales planning | Integrated business planning coving HR, Capex, Logistics, Production, Purchasing planning

Solutions

Anaplan

Business challenge

LafargeHolcim is the world’s leader in manufacturing building materials and providing complex solutions for the construction industry. As a response to market challenges, the company develops and sells universal and innovative products: cement, aggregates, concrete blends for building oil and gas facilities, plants, skyscrapers, highways, low-rise buildings and private residences.

In a bid to increase effectiveness of the current planning process and react faster in a very competitive environment, the business needed a platform for planning automation to consolidate detailed plans efficiently and support a cross- functional collaboration around planning and budgeting.

Solution

The Anaplan integrated planning platform was chosen and implemented to address the following project objectives:

  • Toallow key business users to become fully involved in the planning and budgeting processes
  • To create a unified forecasting environment for business users, empowering them to work with harmonized references and data
  • Tohave more detailed plans without hiring new employees
  • To introduce pre-set calculations and swift data transferringwith the aim of switching from a mechanical way of analysis (data collection and cleansing) to an analytical one

Results

result
  • A significant time reduction for sales representatives which allows for more time to be spent on demand planning, plans consolidation, reviewing and making corrections.
  • The time spent on collecting and analyzing information for panning was reduced to several hours and days depending on the department.
  • Process automation and a single methodology significantly reduced errors and dependency on people.

Client’s say

“The project aimed at launching an IT-platform to power an effective planning and forecasting process while reducing time to make rational business decisions.

As a result of the project, we are able to effectively manage our planning process and people while the time for collecting and consolidating data was reduced.”

Marina Orekhova, Head of Controlling LafargeHolcim Russia

 

“I’m definitely a fan of this platform. It is capable of automating most of the planning areas we needed. We are eager to expand the solution to new processes where the cost of individual decisions is high.

Equipping the team with the right tools, we will be set to address everchanging internal and external challenges in order to achieve our business goals.”

Maxim Goncharov, CEO LafargeHolcim Russia

Industry

Alcoholic beverages

Client

ROUST

Geographical scale

Russia

Project scope

Sales | Promo | Production and Logistics | Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A)

Solutions

Anaplan

Business challenge

ROUST, the largest alcohol company in Central and Eastern Europe and the second largest vodka producer in the world, did their financial and operational planning in Excel© which led to wasted time and significant labor costs. A “what-if analysis” of various functional blocks was carried out using multiple poorly connected spreadsheets which did not allow for synchronization and simultaneous user work in real time.

Solution

The implementation of Anaplan streamlined planning of product sales with the subsequent calculation of production volumes, cost of goods sold (COGS) and distribution of total costs down to the level of SKU and customer.
The process of integrated scenario planning of various functional units within a single model was introduced: sales, promo, COGS, logistics, OPEX.

Currently, Advanced (as part of the roadmap for developing an already launched solution) is implementing an automation of demand forecasting and Trade promo planning in Anaplan. The goal of the project is to link Sales and Promo planning with the existing financial model and thereby accommodate a comprehensive automation of the Sales & Operations planning (S&OP) process on a single platform.

As part of the ongoing project, individual customer forecasting models, regional planning, an integrated solution for collecting inputs from all process participants (brand marketing, trade marketing, sales department, finance), online P&L recalculation, scenario planning will be brought to life.

The company’s commercial team will receive an effective tool for demand planning and promo activities, and the Financial team will be able to work quickly with P&L in any necessary detail (up to the client, SKU) with a set of scenario components for each of the articles. An emphasis will be given to analyzing the effect of promo activities (Trade spend), ultimately deriving data from the price on the shelf to Net contribution of brand / counterpart.

Results

result
  • A significant increase in the speed of budget preparation, an increase of accuracy and a reduced number of errors
  • Multi-scenario planning capability. The preparation period of each budget scenario / version has been reduced from 2 weeks to 2-4 hours.
  •  As a result of the project, the company receives the budget at the most detailed level on real time basis, with the possibility to carry out flexible what-if analyses as well as viewing the causes of deviations at the level of the entire planning contour.

Client’s say

“The key to the success of a business automation project is to maximize business participation with a minimal IT involvement. Anaplan brings this formula to perfection.”
Dmitry Maruev, CIO

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