From traditional planning to connected planning

Planning activities have always been essential to business success. However, in an environment shaped by market volatility, changing customer expectations, supply chain disruption and rapidly evolving technologies, traditional approach is reaching its limits.

In many organizations, planning still relies on disconnected spreadsheets, manual consolidation and information exchanged between departments through separate files. Finance, sales, operations, supply chain and HR may each develop their own view of the future, often using different assumptions and timelines. By the time those perspectives are aligned, the business reality may already have changed.

The results of the traditional approach to planning are similar across various companies. What we see as a common thing is that people involved in planning often spend more time on collecting, checking and reconciling data than analyzing it. Meanwhile, leaders are left waiting for answers, and decisions may be based on incomplete or outdated information. Instead of anticipating future developments, organizations remain in firefighting mode. Yet these visible challenges are often only the tip of the iceberg. Information silos, unclear ownership and disconnected processes can limit the organization's ability to respond when conditions change.

But what if your teams could spend less time aligning spreadsheets and more time taking impactful actions? Connected planning concept creates one integrated way of planning across the business, allowing departments to work with consistent information and explore possible outcomes before acting. Our team at Deloitte helps clients make this shift by reviewing their current planning environment, identifying key gaps and designing customized approach around their priorities. We support the transformation from solution design and technology selection through the implementation and adoption across various departments within the company.

Through this approach, the planning process becomes faster, clearer and more effective. Connected planning ensures that everyone works with the same accurate data. It simplifies processes, speeds up decisions-making, and helps teams collaborate using a single source of truth. Clear roles, better cooperation, and fewer errors make the business more efficient, enabling it to adapt to changes seamlessly.

A manufacturing company provides a practical example. Revenue and cost planning previously relied heavily on spreadsheets and manual work, making the process slow and difficult to coordinate. Our team assessed the company’s needs and explored technology options. As a result of the assessment phase, we implemented solution powered by an EPM tool (Anaplan), which allowed us to transfer the process to the connected platform. This shift enabled us to redesign the workflow process and establish centralized rules across the system. After the release to production, the client reported immediate improvements in time savings, noting that the duration of planning activities was shortened by half.

As the business world continues to change, traditional planning will find it increasingly difficult to keep pace. When information and plans remain disconnected, companies may recognize change only after it has affected the business. A more integrated and flexible approach helps leaders respond with confidence. The goal is not to predict the future perfectly, but to make the business better prepared for it.